A judge in Washington state has thrown out $2.4 million in fines that were issued against Tesoro Corp after a 2010 blast killed seven workers at one of the company’s refineries.
The explosion happened at a facility about 70 miles north of Seattle and was triggered when a 40-year-old heat exchanger ruptured while workers were attempting to put parallel heat exchangers back online after routine cleaning. Vapors in the air ignited, setting off an explosion that caused a fire so hot it burned for hours.
Investigators such as the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found several gaps in state and federal regulations that cover refinery safety. The CSB’s assessment also accused Tesoro of not fully evaluating the effects of hydrogen under high heat and pressure on steel components like the heat exchanger.
A state administration judge in Washington, however, said there was not enough evidence that Tesoro side-stepped existing regulations for equipment maintenance and inspection to make the company pay the fines issued by the state’s Department of Labor and Industries.
“The Department has failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that Tesoro committed any of the alleged violations,” the judge wrote in his decision.
According to Reuters, the decision will still have to be reviewed by the Washington state Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.
A spokesperson for Tesoro said the judge’s decision was confirmation that the company had properly complied with safety protocol.
“Rigorous maintenance and inspection programs are integral to that core value, and our programs are based on industry best practices as the judge’s proposed decision and order acknowledges,” she said.
