Content area
Full Text
October 23, 2019 marks the 30-yr anniversary of a devastating fire and explosion that claimed the lives of 23 workers at a major chemical plant in Pasadena, Texas. That explosion, which occurred at the Phillips 66 Houston Chemical Complex (HCC) on the Houston Ship Channel, helped modernize process safety management (PSM) programs in the U.S. This significant incident removed any doubt that a catastrophic industrial process release could produce severe consequences in a geographic region with a mature regulatory framework.
Industry's pursuit of safe process design and operation started long before the explosion on October 23, 1989. However, PSM 30 yr ago was much different from what it is today. For example, in 1989 there were no process safety engineers staffing roles in industrial divisions. Neither were any process safety coordinators directing site compliance activities according to PSM principles. In fact, OSHA's PSM standard that revolutionized the uniform application of safe process design and operating practices in the U.S. was not published into the Code of Federal Regulations (29 CFR 1910.119) until almost 3 yr later. Significant progress resulting from these developments has certainly made industry safer. Through these advancements, countless catastrophic process releases have been prevented, and many lives saved.
Unfortunately, significant incidents resulting in fatalities, injuries, environmental damage and property loss have continued over the last 30 yr. The refinery fire and explosion in Texas City, Texas (2005); the offshore rig fire, explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010); and the toxic chemical release in LaPorte, Texas (2014) are grim reminders that global PSM improvements have yet to achieve the goal of preventing or minimizing the consequences of catastrophic releases of toxic, reactive, flammable or explosive chemicals.
Sadly, information about the 1989 Pasadena explosion is rarely communicated in modern engineering courses. As a result, many employees entering the industrial workforce today are unaware of how behaviors cultivated in a production environment can inadvertently undermine the performance of PSM programs. Controlling such behaviors requires recognizing how and why incidents like the Pasadena HCC explosion occurred.
The following summary explains the circumstances that led to the 1989 Pasadena HCC explosion. This understanding makes it possible to recognize common themes between other high-consequence incidents-both before and after the Pasadena HCC explosion. Relating these...