1. Treatment Plants
Johnanewquist@gmail.com
Draft 9 18 2013

2. September 2013
• Rick Whitney and another
worker were injured 9/11/2013
while working at the
wastewater treatment plant in
the Madison County village of
Canastota, NY.
• Whitney was a steamfitter
working for a subcontractor
replacing old pipes when an
explosion happened at the
facility
• He passed away 9/18/2013

3. May 2013
• College Station, Texas
• Worker died after being pinned
to the ground by two 1,500-
pound, 20-feet-long shoring
panels.
• 49-year-old Armando
Gonzalez of Bryan
• .
• Police say the man was pinned
inside a 30 to 40-foot hole
• Fire Department told the
Bryan-College Station Eagle
that the shoring had “given
out.”

4. April 2013
• 48-year-old Michael
Koch of Brooklyn
Michigan was killed in
the methane gas
explosion at the Dexter
Utilities Department's
Water Treatment Plant
MI
• Fire Department Chief
Loren Yates said both
men were believed to be
inside the tank when the
explosion occurred, and
investigators suspect
that the men's blow
torches ignited the gas

5. April 2013
• HUNTINGTON BEACH
• Orange County Sanitation
District plant
• Fell about 10 feet into a
concrete vault
• Could not get out
because of his injuries,

6. April 2013
• UPPER MARLBORO,
Md. -A construction
worker has been
rescued after being
unable to get out of a
30-foot underground
treatment vault in
Upper Marlboro.
• It took about an hour
and a half for the 19-
year-old male
contractor to be
rescued at the WSSC
treatment plant in the
6600 block of Crain
Highway.
Fire officials say the worker slipped and fell in the vault
and suffered a back injury, which caused him to be
immobile and required a rescue team to get him out.
Other workers were in the vault, but no one else was
injured.
The worker has been sent to the hospital. His injuries
are non-life-threatening.

7. • Tampa FL Treatment Plant
• Worker died after being
exposed to fumes that sent a
total of seven workers to the
hospital.
• Worker were working to clean
a 96-inch sewer pipe
• Overcome by fumes, possibly
methane or hydrogen sulfide,
or a lack of oxygen
• During the rescue, six Tampa
firefighters were also affected
by the fumes. They were
treated at Tampa General
Hospital and released.
April 2013

8. April 2013
• Tyler, TX
• Leak in a chlorine pipe at the
Lake Palestine Water
Treatment Plant.
• “At approximately 6:45 a.m.,
an alarm at the plant alerted
staff that there was a leak,”
said Managing Director of
Water Utilities Greg Morgan.
• One City employee, who was
arriving to work at the time, is
believed to have been
exposed to the chlorine.

9. March 2013
• Worker died when fell 30 feet into an
empty tank
• St. Petersburg water treatment
• Worker was going to resurface the
water tank, which holds more than 2
million gallons of reclaimed water
when it is filled.
• "Officials said it appears as though
he was not wearing a safety harness
while cleaning the tank."
• Lt. Joel Granata with St. Petersburg
Fire Rescue told Channel 13: "The
worker was actually on a scissors
platform and he was doing some
routine maintenance on one of the
walls in the tank."

10. August 2012 MO
• Steven Webb, 53, of House
Springs
• Overcome by exposure to
methyl ethyl ketone collapsed
and died inside an 18-foot-deep
vault manhole
• Boschertown sanitary sewer lift
station.

11. Sep 2011
• CHENEY WA
• A wastewater treatment plant
worker became lightheaded and
fell head first into a 24-inch wide
sewage pipe.
• Firefighters say the man had room
to breathe and move while they
worked to pull him out of the line.
• Pretty nasty, absolutely, all the
chemicals, bacteria and gases ?
everything you’re dealing with
inside the pipe, so that's the main
reason he's going to the hospital
for evaluation,

12. Object From Forklift Falls On Man
At Wastewater Plant
• Wellington wastewater treatment
facility Wednesday morning.
• Palm Beach County Sheriff's
Office deputies said a man was
working near a forklift about 8:30
a.m. when an object fell from the
forklift and struck him.
• The man was airlifted to Delray
Medical Center. His condition
was not immediately known.

13. Worker dies after fall in storage
tank
• A worker died today after
falling and hitting his head
in a storage tank at a water
treatment plant
• Dallas Treatment plant
• The victim was climbing a
ladder out of the tank when
he fell 15 feet and struck his
head on a concrete block.
• He suffered severe head
and neck injuries and was
taken to Dallas Regional
Medical Center, where he
was later pronounced dead.

