Becky JacobsAppleton Post-Crescent
KAUKAUNA -After an employee died last year at a Kaukauna paper mill, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected the facility and decided not to issue any citations or penalties to the company, but did identify four hazards.
Aaron M. Hobart, a 29-year-old Appleton father and husband, died Aug. 16, "as the result of an accident" at the Thilmany Plant where he worked as a laborer in the boiler department,his obituary says.
The mill's Babco*ck & Wilcox Company Power Boiler No. 11 "suffered catastrophic failure in two pipe sections located in the penthouse," and Hobart was fatally injured, according to OSHA.
The mill, 600 Thilmany Road, is owned by Ahlstrom, a Finnish company that also makes specialty paper products at facilities in Rhinelander, Mosinee and De Pere.
Through public records requests, The Post-Crescent obtained documents from OSHA and Kaukauna Police Department related to the death, including a letter that OSHA sent to Ahlstrom outlining four hazards at the mill and recommending steps for Ahlstrom to take.
These recommendations are not mandatory, but "many of their suggestions were areas where we proactively addressed," Addie Teeters, spokesperson for Ahlstrom, told The Post-Crescent this month.
The team at the Thilmany Plant worked with OSHA during the agency's six-month inspection, Teeters said.
What happened at the mill in August?
Hobart was working on an elevated platform, one level above the penthouse of the boiler, around 6:30 p.m. Aug. 16, when employees in the control room heard a "loud bang," according to OSHA records. Workers found Hobart between two ash hoppers and tried to perform CPR, the records state.
"According to the monitoring system, at the time of the explosion, the readings had the steam flow at 261,050 pounds-per-hour, steam temperature at 875-degrees Fahrenheit, and steam pressure at 1,467 pounds-per-square-inch," OSHA's inspection records state.
Police officers saw debris on the floor and "a lot of ash and soot in the air," according to the Kaukauna police report. There was no fire, and the incident was limited to the area around the boiler, Ahlstrom said.
The final autopsy report was sent to police in March and listed Hobart's cause of death as "thermal injury," the police report shows.
What did OSHA's inspection find?
OSHA's inspection began Aug. 17, the day after the explosion, and it focused on the No. 11 power boiler.
At the end of January, OSHA held a closing conference of its inspection with Ahlstrom employees. The person who performed the inspection wrote that the local union president "was not content with only a hazard alert being proposed as this is a fatality investigation where they lost one of their fellow brothers," OSHA's records state. The local union president declined to comment further to The Post-Crescent.
The interim plant manager at the time "indicated they were working on and had been working on the boilers and inspecting them to ensure they were proper," according to OSHA.
OSHA closed its case on Feb. 3, records show.
OSHA identifies four hazards in letter
An inspection at the mill after the death disclosed four hazards, according to a Feb. 3 letter that OSHA sent to Ahlstrom:
- The boiler in question was installed in 1966 and was 56 years old. "The complexity of the problems increased when the boiler's age, operating history, and failure history were considered."
- During operation of the boiler, "temperature swings of 60 to 90 degrees were consistently being observed on the charting data. These temperature swings constitute thermal cycling of the exposed metal contributing to creep failure potential. Tubes in such applications are vulnerable to temperature excursions, consequently, the material may enter the creep regime, and with time, creep deformation (bulging), and fracture (longitudinal rupture) may subsequently occur."
- While reviewing inspections performed by various entities on the power boiler, "damage was noted due to potential chemical cleaning performed on the boiler in 2009."
- "During the inspection, a brief mention was made regarding the safety relief valves installed may not have been the correct type" for the the power boiler.
The letter goes on to say, "Since no OSHA standard applies and it is not considered appropriate at this time to invoke Section 5(a)(1), the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, no citation will be issued for this/these hazard(s)."
But OSHA recommended that Ahlstrom "voluntarily take the necessary steps to eliminate or materially reduce your employees' exposure to the hazard(s) described above."
