REGION
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Still waiting for answers in plant explosion
Former Shearer’s
safety manager
alleges bad record
for former employer
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
HERMISTON — Forty
people are trying to fi gure
out why a boiler exploded at
Hermiston Shearer’s Foods
plant on Feb. 22, causing
a fi re that destroyed the
building and put 231 people
out of work.
Scott Goff , Umatilla
County Fire District No.
1 investigator, said on
Tuesday, April 5, the exam-
ination of the site has been
delayed. First, there was
trouble because the rubble
was so great it was diffi cult
to sort through it. Also, it
took time to bring together
involved parties. In the past
couple of days, big winds
pushed back the investiga-
tion, which was the latest
delay.
The examination of the
destroyed Hermiston plant,
which once employed 231
people, has brought people
from the fi re district, Shear-
er’s, insurance carriers and
representatives of involved
equipment and contractors,
according to Goff .
Speculation on the
cause
Though the direct cause
of the cause of the explosion
is yet unknown, one former
Shearer’s Foods employee
claims lax safety measures
might have contributed to
the explosion.
“I saw a lot of things,”
Stephen Dean said. “I spoke
with several peers that I had
that no longer work there
about how many conversa-
tions I had about that place
being a time bomb.”
According to Dean, when
he heard of the explosion and
the resulting fi re, the fi rst
words that came out of his
mouth were, “I told you so.”
He said he was surprised
the fi re, which destroyed the
building, sent a handful of
people to the hospital and
left 231 people out of work,
was not worse. After all, no
one died.
He said he was plant
safety manager, working
directly with the manage-
ment team. He said he “pro-
vided safety culture and
infl uence and direct safety
policy and procedure” for
about one year, from early
2018 to early 2019.
The Hermiston Herald
contacted the Shearer’s cor-
porate offi ce to verify Dean’s
employment. Shearer’s man-
agement, though, stated the
company would not share
employment information out
of respect for employees and
their confi dentiality.
Dean, however, was able
to present a letter of hire
and his own resignation
letter as evidence he had
worked there.
Early in his employ-
ment, he said, he did some in
depth looks into the facility
to identify risks and hazards
and found some he deemed
as “high risk” and “high con-
sequence.” He was particu-
larly worried about oil fi res,
he said.
While he was at the plant,
Dean said, there were “a
bunch of mini-fi res,” which
were the result of material
building up in ovens. In poli-
cies and procedures, he said,
workers were supposed to
rake out the ovens when in
a safe state. According to
Dean, procedures changed
so workers were using com-
pressed air to clean the ovens
instead.
“You don’t put com-
pressed air onto fi res,” he
said.
He said this is just one
example of the culture at the
plant. Practices were unsafe,
not necessarily because any
one person was directing
them poorly, but because
those practices shifted
towards being unsafe, he
said. Dean said once people
start doing things one way,
they pass on those habits to
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
Equipment is in place to remove sections of debris from the destroyed Shearer’s Foods plant in Hermiston on Monday, April 4, 2022.
new workers and behaviors
become engrained.
OSHA weighs in
Aaron Corvin is the
public information offi cer
for Oregon Occupational
Safety and Health, or
Oregon OSHA. He con-
fi rmed that the agency
is investigating the Feb.
22 explosion and fi re. He
stated in an email, how-
ever, OSHA does not dis-
cuss the status or details of
active cases and he would
share information about it
once the investigation is
complete.
“In the past fi ve years,
Oregon OSHA has con-
ducted four inspections
of this site, two of which
resulted in citations. One
of the citations followed
an accident investigation,”
Corvin said.
In one of the cases, he
said, the employer initially
fi led an appeal of the cita-
tion but then later withdrew
the appeal.
Missing safety meetings
were among the causes for
citation.
Complaints of safety
problems
Dean said he brought up
major safety hazards to the
directors of the company
when in the company.
“I couldn’t get anywhere
with management,” he said.
“They were spending mil-
lions on production and
innovation, but they were
spending nothing on the
safety department. Whereas
they had an astronom-
ical production budget, we
had roughly just enough to
pay for personal protection
equipment.”
Dean described his
employment as “working
from nothing” and “building
a grassroots program when
there was nothing to work
with.” He said he quit out
of frustration. An “agent of
change in the industry,” he
said he has long worked to
fi x safety issues at diff erent
companies. After working
with Shearer’s, he felt he
could not improve safety, as
he could not encourage man-
agement to prioritize safety.