14. Mercury Spilled At Dubuque Water
Treatment Plant
• The spill occurred while a trickling
filter bearing housing which
contained a mercury seal was being
moved by contractors.
• Within an hour, a hazardous
materials abatement contractor was
asked to respond to the site and
within three hours was on site
assessing the situation.
• A contract was executed with a
hazardous materials and emergency
response contractor by 5 p.m. that
day and the contractor was on site
to begin mitigation work by 7 a.m.
the next day.

15. Andover water treatment plant
evacuated
• ANDOVER, MN
• Employees were forced to evacuate Andover's water
treatment plant after a chemical reaction set off hazardous
fumes.
• A contractor was delivering chemicals to the plant and
accidentally poured fluorine into the tank that holds chlorine,
triggering the reaction.

16. GA 2010
• CUMMING, GA.
• A worker at the county's water plant
died after being trapped under a
piece of machinery.
• Firefighters were dispatched to the
plant Thursday afternoon but found it
difficult to make contact with the man,
who apparently was trapped under a
piece of equipment when it rolled
over.

17. IL Digester explosion
• 2010
• The digester building
— which produces
methane gas for use
as energy— was
demolished in the
explosion, although
no employees were
inside at the time and
no injuries have been
reported, Young said.

18. IL Worker Death In Wastewater
Plant Ruled Accidental 2011
• Water Reclamation District of
Chicago
• John Fergus, 51, died from
multiple injures sustained in a
bobcat machine accident
• Fergus was an electrician with the
district and had six children
• She said this is the first time that
an accident like this has
happened.
• Several years ago another worker
drowned in a water facility, she
said.

19. 2011 TN
• GATLINBURG, TN
• Two workers killed after the
basin wall of a wastewater
treatment plant collapsed,
spilling hundreds of
thousands of gallons of
sewage.
• Rescuers found the bodies
of John Eslinger, 53, and
Don Storey, 44, after 10
hours of searching after the
incident at the Gatlinburg
Wastewater Treatment
Facility
• Emergency officials
estimated 850,000 gallons
of sewerage spilled,
contaminating the Little
Pigeon River.

20. IL 2010
• Calumet Water
Reclamation District
• Worker fell off a ladder into
a 20-30 deep hole at a
water plant hitting the other
employee below.
• They were working on
settling tanks at the time of
the accident
• One of the workers was
listed in serious condition
with head injuries - the
second worker was
reported in fair condition

21. Worker killed by explosion at Redding
sewage plant
• June 2011
• REDDING, CA
• Authorities are investigating a
water tank explosion that killed a
worker at a sewage treatment
plant
• 54-year-old Fred Crumb died
Thursday afternoon after suffering
critical head injuries in the
explosion.
• Crumb was critically injured when
the explosion blew the top off a
4,500-gallon steel tank at the
Clear Creek Wastewater
Treatment Plant.
.

22. Worker falls to death at sewage
plant
• LOS ANGELES
• 2009
• Worker falls to death at
sewage plant
• A worker has died after
falling about 30 feet at a
sewage treatment plant
near Playa Del Rey.
• Los Angeles Fire
Department spokesman
Cecil Manresa says
paramedics were called to
the Hyperion treatment
plant around noon
Tuesday.

23. Asheville Sewerage Supervisor
Dies While Working On Line
• A backhoe struck John Mark
Crowe in the head and
shoulders as his crew
worked on inserting a
manhole near 257 Mcdowell
• Crowe, a 45-year-old
married man who worked for
the sewerage district for 15
years, was working as the
construction crew
supervisor.

24. Two injured in fall at wastewater
plant
• September 7, 2011
• OMAHA
• Jared Kirkendall, 27, of
Auburn, Neb., was flown to the
Nebraska Medical Center with
head injuries after his safety
harness failed to stop his 17-
foot fall
• John Meyers, 44, of Council
Bluffs, was taken by
ambulance to the Nebraska
Medical Center with chest and
rib injuries after his harness
pulled him up short of the
ground,
• The men fell while doing
welding work inside the
building on the roof of a tank.

25. 5 burned in explosion at treatment-
plant site
• Edmonds, WA
• Picnic Point Wastewater
Treatment Plant.
• A worker was putting a 1,000
gallon propane tank onto a truck
to take it off the site.
• The tank, which was the size of
a small car and had been used
temporarily for heat, had about
300 gallons of propane in it.
• The load shifted, causing the
tank to move unexpectedly, and
a valve snapped off the tank

26. Questions