Nova Chemicals has received a fine of $130,000 in provincial offences court due to an incident last May where a maintenance worker suffered serious injuries near Sarnia after hot liquid was released from an exhaust stack at a company site.
The fine, which was issued in December, was reported this month by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
The event occurred on May 7, 2024 at a Nova Chemicals petrochemical manufacturing facility located on Petrolia Line near the St. Clair Township community of Corunna. Two workers from contractor Kel-Gor Ltd. were working on a scaffold adjacent to an exhaust stack while cleaning a heater, according to the ministry.
Nova Chemicals hires Kel-Gor for maintenance tasks at its Corunna Facility, as stated by the ministry.
The site features several boilers or heaters used in chemical production. To maintain these machines, water must be drained to reduce scale corrosion, impurities buildup, and other problems.
One cleaning method involves intermittent blow down (IBD), where valves are manually opened to allow boiler feed water from a heater storage drum into an IBD drum, according to the ministry.
During this incident, hot boiler feed water was expelled from the top of the IBD stack, resulting in severe injuries to one worker.
A ministry investigation revealed that neither the scaffold nor the stack had shields or barriers for worker protection and that the workers hadn’t been given adequate safety information for performing their tasks safely.
Nova Chemicals admitted guilt and faced penalties for not providing necessary information, guidance, and supervision to safeguard workers against risks linked with intermittent blowdown operations. This was contrary to the Occupational Health and Safety Act as noted by the ministry.
The court also imposed a 25 percent victim fine surcharge as mandated by the Provincial Offences Act. This surcharge is allocated to a provincial fund that aids crime victims, according to the ministry.
Nova Chemicals runs four manufacturing locations in St. Clair Township near Sarnia. These include its Corunna Facility where it produces ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene and various chemicals along with its Moore, Rokeby and St. Clair River sites where polyethylene plastic is manufactured.
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