Even as a federal agency proposed $16.6 million in fines against companies involved in the fatal explosion of the Kleen Energy Systems L.L.C. plant in Middletown, a state panel continued work on new regulations that might govern future industrial construction in Connecticut.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed the fines on contractors building the power plant, where a February explosion killed six workers and injured 50 more. The large part of the penalties are aimed at O&G Industries Inc., a Torrington-based contractor that is the general contractor of the project, and which faces $8.3 million in fines; and Keystone Construction and Maintenance Inc., a Rowley, Mass.-based company that oversaw a procedural “gas blow” blamed for the explosion, and which could pay $6.7 million.
OSHA said it identified some 370 workplace violations at the energy plant site under development by Kleen Energy and levied an additional $1.6 million in proposed fines against 15 other companies, including the Meriden-based welding subcontractor Tucker Mechanical, a subsidiary of Norwalk-based Emcor Group Inc.
The companies have the option of contesting the proposed penalties to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
The plant is designed to generate 620 megawatts of electricity ”“ sufficient for more than 500,000 homes ”“ primarily for customers of Connecticut Light & Power Co., a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities and the dominant utility in Fairfield County.
On the morning of February 7, the day of the Super Bowl, workers performed a gas-blow operation in which flammable natural gas was pumped under high pressure through new fuel lines to remove debris. A large amount of natural gas vented into areas where it could not easily disperse. Welding and other work was being performed nearby, and the explosion occurred when the gas touched an ignition source.
At the time of the explosion, the project was 93 percent complete. O&G says it now will need until next April to complete construction of the plant, and then work through the end of June to complete various inspections, including those by regulatory bodies ranging from OSHA to the Middletown South Fire Department as well as those by attorneys representing claimants in lawsuits against the company.
In a separate report issued in early June with more than 400 pages of documents, a panel headed by retired Judge Alan Nevas stated that no regulatory body had oversight for the “gas blow” procedure used to clean the piping at the Kleen Energy plant under construction in Middletown, and recommended that the state designate a single agency to serve as a “clearinghouse” coordinating the oversight of various federal, state and local entities in such projects.
With the Nevas commission work complete, another led by Skip Thomas, the former head of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, is readying a report on new laws and regulations for Connecticut to consider. Those rules will almost certainly include new labor rules at worksites ”“ federal and state investigators have focused part of their inquiries on whether employees at the sites were tired from excessive overtime.
At a Connecticut Siting Council hearing convened in early August, Kleen Energy”™s lead manager in Middletown dismissed that notion.
“I don”™t want anyone to get hurt because they”™re tired,” said William Corvo, president of Kleen Energy. “However ”¦ there are certain times when additional hours have to be worked as a matter of the function of building the project.
“This doesn”™t mean that you”™re doing enormous, heavy weightlifting,” Corvo added. “It may be a matter of tedium, watching a piece of equipment operate.”
