OSHA Inspection: NYC DEP OWLS HEAD WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

Issued

Oct 6, 2009

Abate by

Jan 8, 2010

General-duty citation text

New York State Labor Law Article 2, Section 27-a(3)(a)(1): The employer
did not furnish to
each of its employees, employment and a place of employment which are free
from recognized
hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical
harm to its employees
and which will provide reasonable and adequate protections to the lives,
safety or health of its
employees.  In applying this paragraph, fundamental distinctions between
private and public
employment have been recognized.
a) NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
OWL'S HEAD WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT
GRIT AND SCUM BUILDING
6700 SHORE ROAD BROOKLYN NEW YORK 11209
The employer failed to keep the workplace free of a recognized hazard that
caused death and
serious physical harm to its employees, to wit:  the employer modified
three Serpentix
Pathwinder Conveyers (serial numbers PO7-0981 C-1, PO7-0981 C-2, and
PO7-0981
C-3)
(hereinafter referred to as "the Conveyors") used by its employees by
installing casters on such
Conveyors without engaging or employing a professional engineer with
regard to such
modification, for example, without involving the engineer in the design,
installation oversight,
testing, supervision and/or  inspection of such modifications, and
against the recommendation
of the manufacturer who warned the employer, on or about August 27, 2008,
that due to the
employer's installation of the aforementioned casters the manufacturer
could not "guarantee the
rigidity of the conveyor track in future movements.  Moreover, the
employer failed to keep the
workplace free of a recognized hazard that caused death and serious
physical harm to its
employees, to wit: the employer allowed its employees to move the modified
Serpentix
Pathwinder Conveyors referenced above without adequately training its
employees in the use,
movement, and of the modified equipment and the identification of hazards
in the movement of
such modified equipment.
The above described conditions are hazards  likely to cause death or
serious physical harm in
that the hazard caused the death of one employee and serious physical harm
to another employee
in that on January 9, 2009 one of the Conveyors, Serpentix Pathwinder
Conveyer serial # PO7-
0981 C-1, while being moved by a maintenance crew, fell due to the
instability caused by the
hazard, killing Mr. Genarro Montello and seriously injuring Mr. Joseph
DiGiovanni in his
attempt to rescue Mr. Montello.  The hazard created by the modification of
the other two
conveyors is and was similarly likely to cause death or serious physical
harm but fortunately
have not yet done so.
The employer's violation was willful in that there were alternative means
of addressing the
employer's operational needs in a manner which could have provided
reasonable and adequate
protections for the lives, safety, or health of its employees, including
but
not limited to:
accepting the manufacturer's offer of August 28, 2008 to design and
fabricate a support system
that would permit use of the casters at a relatively minimal cost;
consulting with the
manufacturer prior to adding the casters as to an appropriate design for
the movement of the
Conveyors; purchasing equipment that had been originally designed and
manufactured to meet
the employer's needs; or making only those changes previously approved by
the Manufactureror by a professional engineer.  The employer willfully
failed to adopt such alternatives but rather
committed the violations cited above which resulted in the death of one
employee and serious
physical harm to another.