Whether you’re a seasoned inspector or novice tank owner you want to make sure everything is up to code on your tanks.   So let’s talk about good fuel storage tank inspection practices. The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Steel Tank Institute (STI) are associations that publish manufacturing and inspection standards for oil and natural gas tanks, piping and equipment.  When their inspection and maintenance protocols are followed, a facility owner should expect to significantly extend the useful life of the equipment.

Let’s face it a good fuel tank inspection program can also prevent catastrophic failures and oil spills and in this economy with many facility owners forced to operate outdated and aging equipment,  a proper inspection to identify areas of concern and recommend a course of treatment & repair is critical to a businesses success.  There are several key tank issues that can cause a significant amount of heartache as well as unnecessary repair and/or replacement work such as corrosion and proper venting.

Corrosion Issues:

• Identify areas with the highest probability of a corrosion issue.
• If water is present in the tank, the point at which the water is resting is an area where corrosion is likely to occur.
• Take into account the surrounding areas.  What could be facilitating corrosion in the area?

Tank Venting:

The importance of venting fuel storage systems is underemphasized in a large number of fuel system installations. The fuel tank’s emergency vent is designed to help prevent the tank from becoming over-pressurized and rupturing if exposed to fire.  Key points to remember:

• Emergency vent is separate from the normal working vent (smaller in diameter and will have either a pressure vacuum cap or atmospheric vent installed on it).
• The emergency vent should not be obstructed from fully opening during the presence of extreme heat exposure
• The cap should not be painted shut and should be operating freely.
• It’s not all that uncommon for installers to keep the PVC plug installed from the factory in this port
• Install the proper venting device before walking away from the site.

Another positive from an inspection is ensuring the flow capacity of the emergency vent is equal to or greater than what is required from the tank manufacturer (always compare the two).   An underrated emergency vent flow capacity is another installation error made all too often and missed during fuel storage tank inspections.  It’s also imperative to ensure the vent has a UL listing number engraved on the top as well.  It’s not unusual for older installations to have emergency vents installed that are not UL listed.

For more information on fuel tank inspections procedures visit the API or STI websites.  If you still have questions, contact us; we may be able to help.

In the early morning of December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide plant near Bhopal, India released approximately forty tons of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) into the air. The gas quickly diffused over the ground and, in the end, killed, by some estimates, upwards to 5,000 people and injured 50,000 more. The only other place in the world that Union Carbide manufactured MIC was at its Institute plant in West Virginia. Following the Bhopal release Union Carbide elected to shut down production of the deadly chemical at its West Virginia location until it could make $500 million worth of safety improvements.

New Safety Programs

Approximately four months after completion of the safety improvement program, 500 gallons of highly toxic aldchiloxin (and MIC) leaked from the plant. Although no one was killed, 134 people living around the plant were treated at local hospitals.

Both the Bhopal and West Virginia incidents highlighted the serious nature of modern-day chemical production — no matter what safety precautions are taken and no matter how prepared a plant may be to handle an emergency situation, accidents can still occur.

Congress Acts

With thousands of chemical accidents occurring in the United States within a short five year period in the mid-1980s, Congress finally passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) in 1986. EPCRA ushered in a new wave of regulations and reporting requirements designed to alert the surrounding communities of the dangers posed at chemical facilities in the U.S.

To implement EPCRA, Congress required each state to appoint a State Emergency Response Commission (SERC). The SERCs are required to divide their states into Emergency Planning Districts and to name a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) for each district.

The facilities covered by EPCRA requirements are now required to submit an Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Form to their LEPC, as well as their SERC, and their local fire department annually by March 1st.

The reports known as “Tier II Reports,” require basic facility identification information, employee contact information for both emergencies and non-emergencies, and information about chemicals stored or used at the facility.

Under the EPCRA, SERCs and LEPCs are charged with four primary responsibilities:

1. Write emergency plans to protect the public from chemical accidents;
2. Establish procedures to warn and, if necessary, evacuate the public in case of an emergency;
3. Provide citizens and local governments with information about hazardous chemicals and accidental releases of chemicals in their communities; and
4. Assist in the preparation of public reports on annual release of toxic chemicals into the air, water, and soil.

