USA - Determining fault elusive in BWL plant accident

Even three years later, almost any review of the July 2011 accident at the Board of Water & Light’s Wise Road Water Plant leads to the same question BWL investigators pursued in the accident’s immediate aftermath.

How did a load of bleach end up being pumped into a fluoride tank, creating a corrosive cloud that sent three people to the emergency room and doing $23 million in damage to the plant?

BWL had taken safe delivery of chemicals to the plant for decades, had a long-service, “beyond competent” and licensed operator on duty, had mandatory safety protocols for handling every step of deliveries, and the fill ports for a bleach tank and fluoride tank are on different exterior walls (southeast and north, respectively) of the plant.

“I lay awake at night wondering what happened,” Water Director Dick Peffley, a 38-year veteran of BWL, told the State Journal.....

Accidents always happen given time.