Feds Issue Report on 2006 Fatal Wastewater Plant Accident
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board recommended March 13 that Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. ensure that designs for methanol systems in wastewater treatment plants specify appropriate materials and comply with applicable safety standards. The Cambridge, Mass.-based firm designed the methanol piping system at the Bethune Point plant in Daytona Beach, Fla., where a January 2006 explosion was tied to workers accidentally igniting vapors from a methanol storage tank vent.
The board found that methanol piping and valves were built of polyvinyl chloride rather than steel, citing it as a contributing cause of the explosion and fire, which killed two workers and severely burned a third. It also cited use of an aluminum flame arrester on the methanol tank vent. “Methanol corrodes aluminum,” the board says.