Tier II Reporting Information

What facilities are covered?

• Any facility required under Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations to maintain material safety data sheets (MSDSs) for hazardous chemicals stored or used in the work place. Facilities with chemicals in quantities that equal or exceed the following thresholds must report:
• For Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHSs) , either 500 pounds or the Threshold Planning Quantity (TPQ), whichever is lower
• For gasoline (all grades combined) at a retail gas station, the threshold level is 75,000 gallons (or approximately 283,900 liters), if the tank(s) was stored entirely underground and was in compliance at all times during the preceding calendar year with all applicable Underground Storage Tank (UST) requirements at 40 CFR part 280 or requirements of the State UST program approved by the Agency under 40 CFR part 281.
• For diesel fuel (all grades combined) at a retail gas station, the threshold level is 100,000 gallons (or approximately 378,500 liters), if the tank(s) was stored entirely underground and the tank(s) was in compliance at all times during the preceding calendar year with all applicable Underground Storage Tank (UST) requirements at 40 CFR part 280 or requirements of the State UST program approved by the Agency under 40 CFR part 281.
• For all other hazardous chemicals, 10,000 pounds.

Tier2 Submit Software

• EPA has recently developed ‘Tier2 Submit,’ an online software program designed to help facilities prepare an electronic chemical inventory report. Although many states accept Tier2 Submit, some states such as Missouri do not.

Certification

• The owner or operator or the officially designated representative of the owner or operator must certify that all information included in the Tier Two submission is true, accurate, and complete.

Penalties:

• Any owner or operator who violates any Tier II reporting requirements shall be liable to the United States for civil penalty of up to $27,500 per day for each such violation.
• Although each day a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation it has been EPA’s policy not to enforce the daily penalty on those companies making a good faith effort to come into compliance with the reporting requirements.

For more information on EPA Tier II reporting requirements visit their website.  Specific state requirements links can also be found there.

Employers often look at Workers’ Compensation as an unavoidable cost of doing business and is frequently ignored when rates are low. It’s not until employers experience rate hikes that they really start paying attention to the issue.  We suggest looking at Workers’ Compensation as an important tool to improve the bottom line by focusing on keeping rates low over the long-term to take advantage of significant savings.

Here are four mistakes made by employers that can lead to lost opportunities for Workers’ Compensation savings:

1. Don’t assume that lower rates equate to lower costs.

Don’t make the faulty assumption that your cost will automatically go down just because your rates have been reduced. Workers’ Compensation insurers use an experience modification factor to examine the actual losses incurred by the insured company to establish cost. The actual losses are compared to other industry-alike companies. If the insured company’s past losses are below average, then the insurer gives the company a credit rating lowering their premium, but an added surcharge is applied to the premium if the insured company’s past losses are above average.

2. Don’t believe employers have little control when it comes to the expense of Workers’ Compensation.

Employers know they must have Workers’ Compensation insurance. However, this acknowledgment shouldn’t lend to an employer thinking they’ve got to pay excessively for it. Cost reduction starts with the hiring process. Initiate effective interview techniques and background checks to help ensure the right people are hired for the right jobs. That said, there’s no way to completely eliminate the possibility of injuries in a workplace.

Therefore, it’s equally important to have an effective return-to-work program in place to simultaneously assist injured workers return to work as soon as possible and reduce the cost of their claims.

3. Don’t neglect cost containment and injury management during low rate periods.

Safety should be an unyielding focus at all times. This will not only help a company reduce their claim numbers, but also keep their rates low over the long-term. Employers need to keep an eye on the issues that frequently impact the costs of claims, such as medical care costs and lost wages. Also, remember that open claims mean escalating costs and negative impacts to the company’s modification factor. Of course, this causes an increased cost for coverage.

