CORUNNA, ONT. – Calgary-based NOVA Chemicals Corporation, a petrochemical manufacturer that operates facilities across Canada, is facing a hefty fine in relation to a 2024 incident in Corunna, Ont. that resulted in the serious injury of a worker.
According to an Ontario court bulletin, the incident took place on May 7, 2024, at the company’s Ontario petrochemical facility.
NOVA had contracted Kel-Gor Limited for maintenance work. The facility contains a number of boilers or heaters used in chemical manufacturing. To maintain this equipment, workers must remove water from the heaters to minimize scale corrosion, concentrations of impurities and other issues with the water.
One way of doing so is an intermittent blow down (IBD), in which valves are manually opened to release boiler feed water from a heater storage drum into an IBD drum.
On the day of the incident, two Kel-Gor workers were on a scaffold adjacent to an IBD drum exhaust stack while a heater was undergoing cleaning.
Hot boiler feed water was discharged from the top of the IBD stack and caused serious injuries to a worker, the bulletin describes.
A Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development investigation found the scaffold and IBD stack were not equipped with shields or barriers to protect workers from hot liquid discharges.
It also found the workers on the scaffold had not been provided with information or procedures for safely conducting work near the IBD drum exhaust hood during the IBD.
Following a guilty plea in Sarnia Provincial Offences Court, NOVA Chemicals Corporation was fined $130,000 by Justice of the Peace Louise Bessegato.
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