Chemical giant DuPont was ordered to pay $16 million and sentenced to two years on probation for a poisonous gas leak that killed four employees in 2014, federal prosecutors announced.
On Nov. 15, 2014, a DuPont pesticide factory in LaPorte, about 20 miles east of Houston, Texas, released approximately 24,000 pounds of a highly toxic, flammable gas called methyl mercaptan, which killed four workers.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigation released in 2019 refers to “a long chain of failures,” including numerous safety management and prevention shortcomings, including unresolved technical deficiencies.
DuPont and Kenneth Sandel, 52, a former employee and unit operations leader involved in the incident, pleaded guilty to the negligent release of an extremely hazardous substance.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered DuPont to pay a $12 million fine and an additional $4 million community service contribution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
DuPont was further sentenced to two years of probation, which grants federal officials full access to all of the company’s operating locations in the U.S.
Sandel was sentenced to one year of probation.
“Four employees are dead because of DuPont’s criminal negligence,” said Houston-based State Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
“The sentence imposed today sends a clear message of my office’s dedication to holding managers at industrial facilities, and the corporations that own and operate those facilities, accountable for violations of federal criminal laws; laws meant to protect the safety of workers and nearby communities,” he added.
For several days before the accident, operations personnel attempted to clear a blocked pipe outside the manufacturing building. Sandel and DuPont engineers allegedly devised a plan to divert a large volume of methyl mercaptan gas into a waste gas pipe system.
This led to a pressure problem elsewhere inside the building. According to prosecutors, two workers disregarded a federally mandated safety procedure when they opened valves to resolve what they thought was an unrelated, routine pressure problem.
Liquid methyl mercaptan escaped through the valves.
Both men died almost instantly, although one made a distress call before passing away. Four operators entered the building in response to his distress call. Two of them succumbed immediately to the toxic vapors; the other two managed to exit and save themselves.
The CSB investigation found that the building’s two rooftop ventilators had been out of commission for over a month when the incident took place. Moreover, the entire ventilation system had been deemed “ineffective” by Dupont auditors five years before—yet no improvements were made.
The vapors nevertheless made their way out of the building, traveling downwind into the surrounding areas.
CSB investigator Tamara Qureshi called the accident “a textbook example of the catastrophic consequences when process safety management is inadequately implemented and monitored.”
The CSB report also noted that DuPont’s work bonus rules may have disincentivized workers from reporting injuries, incidents, and “near misses.”
According to prosecutors, insufficient instructions were given to the oncoming shift workers on safely clearing the blockage.
In 2016, the LaPorte plant was permanently shut down by Dupont.