4. Don’t overlook the association between cost containment and worker retention.

Studies have shown that fewer accidents occur among skilled workforces, but even skilled workers can have an accident. A large factor in whether or not an injured skilled employee returns to work is based on how the employer responds to the individual during and after recovery.

An important part of an employer’s response is having a return-to-work program that includes maintaining constant contact with injured workers and their health care providers to monitor how they’re recovering and when and how they can get back to work as soon as possible. Skilled employees are more likely to return if they are kept in the loop with a return-to-work program’s periodic phone calls about workplace changes that might be occurring in their absence. On the other hand, skilled employees that feel forgotten, undervalued, and disconnected are less likely to return.

While companies focus more and more on increasing transparency regarding their sustainability efforts and improving performance, shareholders, customers, and employees are demanding more and more information on the specific steps companies are taking to achieve their desired outcomes. Businesses must decide how to respond to this growing demand for environmental and social accountability while still achieving revenue and profitability goals.

One way help improve efficiency and cut out waste is to adopt some lean service delivery objectives. At OCCU-TEC we started this process back in 2004 with our “Paperless Office” concept. Our initial step was to implement a paperless billing and project management process. Since then we have expanded our efforts by implementing a web-based enterprise accounting and project management system and increased our client e-deliverables.

These online and electronic database systems allowed us to complete, approve and process all internal accounting processes like timesheets, expense reports, vendor invoices and most accounts receivable transactions without the use of paper. Our client e-deliverables started small through the elimination of paper-based reports but quickly grew to include exclusive online delivery of major workplace safety and environmental project deliverables. Of course our journey has only begun, but we have already saved a lot of trees since 2004.

Our paperless office process is part of our larger sustainability commitment. OCCU-TEC is a triple bottom line company and we encourage our clients to adopt a similar management philosophy.

Steps to Lean Services and Increase your ‘Green’

Opt-out of Paper Statements

Accounting – have all accounting statements emailed to you digitally, if possible. Most national banks and credit card companies will allow an opt-out of paper statements and instead offer an email statement or simply the ability to login to your secure account online to monitor and pay off balances. It is amazing how much leaner and more organized you become without the clutter of banking and vendor statements clogging your file systems.

Shipping – Many of the major shipping services like FedEx and UPS have an option for fully electronic and automated invoicing, accounting and billing options. Set up email notifications for your customers and for yourself so everyone gets digital receipts and shipping documents. Ideally, the only paper you’ll have to generate is the shipping label for your packages.

Create Searchable Electronic Documents

Scanned and Searchable Documents – When paper comes into the office, scan it and shred it. Of course it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. The type of scanning is the crucial element here. Scanning paper documents and turning them into PDFs is the most common thing to do, but a simple PDF filed away in a digital folder instead of a paper folder is just as difficult to search out and extract data from in an efficient manner.

So, the key here is to create searchable PDF files. Searchable PDF files are similar to normal PDF files with the exception that you can search out any text in them. This includes PDF files that have been created from original hand-written notes, typed documents or any other printed file that was not originally digital. Using optical character recognition software (OCR) these scanners can convert just about anything into a searchable and editable file. This way you can use your digital file system as your very own searchable database, searching out keywords, names or any other word or phrase that can help you track down that file you need.

Third-Party Document Conversion for High Volume

Document Conversion Companies – Scanning paper documents by hand, even with a high-speed scanner that creates searchable PDFs, would be a full-time job and could take months or years to complete. If manual document scanning is not a realistic option for your company, there are several document conversion solutions available that will convert any of your paper files into Searchable PDFs using some brand of OCR software. They’ll send you your old paper documents back as digital files on DVD, CD, hard drive or flash drive.

Many of these services also provide secure hosted storage solutions for these new digital files. You can download your files from their servers or leave copies as a backup. Decentralizing your documents from computers or servers in your office can be a useful tool in the digital office. If your power goes down or there is an emergency, you can still access those files on the document conversion company’s hosted server.

