CSB Finds Mismanagement of Gasoline Tank in 2009 Explosion in Puerto Rico

摘要

CSB has released a draft investigation report on the 2009 explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum (CAPECO) terminal facility near San Juan, Puerto Rico. The explosion occurred when gasoline overflowed during a transfer operation, sprayed out from an aboveground storage tank and formed a 107-acre vapor cloud that ignited, damaging 300 homes and businesses and leaking gasoline into the environment. One major problem CSB found in its investigation was that "facilities such as CAPECO, which store large quantities of gasoline and other flammables, are not required to conduct risk assessment of potential dangers." More specific to the CAPECO incident, CSB found that the measuring devices used for the liquid levels in the tanks were poorly maintained and often nonfunctional. The tanks were maintained using a float-and-tape measuring system that was in place to avoid overfilling and when that system failed, no other layer of protection was in place, such as an independent high-level alarm or automatic overfill prevention system. CSB also found that current regulations only require one layer of protection against tank overfill.