HazEng Case Study 4

Immediately following the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) published investigation report of the chemical spill into the Charleston, West Virginia, public water supply, you have been contracted as a safety engineer consultant to evaluate the investigation report from a system safety engineering perspective. As a macro-level evaluation of the past event, you have been asked to help the CSB understand what hazards may have been prevented if the bulk chemical tank owners had utilized a safety management system (SMS) with system safety engineering inherent in the SMS design. You will present a complete case study of just the six numbered statements within the “Technical Analysis” section on page 28 of the report. 

Access the CSB website and download the Chemical Spill Contaminates Public Water Supply in Charleston, West Virginia final report using the instructions from the unit lesson in the study guide, or click here. 

Using an APA style paper format (title page, abstract page, body with level 1 headings for each section, and a references page), submit a three-page case study. The title and reference page will not count toward the page count requirement. Click here for an example of an APA style paper.

1. Make your first level 1 heading “Summary of the Accident Report.” Summarize the “1.0 Executive Summary: Incident Description,” found on page 1 of the CSB report.
2. Make your second level 1 heading “What-If Analysis/Safety Checklist.” Using any or all of the Appendices A, B, and C, include the what-if analysis/safety checklist technique described in the Unit IV Lesson to evaluate the six paragraph statements on page 28 of the “Technical Analysis” section of the report. Simply number each posed question that you form. You must have at least 20 posed questions. If you can develop more than 20, please do so. This will only enhance the quality of the process safety analysis.
3. Make your third level 1 heading “Potential Controls.” Being careful to follow the hierarchy of controls described in the unit lesson, propose a control for each of the 20 identified hazards that you recognized from each posed question. Attempt to cite as many controls as possible, even using textbooks from previous safety or environmental classes that you may have already taken from CSU.
4. Be sure to include your abstract (page 2 of your paper) and a references page (the last page of your paper). The CSU Citation Guide is a great source to assist with properly formatting your paper, in-text citations, and general references in APA style. Contact the CSU Writing Center for examples of references not included in the Citation Guide: [email protected]
5. Be sure to write all questions (“What-If” Analysis/Safety Checklist) and statements (Potential Controls) with proper grammar and punctuation.