A runaway chemical reaction occurred at Bayer CropScience facility in Institute, West Virginia on 28th August 2008 at about 2235hr: Bayer CropScience Incident Assignment, Singapore

A runaway chemical reaction occurred at Bayer CropScience facility in Institute, West Virginia on 28th August 2008 at about 2235hr. The runaway reaction took place in a pressure vessel of the ethomyl unit, known as a residue treater, causing the vessel to explode violently spraying highly flammable solvent from the vessel that was immediately ignited, causing an explosion and intense fire that killed two workers and burned for more than 4 hours.

The incident occurred during the restart of the methomyl unit after an extended outage to upgrade the control system and replace the original residue treater vessel. In the course of incident management, shelter in-place for some 40,000 nearby residents was activated when drifting plume of smoke and toxic gases were seen to be moving towards the population area.

In addition, six volunteer firefighters and two contractors working to support the incident management were treated for possible toxic chemical exposure. Key investigation findings pointed to various deficient areas in the facility’s process hazard analysis, pre-startup safety review, startup process of the methomyl unit, and emergency communication, amongst others.

Review the Reference Investigation Report on “Bayer CropScience Pressure Vessel Explosion: Pesticide Chemical Runaway Reaction” by the US Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board. Apply the theories and demonstrate your learning of crisis and incident management by:

(a) Construct the Incident Management Sequence Diagram covering key events:

• Start-up of Methomyl-Larvin Unit;
• Start-up of Residue Treater;
• First alarm and corresponding response;
• The explosion and vessel failure;
• Arrival of Bayer-Fire Brigade (Bayer-FB);
• Establishment of Bayer-Command Post (Bayer-CP);
• Arrival of Community Emergency Services;
• Establishment of Bayer-Emergency Operation Centre (Bayer-EOC) and other

Community-EOCs;

• Decision-points for Shelter-in-place (SIP)
• Bayer’s response to media
• Termination of Emergency, Start of Investigation, Damage Survey, Recovery.

This include occurrences and/or events in between these key events. Using the Incident Management Sequence Diagram developed, identify the crisis and incident management issues; and briefly discuss the action or inaction of Bayer.

(b) The investigation reported that Bayer did not conform to the unified command structure of the required National Incident Management System (NIMS) protocols, citing various incident management deficiencies. With reference to Bayer’s Site Organization Structure (Figure 5), analyse and discuss the corresponding setup of Bayer Incident Management Operation Centre (Bayer-IMOC or Bayer-EOC) during the emergency; covering its location, composition, roles, structure, functional effectiveness and/or deficiencies.

(c) As the engaged consultant to advise on building Bayer’s crisis management capability, discuss the required setup of Bayer Crisis Management Operation Centre (Bayer-CMOC) to manage the crisis and support the emergency management; covering Bayer-CMOC’s location, composition, structure(s), roles and crisis function teams in:

• Supporting Bayer-EOC;
• Managing Bayer’s crisis communication, dealing with traditional and social media;
• Handling Bayer’s family support and employee assistance;
• Facilitating investigation and regulatory coordination;
• Managing Bayer’s business and supply chain continuity; and
• Overseeing Bayer’s recovery activities and business resumption

(d) Review and discuss how the Joint Crisis & Incident Management Structures (between Bayer and the community authorities) should be established and evolved at each stage of the incident. At each phase, discuss the joint structure and the corresponding issues.

Your main report shall be kept at a maximum of 6000±600 words (excluding the Executive Summary, Tables and Figures, References, Attachment, and Appendixes).

You are to provide in-text citation and appropriate referencing and the final report document

shall include:

• Executive Summary (maximum 1-Page)
• Content Page
• Introduction and Overview

i. Introduce the background of the study

ii. Provide the Incident Management Sequence Diagram

iii. Brief discussion of identified crisis and incident management issues

• Review of Bayer Incident Management Operation Centre

i. Bayer-IMOC location, composition, roles, structure

ii. Functional effectiveness and/or deficiencies

• Review of Bayer Crisis Management Operation Centre

iii. Bayer-CMOC location, composition, roles, structure

iv. Respective Crisis Functional Teams & Roles

• Review of Joint Crisis & Incident Management Structures

i. During Response Phase

• Bayer-IMOC and Kanawha Mobile-EOC: Incident Management Issues
• Bayer-CMOC and Kanawha County-EOC: Crisis Management Issues

ii. During Recovery Phase

• Bayer-RMOC and Kanawha County-EOC: Recovery Management Issues
• Bayer-BCMOC: Business Continuity Management Issues