Digester Explosion Kills Two Workers at Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pennsylvania

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  During drainage of a sewage digester taken out of service for routine cleaning, an explosion lifted the 30 ton floating cover, killing two workers at a wastewater treatment facility on February 6, 1987. Experiencing difficulty in removing the sludge from the bottom of the 30 feet deep digester, the two victims climbed on to the floating cover of the digester to pump water into it, in an effort to loosen the sludge. The driver of the pumper truck reversed his pump to blow air up through the sludge to aid in loosening it. The victims lowered a light bulb (the light and cord were not approved for hazardous operations) into the digester to view the sludge level. The bulb apparently broke, providing a source of ignition for the combustible gases in the digester, likely methane (74828). The floating cover was found to be wedged into the digester at a 45 degree angle. The victims were removed about 4 hours later from the digester. Cervical fracture was listed as the cause of death for both men. It was recommended that proper work procedures be developed and employees trained in these procedures and that comprehensive policies and procedures be developed for confined space entry.
• Content Notes:
  Publication date provided by the authoring office. There is no publication date indicated on the resource.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Confined Spaces Explosions Occupational Health Safety Sewage Waste Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Combustible-gases Confined-spaces Explosive-gases FACE-87-33 OSHA Region 3 Safety-practices Sewage-industry Sewage-treatment Waste-treatment
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Confined Space
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  NIOSH (In-House)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFACE8733
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3 pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00174309
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88-149422
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 87-33, 1987 Mar ; :1-5
• CAS Registry Number:
  Methane (CAS RN 74-82-8)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1987
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  22 - Utilities - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1987/02/06
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:724813c8b23abec0c304d058a00f0ae9385f62d7845e4a65a4c747a020abbb78eb4ee3d1ee21b50eafa9cd3f05eb69738b259ae4ff5ee44e25430cb11fcce45e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/164540/cdc_164540_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 251.70 KB ]