Mercury spill

But four months into it the city pulled the plug on its own investigation altogether, after receiving a MIOSHA report about unsafe practices for employees. The spill resulted in thousands of dollars in fines from state safety regulators.

Some experts say the move leaves the city open to making the same mistakes again and doesn’t complete the picture of what happened or how to create best practices.

“Please note that the City´s investigation was in process at the same time as the (Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration) investigation,” East Lansing City Clerk Marie Wicks wrote in a letter denying a request for an internal investigation report into the incident. “It was the City´s decision to use the MIOSHA report as our summary of findings.”

MIOSHA is a government agency tasked with workplace safety compliance for businesses and governments. The agency cited the city for five violations tied to a mercury spill in November 2013 that wasn´t reported until March 2014. The city was cited for failing to have hazard communications and emergency response plans; and to inform employees of asbestos, to provide required asbestos awareness trainings; and to keep asbestos from surfaces in the facility. The city was originally assessed a fine of $11,000, but paid $4,400 in August as part of a settlement agreement with the state agency.

“The MIOSHA report was received by the City on July 16, 2014,” City Manager George Lahanas told City Pulse in an emailed statement. “The report was detailed and contained information regarding the mercury spill, the cleanup that was required and the recommendations with regard to the Plant’s safety policies and procedures. Both staff and legal counsel carefully reviewed the MIOSHA investigation.”

Lahanas said continuing the city’s internal investigation while MIOSHA investigated could have resulted in employees´ accusing the city of “coercion or retaliation.”

Tanya Baker, a spokeswoman for the department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs for the state of Michigan, said MIOSHA only investigates “compliance with occupational safety and health regulations.”

“On comprehensive (wall-to-wall) inspections, MIOSHA does an assessment of the employer´s safety and health management system as part of the service provided by the agency,” Baker wrote to City Pulse. “In this assessment, MIOSHA evaluates the employer in the following categories: management commitment and planning; employee involvement; safety and health training; workplace analysis; and hazard prevention and control. This assessment is one look at the safety culture of the workplace. However, on a more limited scope investigation such as an employee complaint or injury investigation, an assessment is not completed as MIOSHA does not review the entire workplace.”

The MIOSHA investigation was the result of an employee complaint.

Internal documents show city employees did create and adopt new communications and response plans, as well as provide additional training for employees. Those actions were in response to the MIOSHA findings.

“Relying solely on MIOSHA is traditionally not sufficient, primarily because government regulations represent the absolute minimum organizations need to do to protect public safety,” said T.J. Bulcholz who runs Vanguard Communications. He served on the state’s planning body that created the first statewide crisis response plan. “It´s like state curriculum — the standards represent the minimum, not the maximum.”

“Surely an internal investigation helps you understand what happened so you can learn from them — they never hurt, that’s for sure,” said Bulcholz.

Ingham County Drain Commissioner Pat Lindemann concurs with Bulcholz.

“They should have at least made an internal report,” he said adding, such investigations and reports provide guidance for employees and management to better understand where weaknesses and strengths of the organization are. Identifying those, Lindemann said, helps in providing training.

“Accidents happen,” he said. “But if you’re well trained, and respond properly, it’s just an accident. If you are not well trained, that’s where things go wrong.”

Eight employees have filed a lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court alleging the facility is unsafe.

Also in followup, Karen Twyman, an East Lansing resident, asked City Pulse whether the mercury posed any threat to the watershed.

Mercury did get flushed into the water treatment plant when it was improperly poured down the drain, Paul Stokes the superintendent of the facility, said. But the treatment process removed it.

“No elemental mercury was released to the Red Cedar River,” he said. “There was not a storm drain in the vicinity of the spill. The mercury that made it down the drain would have been removed in the solids handling processes of the treatment plant. The other spilled mercury was recovered and disposed of by a hazardous waste hauler.”

Results of treated wastewater provided in the FOIA from the city show mercury levels in the discharged — or effluent — water did not exceed regulatory maximums. That limit is set at 1.3 nanograms per milliliter.