Digital Document Management

Digital Files – You will need to quickly and reliably be able to search for data in your digital documents. There are many document management solutions to share and search out these digital files. Many of these services will allow for restricted access and other security-oriented features for documents that contain sensitive information. With all these digital files that you’ve created, you need to think about storage. Luckily, computer hard drives are low-cost, and creating your own digital file cabinet is within reach even for small businesses with limited resources. You can simply buy a computer, install some extra hard drives and you’ve got yourself a smalltime server that you could store all of your digital files on.

For companies with more resources, get a server with the necessary amount of hard drive space to store your files. When you need more space, buy and install more hard drives. For files that are kept for record keeping and backup purposes — and that don’t need to be accessed often — transfer them to DVD, external hard drive or try the cloud based secure storage solutions.

Electronic Fax Machine – Why take up more space in your office with a fax machine when you can send and receive faxes online? With an Internet connection, a scanner, printer and an email account, tools that you likely already have in your office, you can fax without an additional office appliance.

“The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Lowe’s Home Centers Inc. regional distribution center in Rockford with $182,000 in proposed penalties for failure to document and report employee injuries and illnesses, as required by OSHA safety and health regulations.” That got your attention didn’t it?  There should be no doubt about it, OSHA takes record keeping very seriously.   Remember, it’s not about the paperwork itself, its about the information on the paperwork.   OSHA doesn’t have an army of compliance officers to constantly check in on every employer so they must rely on the employers themselves to self-report on injuries and illnesses.

To OSHA the lack of proper paperwork demonstrates a lack of respect for safety and raises reasonable doubts as to the employers commitment to safety.   So do yourself and your employees a favor and keep up on your record keeping requirements.

According to OSHA 1904.32(b)(5) You must post a copy of the annual summary (OSHA 300-A Log) in each establishment in a conspicuous place or places where notices to employees are customarily posted.   You must ensure that the posted annual summary is not altered, defaced or covered by other material.   Everyone knows that…right?

Did you also know that the OSHA 300 Log must be certified as accurate by a company executive?   Did you know that most safety managers, supervisors, directors, and/or coordinators do NOT qualify as an executive?

According to the OSHA, The company executive who certifies the log must be one of the following persons:

• An owner of the company (only if the company is a sole proprietorship or partnership);
• An officer of the corporation;
• The highest ranking company official working at the establishment; or
• The immediate supervisor of the highest ranking company official working at the establishment.

If as a safety manager, director, or supervisor you meet one or more of these definitions, then I congratulate you on a career well done!   But for the rest of us, we need to make sure that a company executive certifies the OSHA 300 log.   The company executive must certify that they have examined the OSHA 300 Log and that they reasonably believe that the annual summary is correct and complete.

When do I have to post the annual summary?

Employers must post the summary no later than February 1 of the year following the year covered by the records and keep the posting in place until April 30.

Who Must Maintain the OSHA 300 Log?

All employers with 11 or more employees in the selected industries, as determined by their SIC and/or NAICS classification (e.g., Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Construction, Transportation, General Merchandise Stores, Hospitality, and Health Services), must keep injury and illness records.

Some employers are normally exempt for these recordkeeping requirements, such as Retail trade, Financial, Banking, Insurance and Real Estate sectors.

Employers who operate establishments that are required by the rule to keep injury and illness records are required to complete three forms: the OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, the annual OSHA 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and the OSHA 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report.

Employers are also required to keep separate 300 Logs for each establishment that they operate that is expected to be in operation for one year or longer. The Log must include injuries and illnesses to employees on the employer’s payroll as well as injuries and illnesses of other employees the employer supervises on a day-to-day basis, such as temporary workers or contractor employees who are subject to daily supervision by the employer.

Nobody knows your business’ energy using activities and processes better than your employees. Therefore establishing an energy saving culture is critical to support other waste saving initiatives such as an energy saving plan. By establishing an energy saving culture, you can create an environment for bright ideas, increased efficiency and reduced operating costs. Such was the focus of a report released early this month by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Programs aimed at reducing building energy use through change in employees’ attitudes and behaviors, such as those instituted at the House of Representatives and the Empire State Building, can help build an energy-efficient office culture.

