Contractor cited at least 43 times

By SARA BURNETT and ROGER FILLION
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, October 05, 2007

The contractor whose five workers died in the Xcel plant fire in Georgetown, Colo., has been cited at least 43 times by state and federal safety regulators in the past decade, including in the deaths of a worker and a passer-by on San Francisco's Bay Bridge.

Robison-Prezioso Inc. also was fined $145,000 by California's Department of Toxic Substances Control in 2006 for unauthorized disposal and transportation of hazardous paint waste during its lead-abatement project on the bridge.

Many of the Santa Fe Springs, Calif., company's violations involved painters with lead exposure.

"There's a lot of history here," Herb Gibson, area director for the Denver office of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said after looking at the list of violations.

But Gibson declined to characterize the incidents without having studied all of the information in more detail.

Kate McGuire, a spokeswoman for California's OSHA office, also declined to say whether 43 violations in a decade would be considered high or low.

But she said that the industry is "very high-risk" and that "there are many regulations and safety rules that apply."

A spokesman for the company, also known as RPI Coating Inc., said Wednesday that the workers killed were very experienced.

"They were some of our best," spokesman Marc Dyer said.

Dyer could not be reached for comment later Wednesday regarding the company's safety record.

The five workers at Xcel's Cabin Creek hydroelectric power plant were applying an epoxy paint inside a pipe more than 1,500 feet below ground Tuesday afternoon when a fire began.

The workers were wearing painting suits, which were not fire-retardant, and particle masks, Clear Creek County Undersheriff Stu Nay said.

There was no sign of firefighting or other safety equipment.

Epoxy is a highly flammable material.

The blaze was caused by some type of equipment, though officials have not identified the equipment.

OSHA and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board have investigators on the scene, but officials said it could be months before any determinations are made.

Over the past decade, OSHA has ordered RPI to pay about $119,000 in fines, agency records show.

The violations occurred in California, Washington state, Florida and Nevada.

The incidents on California's Bay Bridge include the death in 2002 of an RPI worker who fell when a piece of scaffolding buckled, pinning him. That drew an OSHA fine of $44,550.

The worker's father, also a Robison-Prezioso Inc. employee, was injured a year earlier when he fell 80 feet while working on the same project.

At the time, a company official said that allegations of safety violations had not been verified and that the Bay Bridge project was "very challenging."

Xcel spokesman Tom Henley said that the company always makes sure its workers are in a safe environment, and that Xcel hires contractors because they are experts on the particular job. He directed questions about RPI and its safety measures to that company.

Dennis Whalen, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 68, which has many members who work on Xcel sites, said that he always has found the company to be very concerned about safety, both for its employees and contractors.

But he also said that no company can have full control over all of its subcontractors, potentially defective equipment or human error.