“We must be part of the general staff at the inception, rather than the ambulance drivers at the bitter end.” — Lane Kirkland
Despite being established under the authority of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which has not been repealed, the Trump administration intends to discontinue funding the Chemical Safety Board as of the end of the current federal fiscal year and has directed the board to use its $844,000 emergency fund to close the agency.
Fortunately for all of us who have come to depend on the CSB’s efforts to guide the chemical process industries to safer operations, the folks at the CSB continue to provide that guidance. This includes their most recent communication channel—compilations of incident reports.
The CSB issued Volume 3 on July 22, 2025. This follows Volume 1, issued on January 14, 2025 and Volume 2, issued on March 12, 2025.
Volume 3
Like the incidents in the first two volumes, the 30 incidents in Volume 3 were drawn from the incidents reported since the CSB began requiring reporting in 2020. Unlike the first two volumes, Volume 3 includes one of the 63 incidents that companies have reported so far in 2025.
Not surprisingly, the states with the most incidents were Texas (seven incidents each in the three volumes) and Louisiana (four incidents in Volume 3, five incidents each in Volume 1 and Volume 2), since those are the states with the most chemical production. The only other state appearing in all three volumes was Illinois, which also is a top-ranking chemical producer and which had three incidents in Volume 3.
Over the course of the three volumes, the CSB included incidents from 29 states. Incidents in 15 different states appeared in Volume 3. Six states appeared in these compilations for the first time in Volume 3: Delaware, Kansas, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. In a time when all government activity seems to be increasingly politicized, it is worth noting that the appearance of a state in any of the volumes does not seem to be motivated by blue state/red state divisions.
The Industries
As was the case in Volume 1 and Volume 2, the 30 incidents in Volume 3 occurred all across the chemical enterprise.
- 10 incidents (33%) in refineries
- 8 incidents (27%) in chemical manufacturing complexes
- 5 incidents (17%) in food processing facilities
- 2 incidents (7%) in pulp and paper mills
- 2 incidents (7%) in specialty chemicals plants
There were also incidents at a crude oil production unit, a gas pipeline station, and a hazardous waste disposal facility.
The types of incidents, however, remain more important than the types of facilities as an opportunity to learn from these reports.
Types of Incidents
We should never lose sight of the fact that process safety is about preventing process fires, explosions, and toxic releases. The three most common types of incidents in Volume 3 accounted for all three:
- There were 8 fires.
- There were 7 vapor cloud explosions.
- There were 8 hazardous material releases, including chlorine gas, anhydrous ammonia, syngas, and corrosive liquids.
There were also four incidents involving injuries due to thermal exposure and two incidents involving pressure vessel explosions.
Unlike the incidents that appeared in Volume 1 and Volume 2, none of the incidents in Volume 3 were described as “a hydrogen and hydrocarbon gas mixture … accidentally released into the firebox of a fired heater, where it ignited” resulting in a fire, explosion, or both.
Take Advantage of the CSB’s Efforts
In an earlier blog, we encouraged readers of this blog to get a copy of Volume 1 and Volume 2 and read the Incident Reports compiled there. That recommendation stands and we would add Volume 3 to it. There is a lot to be learned, and we don’t know how many more of these volumes that the CSB will be allowed to issue. Whether someone is new to process safety or an old hand, reading these incident reports is a crash course in what can go wrong at process facilities, be they breweries or world-class petrochemical complexes.
We have another recommendation as well. Despite assertions to the contrary, neither the EPA nor OSHA, nor any other agency, does what the CSB does. All facets of the chemical process industry—owners, employers, employees, safety professionals, unions—agree that the work that the CSB does is invaluable in guiding us to be better at protecting safety, health, the environment, and assets. Let’s not let the CSB be shut down without a fight. Make sure that your elected officials in Congress (Representative AND Senators) know how important you think the CSB is. We haven’t much time and once they shut down, it will be much more difficult to start them back up.