The report looked at multiple behavior case studies across the U.S. and Canada, including the “Tenant Energy Management Program” in the Empire State Building; “Conservation Action!” at BC Hydro, Canada; an energy behavior campaign undertaken at a provincial governmental building in Canada; and the “TLC-Care to Conserve” program at the University Health Network of the University of Toronto.

Four common intervention approaches were shared by the five energy behavior programs:

1. Setting the tone with the support of upper management and its public pledge;
2. Building a team with a project committee and peer champions on board;
3. Utilizing communication tools such as e-mails, prompts, Web sites, public meetings, and posters to reach target audiences; and
4. Engaging building occupants by means of feedback, benign peer pressure, and competition, as well as through performance-linked rewards.

The report suggests that the key benefits of energy behavior programs extend beyond the workplaces that undertake these programs. Often a change in participants’ thinking and behaviors follows, and after participation in the program they may become more active in their own energy-saving practices.

Things to Consider for Developing an Energy Savings Culture

• Communication: A critical element of motivating staff to contribute to an energy saving culture.  Communicate your energy saving vision, actions to be undertaken, roles, and above all else, the results that are achieved through a focus on reducing energy use.
• Time and Effort: Building an energy saving culture will take time and effort. Be realistic about the time required to change attitudes and behaviors, and pursue gradual rather than radical change.
• Current Culture: Understand your current culture by conducting observations of meetings, work areas and social areas.
• Appoint a champion: An employee who is passionate and respected – to lead the culture change process.
• Metrics: Develop a detailed action plan that includes actions, targets, responsibility and timeframes.
• Accountability: Assign roles and accountability to appropriate staff.
• Motivations: Motivate staff to put energy saving actions into place by demonstrating the value of the actions and the impact that they can have.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Publish reports on the implementation on action and achievements against goals and targets.

It’s already 2012 and now is a great time to review your facility’s environmental, health & safety compliance standing.   You should be aware of your ability to withstand an inspection from OSHA or EPA this year.   Typically, an inspector will assess the effectiveness of your facility’s environmental and safety programs by asking EHS, operations, and maintenance staff to answer a series of general questions.   Once they start getting inconsistent, or a lot of  ”I don’t know”  answers they know they have a ‘live on on the hook’!   It’s only a matter of time before they reel you in.   You need to stay ahead of the game.

Here’s how you can make the inspection of your facility go as smoothly as possible:

Tips for a Smooth Inspection

• Cooperate - The most important advice to follow during an inspection is to cooperate with the inspector.   The inspector may equate noncooperation with regulatory noncompliance.

• Accompany the inspector - The facility owner, operator, or workplace supervisor should accompany the inspector during the inspection to take notes on the inspector’s comments. When accompanying the inspector, pay particular attention to questions that the inspector asks you or employees about workplace health and safety or waste management practices.

• Correct errors - It is also important, if possible or if requested by the inspector, to correct regulatory problems, such as a malfunctioning chemical-treatment-process machine or a minor spill, during the inspection.

• Duplicate samples and records - Should the inspector take samples; you should take a samples the same time so that you have nearly identical samples.  Ask the inspector what test or analysis the sample will undergo and have the same test or analysis conducted independently on your sample for your own records.

Should the inspector request copies of corporate records, either make the copies then, or if the request requires a substantial amount of copying, agree to a schedule to provide them to the inspector.   Keep a copy of everything you provide to the inspector.   The inspector may also take pictures of relevant plant equipment or processes.   You should take the same pictures from the same angle.

Are you ready to answer these questions?

