Washington — A longstanding Chemical Safety Board concern isn’t any extra: The company has cleared its backlog of open investigations and incident stories.
A Dec. 27 press launch from CSB states that 17 incomplete investigations and stories awaited when CSB Chair Steve Owens joined the company as interim govt in July 2022, following the resignation of Katherine Lemos. Some dated way back to 2016.
Lawmakers repeatedly shared issues concerning the velocity with which stories have been accomplished – typically questioning the company’s means to satisfy its mission. Although two seats on CSB’s five-member board stay unfilled, the swearing in of Catherine J.K. Sandoval in February 2023 returned a quorum to the short-staffed company.
“The other CSB board members and I were determined to conclude these investigations and issue the reports as quickly as possible,” Owens says within the launch. “Eliminating the backlog has taken an extraordinary effort by every single employee at the CSB, working together as a team. We are committed to continuing to move the CSB forward and making sure that such a serious backlog never happens again.”
During an Oct. 26 public enterprise assembly, company officers stated 10 new workers members joined CSB in fiscal 12 months 2023, together with 4 chemical incident investigators and one supervisory chemical incident investigator.
CSB launched closing stories on 10 investigations in FY 2023, the most important output in a fiscal 12 months because the company’s inception in 1998. Each report consists of security suggestions for stopping comparable incidents.
“Now that these legacy reports are out, we are better positioned to deploy to chemical incidents across the country and complete future reports more efficiently,” CSB Member Sylvia Johnson stated within the launch.
