An in-house, 20-member "root cause" committee at Progress Energy Florida will investigate last week's death of power plant employee Bill Bowers.
By AMY WIMMER SCHWARB
Published February 5, 2004
CRYSTAL RIVER - The union that represents 1,900 Progress Energy Florida workers will not have a seat on a company committee that is investigating last week's death of a power plant employee.
W.O. "Butch" Enyard, a manager with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Crystal River, said the union is usually included in such in-house inquiries. While workers who witnessed or had some other role in the accident will be interviewed by the investigative committee, the union will not have an official role in Progress Energy Florida's probe into the death of Bill Bowers.
Bowers is believed to be the first power plant employee to die in a job-related accident since 1990.
"We were told this time that our expertise wasn't needed," said Enyard, business manager for System Council U-8 of the electrical workers' union.
The in-house probe is separate from an ongoing investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The federal agency was required to launch an inquiry because a worker died in the job-related accident.
Progress Energy Florida formed its "root cause committee" to investigate what caused the accident that killed Bowers, who was injured Thursday night while opening a valve on a high-pressure pump on the Crystal River complex's Unit 2 coal plant.
Progress Energy spokesman Mac Harris says the valve's actuator casing "broke apart." Enyard, the union manager, uses the term "exploded."
Bowers died from his injuries the following day.
Harris said the "root cause committee" is composed of about 20 members, who come and go depending on when their expertise is needed. Some are from within Progress Energy; some are outside consultants hired by the company to aid in the investigations.
Harris said the specialties represented on the committee include motor-operated valves; forensics; plant operations; mechanical engineers and metallurgy. The casing that broke in Thursday's accident was made of metal.
Leading the committee are Richard Mesker, manager of health and safety for Progress Energy Florida, and Tom Lawery, engineering manager for Progress Energy's Florida region, who is leading the technical aspects of the investigation.
Harris said the two team leaders selected the Progress Energy Florida root cause committee.
"We're trying to analyze with a very, very, very thorough process," Harris said. "And the membership on the team was selected for the skills the team needed."
But Enyard questions why they did not include a representative from the power plant workers, who he says know the plant from the inside out.
"Bargaining unit members with information relevant to the investigation are going to be a key part of providing that information," Enyard said.
- Times staff writer Amy Wimmer Schwarb can be reached at 860-7305 or wimmer@sptimes.com
