The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced proposed fines of more than half a million dollars for alleged safety violations at Legacy Cooperative’s Hemingford grain facility.
Responding to a complaint of unsafe working conditions at the facility, OHSA investigators opened an inspection in March, finding what were categorized as two willful violations and 22 serious violations, with a total fine proposed at $536,000.
Legacy Cooperative President and CEO Charlie Wright says following the completion of the merger between Panhandle Coop and Farmer’s Cooperative March 1, the combined board met for the first time March 18, which coincided with the arrival of OSHA inspectors. “Obviously we had not had a chance to really look at all the operations at that time. I mean, we looked at them, but as far as every procedure, everything that was going on, Legacy did not have our control measures fully in place then. So, you know, there were some things that popped up there.”
The two willful violations involved accumulation of more than 1/8 of an inch of grain dust in the tunnel of the bottom belt area, and the use of duct tape to maintain the dust collection system in place of maintenance or repairs. Other violations of a serious category included unguarded stairway holes and a lack of handrails, improper use of flexible electrical cords, no forklift training as required and failure to properly label hazardous chemicals.
Wright said Legacy officials are appealing the findings and look forward to working with OSHA to understand the effectiveness of Legacy’s safety policies and procedures. He said some of the items listed in the inspection report, such as training, are in place, and evidence will be presented to OSHA officials that such trainings were offered.
“The two willfuls (violations) obviously are the ones that are most disturbing, and that’s really an issue we feel of semantics. We pay an insurance company to come in twice a year and look at our operations and tell us, “Hey, you need to do this better, (or) that’s a problem”, said Wright. “And the issues that they have cited is for their on the willful, they relate to confined space. And we were told that those were not confined spaces, so they didn’t require a permit.”
Wright said at this point there’s no official determination by the OSHA commission or any court that the company has violated any law or regulation, and he’s confidence the company can work through the issues with agency officials. “We will meet with them on October 15th to present what we have done to abate the claims, the citations that they have listed there. It should be noted especially they did not inspect Legacy because of an employee was injured. In fact, we are very safe operation. And as I said, for a combined 200 years, our injuries have been very low.”
