‘Extraordinary effort’: Chemical Safety Board eliminates investigation backlog

Washington — A long-standing Chemical Safety Board concern is no more: The agency has cleared its backlog of open investigations and incident reports.

A Dec. 27 press release from CSB states that 17 incomplete investigations and reports awaited when CSB Chair Steve Owens joined the agency as interim executive in July 2022, following the resignation of Katherine Lemos. Some dated as far back as 2016.

Lawmakers regularly shared concerns about the speed with which reports were completed – sometimes questioning the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission. Although two seats on CSB’s five-member board remain unfilled, the swearing in of Catherine J.K. Sandoval in February 2023 returned a quorum to the short-staffed agency.

“The other CSB board members and I were determined to conclude these investigations and issue the reports as quickly as possible,” Owens says in the release. “Eliminating the backlog has taken an extraordinary effort by every single employee at the CSB, working together as a team. We are committed to continuing to move the CSB forward and making sure that such a serious backlog never happens again.”

During an Oct. 26 public business meeting, agency officials said 10 new staff members joined CSB in fiscal year 2023, including four chemical incident investigators and one supervisory chemical incident investigator.

CSB released final reports on 10 investigations in FY 2023, the largest output in a fiscal year since the agency’s inception in 1998. Each report includes safety recommendations for preventing similar incidents.

“Now that these legacy reports are out, we are better positioned to deploy to chemical incidents across the country and complete future reports more efficiently,” CSB member Sylvia Johnson said in the release.