Savannah Morning News - Gather Facts on Sugar Refinery Blast Before Enacting New Rules
Op-Ed
Savannah Morning News - Gather Facts on Sugar Refinery Blast Before Enacting New Rules
No one in the Savannah area will forget that day - February 7, 2008 - when an explosion at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Ga., killed 13 workers and injured dozens more.
Within days, I toured the disaster site with my colleagues Sen. Saxby Chambliss and U.S. Rep. John Barrow to see the destruction firsthand.
We were shocked by the absolute devastation of the plant, and we were awed by the unbelievable sense of spirit and resilience among the employees of the company and their families. We heard stories of great heroism, including accounts of employees going back into the burning plant to rescue fellow workers after the initial explosion.
In the weeks and months that followed, we also have witnessed the incredible community in Savannah coming together to support these employees and their families.
On the day we met with Imperial's employees, I pledged the full resources of the Senate Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee, now chaired by my friend Sen. Patty Murray. I implored Imperial's executives to cooperate to the fullest extent possible with all investigators, so we could maximize what we could learn from this event to help prevent future tragedies.
Company officials promised me they would do just that. My immediate goal remains the completion of a thorough and exacting investigation led by the federal government's best experts.
As I write this, investigators from Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Chemical Safety Board are still on the ground in Port Wentworth searching for answers. In the best interests of improving safety at sugar facilities throughout the country, it is imperative that we await their results before determining the path to legislation and regulation.
I have been through another tragedy similar to this during my brief time in the Senate and I have seen firsthand the advantage to letting investigators complete their work before passing legislation. In January 2006, a dozen coal miners were killed after an explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia.
Just as I did following the Imperial Sugar explosion, I went to West Virginia to tour that disaster scene with my colleagues and to meet with the family members of the victims.
Upon returning to Washington from that explosion, I worked with Democrats and used the investigative findings to craft bipartisan legislation that was designed to improve the chances that every coal miner returns home safely at night. Since passage of the MINER Act, the fatality rate for coal miners is down 29 percent.
Senator Murray and I have scheduled a Senate hearing for late July that will examine the cause of the Port Wentworth disaster in detail. Once all the facts are in hand, I will work again with a bipartisan group of senators to craft legislation to prevent future tragedies.
Once we have learned the facts and written appropriate legislation, I will fight for it until it reaches the president's desk to be signed into law.
Now is the time to finish gathering the facts and fashion a solution that will minimize the chances of a disaster like this from ever occurring again. Those who died deserve no less.
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