Workers at a barrel refurbishing plant in St. Francis were exposed to formaldehyde, mercury and other hazardous chemicals but did not receive proper training in safely handling the materials, according to violations found by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Also, workers whose native language is Spanish did not receive training on how to deal with hazardous materials in a language they could fully understand, according to OSHA.
The agency issued two citations with five violations against the plant and assessed $15,550 in fines, according to the Jan. 19 citations, which were released by the agency late Tuesday.
To date, OSHA issued 14 citations with 26 violations at three drum plants — in Milwaukee, Oak Creek and St. Francis — and assessed $128,000 in fines.
The company is disputing all the citations except the two for the Oak Creek plant. The violations at the St. Francis plant were corrected during the inspections, but fines were still issued, records show. Inspectors were in the plant at least twice, in August and September.
A whistleblower said workers at the plants were prepared to "stage" operations, hiding problems when an agency like OSHA arrived. State and federal environmental inspectors said operations were staged when they inspected in February and went to federal court to get a search warrant.
An OSHA spokesman said such investigations are always unannounced, and he was not aware of a suspicion of staging.
OSHA opened investigations in the St. Francis and Oak Creek plants after receiving a letter from Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in July, calling on them to inspect following reports of unsafe work conditions.
“This news is concerning, but unfortunately not surprising given the recent reports of horrifying injuries employees endured while working at Wisconsin Greif facilities," Baldwin said of the violations.
"What is most shocking is that OSHA has again neglected to cite the company for willful violations, despite what appears to be clear evidence of the company’s knowledge of the regulations they were violating."
Problems at the plant came to light after whistleblower Will Kramer, who worked as a safety consultant for the company, secretly recorded the supervisors saying how unsafe conditions were.
Kramer said he gave OSHA the consultant's findings on the lack of training for workers. He said the evidence was there for a stronger case, such as willful violations that can carry a larger penalty.
OSHA has "direct evidence that the employer was informed of this exact deficiency more than two years ago, and didn't address it," Kramer said.
OSHA spokesman Scott Allen declined to provide details on the deliberation process.
"OSHA does not release specific details on how those decisions are made for each case," he said.
The move by OSHA is the latest in a flurry of regulatory action against the plants. Five state and federal agencies issued more than 70 violations since a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation uncovered risk to workers and residents from the barrel plants here and in several other states.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in negotiations to settle the 20 air pollution and hazardous waste violations. But officials said last week the agency may sue the company if they cannot reach an agreement.
The company also said recently it would install pollution-control equipment that, if properly installed and operated, could reduce or eliminate the odor issue in St. Francis, an industrial pollution expert said.
The OSHA violations at the St. Francis plant cite two dangerous and closely regulated chemicals: formaldehyde and mercury.
Air testing by OSHA inspectors detected the presence of formaldehyde, a colorless, flammable chemical used in building materials, household products, glues and other products. Formaldehyde is a cancer hazard, according to OSHA.
Even at lower levels, formaldehyde can cause adverse health effects. At 0.1 parts per million, some people get watery, burning eyes, coughing and skin irritation, according to OSHA. The government requires training for workers when this level is detected.
The level detected by OSHA at the St. Francis plant was 0.48 parts per million over eight hours, nearly five times the detectable level, But there was not adequate training, including correct safe handling practices, emergency procedures and instruction on the use of personal safety equipment, according to OSHA.
The level detected at St. Francis was just shy of the agency's "action level" for formaldehyde of 0.5 parts per million, which triggers industrial hygiene monitoring and medical surveillance of workers.
OSHA's threshold for formaldehyde, at which no employee is to be exposed, is 0.75 parts per million over eight hours.
"We don’t agree with the citation and we won’t be going into further detail until we provide our response directly to OSHA," said Debbie Crow, spokeswoman for Greif Inc.
The three plants, known locally as Mid-America, are operated by Container Life Cycle Management, a joint venture majority owned by Greif, a $3.3 billion Ohio-based firm. CLCM also operates plants in Arkansas and Tennessee. A CLCM plant in Indiana was recently closed.
The plants refurbish 55-gallon steel drums and large plastic chemical containers, cleaning them for reuse or recycling.
The second citation for St. Francis involved a violation for lack of training in Spanish for workers who speak that language primarily. The same citation included a lack of training on the dangers of mercury, a heavy metal and closely monitored environmental toxin that in high enough concentrations can attack the nervous system of humans and wildlife.
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Mercury was detected in wastewater coming from the St. Francis plant for at least four years — and more than a dozen times levels exceeded legally permitted limits since at least January 2013.
The company finally vowed to tackle the problem last year, cleaning out pipes, equipment and floors where mercury was detected, installing new filters, and saying it would ensure it was not accepting barrels and totes containing mercury.
The mercury cleanup was done in July, and two tests taken since then indicate the presence of mercury, but both were below the legal limit.
Workers at the plants told the Journal Sentinel chemicals were routinely mixed together, triggering dangerous reactions that resulted in chemical and heat-related burns, injuries from exploding barrels, breathing difficulties and other health problems.
One worker at Milwaukee was scorched so badly on his chest that he couldn’t button his shirt as the wounds oozed, yet said he was told to keep working. A worker at St. Francis said he got metal shavings in his eyes because of poor safety equipment. He got some of the shavings out of his eyes with a magnet. Another worker said he lost his sense of smell.
The workers said training and protection was severely lacking. Protective gear was shoddy or lacking all together. At St Francis, when workers were given a safety test, they were given the answers ahead of time, they said.
"It was a terrible experience," said Phillip Leitze, who worked at the plant until 2015. "They did the least amount to fix the safety problems."
Read the investigation
To read the Journal Sentinel's "Burned" investigation, into safety hazards at drum reconditioning plants, go to jsonline.com/burned.
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