"BP Agrees To Pay $69,200 Safety Fine For WA Refinery"

"The Deepwater Horizon rig last month.""
nasdaq.com:

BP PLC (BP) agreed to pay a $69,200 fine for safety violations found at its Cherry Point refinery in Washington, the state's labor department said Friday.

The 225,000-barrel-a-day plant located near Blaine, Wash., received citations on May 5 for 13 serious safety violations for insufficient process-safety management issues following state inspections. BP also had the option to appeal the citations or request a meeting to discuss them.

Such safety violations are commonly found across the U.S. refining industry, which is the most frequent source of accidents or explosions related to chemical hazards.

"While it is good that BP has decided to correct the hazards without an appeal, we are disturbed that more than 10 years after the explosion that killed six workers at the Equilon refinery, our inspectors are still finding significant safety violations every time we inspect one of the refineries in the state of Washington," said Michael Silverstein, assistant director for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries' Division of Occupational Safety and Health. MORE...

Howie P.S.: More light reading for your holiday weekend: "Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig" (NY Times). In the Wall Street Journal: "Frustration, Fury Greet Obama in Gulf." From the AP:

A Washington-based research group says two BP refineries in the U.S. account for 97 percent of "egregious willful" violations given by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab says BP has a "systemic safety problem." He told The Associated Press BP has not adequately addressed the issues, despite being fined more than $87 million.