The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced Aug. 12 that BP has agreed to pay a $50.6 million penalty for safety violations related to the 2005 explosion at its Texas City, TX, refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others. In addition to the fine, BP has also agreed to allocate about $500 million to address unsafe conditions at the refinery.

In September 2005, OSHA cited BP for $21 million in penalties for willful safety violations that led to the fatal Texas City explosion. Under the agreement, BP was required to conduct further investigations into other possible workplace safety concerns at the facility. But in a 2009 follow-up investigation, OSHA found that BP’s efforts to protect the health and safety of its workers had been insufficient.

On Oct. 30, 2009, OSHA issued a proposed $87.4 million fine against BP for failure to remedy workplace hazards at the Texas City refinery. The August agreement resolves only part of the ongoing litigation between BP and OSHA in connection to the explosion. According to OSHA's announcement, BP is continuing to challenge an additional 439 willful violations, for which OSHA has assessed more than $30 million in penalties. OSHA has the authority to issue a maximum fine of $70,000 for each willful violation "where an employer has knowledge of a violation and demonstrates either an intentional disregard for the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970, or shows plain indifference to employee safety and health." The announced agreement will have no impact on the ongoing litigation and the possibility that BP will eventually agree to pay the entire $87.4 million penalty.

The current $50.6 million penalty is the largest ever issued by OSHA. "The size of the penalty rightly reflects BP's disregard for workplace safety and shows that we will enforce the law so workers can return home safe at the end of their day," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in the announcement. Representatives of BP did not admit to any wrongdoing but stated that they will "focus on moving forward collaboratively in order to continue to improve plant safety."

While the $50.6 million penalty is massive compared to OSHA’s past citations, members of the Texas City community are far from satisfied. Lawyers representing several victims of the explosion are renewing their efforts to prosecute BP on criminal charges, arguing that BP’s agreement to pay the fine without invoking the company's right to appeal is akin to an admission of guilt. The Texas Attorney General's Office is also currently suing the company for allowing a fire to release 500,000 pounds of noxious emissions into the air over 40 days. The attorney general blames the fire on poor maintenance and operating practices and claims BP allowed the fire to burn longer to avoid profit loss from shutting down the machinery.

In its statement, BP classified the disaster that killed 15 workers as an “accident,” but a comprehensive report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) paints a different picture. CSB’s report concluded that the explosion was caused by "organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation." The report blamed the tragedy on lack of communication, false instrument readings, and alarms that never went off. CSB cited the recent downsizing at the refinery that forced many of the remaining workers to pick up extra shifts as a contributing factor to worker fatigue. CSB also outlined a history of willful safety violations at the refinery, including a failure to adequately address the safety impacts of budget cuts and a 2004 internal report that warned of "an exceptional degree of fear of catastrophic incidents" and the possibility that "Texas City kills someone in the next 12-18 months."

The story of BP workers losing their lives to willful safety violations and alarms that fail to go off is sadly familiar. According to a worker on BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the safety alarms that might have warned workers that the rig was in danger of exploding had been disabled because rig managers "did not want people woken up at 3 a.m. with false alarms." The April explosion that killed 11 workers and continues to choke the Gulf of Mexico with oil has put a spotlight on BP’s record of environmental, health, and safety violations and launched numerous federal investigations.

An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found that two refineries owned by BP account for 97 percent of all willful OSHA safety citations in the refining industry over the past three years. Citing the analysis, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Al Franken (D-MN) sent a letter to OSHA urging the agency to hold BP accountable. The senators criticized the current OSHA policy that does not require employers to report the injury or death of a contractor’s employee. All 15 of the workers killed in Texas City were contractors. "Excluding contractors from reporting requirements allows employers to claim their workplaces are safer than they actually are," the senators said in the letter.

Although the $50.6 million BP will pay for its continued failure to address the problems that caused the Texas City explosion is a small victory for workplace safety advocates, the question remains as to whether it will be enough to deter BP and other companies from future violations.