• How are EHS regulatory requirements determined and communicated?
• How is compliance monitored?
• What is the effectiveness of the internal communication systems, particularly under spill or release scenarios? Accidents and Injuries?
• What is the existence and completeness of detailed process flow charts and mass balances?
• How is noncompliance communicated to management?  What is the follow up?
• Is environmental and safety compliance a factor in job performance evaluations for front line Supervisors?  Employees?  How about Management?
• What is the existence and scope of an environmental and safety training programs?
• What are the existence, scope, and maturity of the facility’s EHS management systems?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  You don’t have to go through this alone!  There are a lot of valuable resources available to you on the web.   OSHA and EPA both have good resources on their websites; contact other professionals through social media such as LinkedIn Groups.  You can also contract with a professional consultant, or contact your state’s Department of Labor; many have assistance programs that can get you on the right track.   Most important though, talk to your senior management and get them to understand the importance of EHS, both from a regulatory compliance standpoint and more importantly from a good business perspective.  Be prepared to make 2012 a great year!

Key report findings include:

• Over 6.1 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students over the previous year.
• The 10% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth in the overall higher education student population.
• Thirty-one percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.
• Reported year-to-year enrollment changes for fully online programs by discipline show most are growing.
• Academic leaders believe that the level of student satisfaction is equivalent for online and face-to-face courses.
• 65% of higher education institutions now say that online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy.

By 2015, 25 million post-secondary students in the United States will be taking classes online.  The number of students who take classes exclusively on physical campuses are expected to plummet, from 14.4 million in 2010 to just 4.1 million five years later, according to a new forecast released by market research firm Ambient Insight.

With a new generation of worker, having previous experience with both online classes and social learning, entering the work force it is imperative for all businesses to re-evaluate the way they offer job training.  The shift in the teaching and learning paradigm (the old Carnegie model) is steadily evolving as technology itself does (the Computer-mediated model).  Learners are becoming more responsible for discovery and self-learning while teachers take on the role of facilitator.   Occupying a seat in a physical classroom for a specific period of time is fast becoming the exception rather than the rule.   With online access and a laptop computer or mobile tablet, learners are never more than a click away from the classroom.

Social Learning is here to stay.

The rapid growth in social learning isn’t likely to fade anytime soon either.  Social learning takes place at a wider scale than individual or group learning, up to a societal scale, through social interaction between peers.  According to  What is Social Learning? by Mark Reed, to be considered social learning, a process must:

1. demonstrate that a change in understanding has taken place in the individuals involved;
2. demonstrate that this change goes beyond the individual and becomes situated within wider social units or communities of practice; and
3. occur through social interactions and processes between actors within a social network.

Social learning is not necessarily based on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL).  Rather it’s where learning takes place via social interaction often times through the Internet (Skype, YouTube, Dropbox, Facebook,  Moodle, etc.).  The process assumes that knowledge (as meaning and understanding) is socially constructed.  Learning takes place through conversations about content and grounded interaction about problems and actions.  Social learning is one of the best ways to gain a deeper understanding and learn something because it allows you to teach it to others.  It also aligns very well to how adults tend to learn the best.

Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves and are relevancy-oriented relying heavily on life experiences and knowledge that may include work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education to advance their learning.

E-Learning budgets Increasing

ASTD’s 2010 State of the Industry Report shows that elearning is still increasing as it now accounts for 27.7 percent of corporate training, its highest level since ASTD began collecting data on the use of technology for this report 14 years ago (in 2008, it was 23.1 percent). By virtually every measure, traditional learning model are shifting away from the classroom experience as e-learning experiences unprecedented growth and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

With new technology being developed and continuously implemented,  it isn’t surprising that successful companies are those that believe in lifelong learning for their workers. In order to survive in this new learning environment your company will need to develop strong online and social learning processes.

Thanksgiving Day has more than double the number of home cooking fires than an average day according to the U.S. Fire Administration. In fact, each year more than 4,000 fires occur on Thanksgiving Day. The American Red Cross has released a Thanksgiving Day Fire Safety Factsheet that contains sobering information on the dangers of cooking fires.

More information on keeping this Holiday from becoming a tragedy can be found at:

Food Safety
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fact_sheets/Seasonal_Food_Safety_Fact_Sheets/

Pet Safety
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-care-tips/thanksgiving-safety-tips.aspx

Stay safe and have a great Thanksgiving weekend everyone!