The Nation - News from Jan. 31, 1988

Ashland Oil company workers cutting apart an oil storage tank in Jefferson, Pa., to determine what caused it to collapse on Jan. 2, sending 770,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, were exposed to the risk of serious injury or death, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration charged. OSHA levied an $18,540 fine and charged that Ashland failed to use a properly calibrated device to monitor the air for explosion hazards during cutting operations and alleged that ladders or scaffolds were not furnished and one worker had to stand on top of the collapsed tank “exposed to a fall hazard of approximately 9 feet.”