The letter then listed eight potential steps that the company could take, such as performing an assessment on pipes and reviewing the other power boilers on site.
What is the General Duty Clause, and when is it used?
Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act says that, "Each employer shall furnish to each of his 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 his employees."
This clause is used in instances "where there is no OSHA standard that applies to the particular hazard and in situations where a recognized hazard is created in whole or in part by workplace conditions or practices that are not covered by a standard," Scott Allen, OSHA spokesperson, told The Post-Crescent.
When asked for an example of when the General Duty Clause would apply, Allen said that the powered industrial truck standard "does not address all potential hazards associated with forklift use."
While the standard "deals with the hazards associated with a forklift operator leaving the vehicle unattended or dismounting the vehicle and working in its vicinity," Allen said, "it does not contain requirements for the use of operator restraint systems."
So, "an employer’s failure to address the hazard of a tipover" — which Allen noted forklifts are "particularly susceptible" to — "by requiring operators of powered industrial trucks equipped with restraint devices or seat belts to use those devices could be cited under the general duty clause."
Is it common to issue no citations from a fatality inspection?
OSHA proposes citations only when there is an apparent violation of an OSHA standard, Allen said. "The occurrence of an incident does not necessarily mean there is an apparent violation of an OSHA standard. It is not uncommon to have investigations/inspections where it has been determined the employer was in compliance with applicable Safety and Health Standards."
Allen added that "not every workplace incident that has an injury or fatality would necessarily have violations of the OSHA standards or regulations."
How has Ahlstrom responded?
Immediately after the incident, the Thilmany Plant was temporarily shut down, "and all existing boilers were inspected and confirmed safe before restarting the mill," Teeters said.
In the company's 2022 sustainability report, Ahlstrom noted the fatality and said "the company is taking precautionary measures at all plants based on current information to prevent accidents from recurring." Teeters said in May that "the key learnings found from this investigation have been shared across our network of manufacturing facilities."
When asked if the No. 11 Power Boiler has been repaired or replaced, Teeters said, "We continue running temporary boilers until a permanent plan is in place."
That boiler was inspected annually by a state of Wisconsin inspector, according to Teeters, and "each year the inspector certified that the boiler was safe to operate."
"The Thilmany Plant has consistently gone above and beyond the frequency of required inspections and routinely performed additional inspections of all its boilers," she said. "Industry standard inspection protocols and annual third-party inspections, unfortunately, did not identify the risk of this equipment failure."
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OSHA previously inspected Ahlstrom's facilities in Wisconsin
According to Ahlstrom and OSHA documents, Ahlstrom has been inspected at least 11 times at its Wisconsin facilities in the past five years. The hazards addressed included, but were not limited to, hazard assessment, fall protection, crane inspections, respirator, energy control procedures, machine guarding, electrical and forklift.
Looking at OSHA's website Monday, Ahlstrom appears to have four open cases and seven closed cases in Wisconsin since 2019. One of the open cases is from 2021 in Kaukauna and has an interim solution in place, as Ahlstrom waits for a permanent solution that has been delayed by supply chain issues, Teeters said. Two other cases, both in De Pere, were opened earlier this year, and OSHA has six months to complete inspections.
In the closed inspection cases, there were six violations and $144,329 in penalties. And of the 11 total cases, eight involved the Kaukauna mill.
"The Thilmany Plant is constantly assessing and working to enhance overall safety with a goal of zero accidents," Teeters said.
Plant management works directly with United Steelworkers partners through the Thilmany Joint Safety Committee, she said, and teams work daily "on recognizing hazards through our 'Take 2' for safety program, which encourages our employees to take a few moments before conducting any task to consider how to safely accomplish them."
"We also have a program called 'Care Enough to Act,' which encourages and empowers any and all employees to speak up whenever they see something that can be improved from a safety perspective," Teeters said. "All our team members are focused on a culture of safety."
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Reach Becky Jacobs at bjacobs@gannett.com or 920-993-7117. Follow her on Twitter at @ruthyjacobs.