“It was a direct problem
of management, in my
opinion,” Dean said, “in
how they viewed and pri-
oritized and felt toward the
safety of the employees at
the plant.”
He said he repeatedly
brought up safety concerns
to senior management,
but to no avail. Not only
did managers fail to make
changes, they dismissed his
recommendations entirely.
“Their direct, verbatim,
response to me when I
raised these safety con-
cerns was to ‘calm my tits;
they’ve been doing this for
40 years.’ That’s the phrase
they used,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dean said,
the company was neglecting
environmental regulations,
too.
The one thing he said he
was able to do was to create
an active evacuation plan,
something the company
lacked prior to his employ-
ment. He said he also orga-
nized evacuation drills.
“It was diffi cult to do,
because it aff ected produc-
tion,” he said.
He added there were
additional concerns, espe-
cially when it came to the
treatment of workers.
“They’d work people
till they couldn’t work any-
more,” he said. This was
a safety concern, he said,
because exhausted workers
would intentionally break
lockout-tagout safety
rules. Having broken these
rules, management would
punish them with three-day
suspensions.
“It was motivation for
them to take their breaks,”
Dean stated.
He said his co-workers
would regularly point out
their own infractions, just
to be sent home for rest or
to attend a funeral or some
other necessary event.
West end Umatilla River Trails Project moves forward
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
UMATILLA — The
Umatilla River Trails
Project is a system of paths
connecting Umatilla, Herm-
iston, Stanfi eld and Echo to
increase recreational oppor-
tunities and community
livability.
The project is on the way
to becoming a reality.
“We’ve been working
on the project for seven
years,” said former Umatilla
County Commissioner Bill
Elfering, chair of the trails
committee. “Now we have
the fi rst segment pretty well
settled from the Columbia
River to Hermiston. It’s
about 7 miles, with views
of the river most of the way.
The stretch from Hermiston
to Stanfi eld to Echo is still
in the works.”
Public input was
received through a survey
and a meeting in October
2019. The plan then was to
select one of fi ve routes in
2020.
“COVID put us behind
schedule,” Elfering said.
“And the fl ood. But we’ve
narrowed it down to three
routes.”
He explained the trail,
as much as possible, uses
public rights of way, such as
county roads and irrigation
ditch embankments.
“We want as little impact
on private property as pos-
sible,” Elfering said. “We
won’t condemn any at all.
Some private landowners
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
A stretch of the Umatilla River Trail will follow the river from Umatilla
along River Road toward Hermiston. Eventually the system will link
four towns: Umatilla, Hermiston, Stanfi eld and Echo.
are welcoming. Others not
so much.”
And the project needs
grant searchers and writers
to help with funding, and
Elfering said there is money
available for bicycle paths.
But applications must wait
for the engineering report
by Anderson Perry & Asso-
ciates. He also said the
Umatilla County Plan-
ning Department has been
involved from the begin-
ning, securing a $250,000
grant, that helped with
matching funds.
“Umatilla and Herm-
iston have a lot of existing
infrastructure which we can
connect,” Umatilla County
Planning Director Robert
Waldher said. “Hermis-
ton’s parks will be incorpo-
rated into the trails, as the
terminus of Phase I of the
project.”
Stanfi eld and Echo are
growing rapidly and devel-
oping infrastructure that
can also be part of the
project.
“Echo had over 400
people at its Red to Red
cross-country mountain
bike event,” Waldher said.
“That has a big economic
impact.”
Longer term, Waldher
said, the stretch from
Hermiston to Stanfi eld will
be more of a challenge.
“It’s subject to con-
straints, with indus-
trial areas, the railroad
and Highway 395,” he
explained. “But momentum
is building. We have gotten
technical assistance from
the National Park Service
and other federal agencies.”
The 2020 fl oods washed
out the pedestrian bridge
over the Umatilla River,
but that is in the process of
rebuilding. Still, Waldher
said, the project is looking
at sites for another foot-
bridge over the Umatilla
River.
“The river isn’t acces-
sible on public land all
along its length, so we need
to cross over it,” he said.
The project also is
moving from concept to
implementation.
“We’re refi ning the
details and studying engi-
neering,” Waldher said.
“Our implementation com-
mittee consists of two mem-
bers from each of the four
communities, plus two
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members from the county.
We drove alternative routes
(recently). The whole route
from Umatilla to Echo will
be around 25 miles long,
depending on the alterna-
tives selected.”
The trails can ben-
efi t health, recreation and
tourism, he said, but there
are environmental and cul-
tural surveys to conduct,
and the trails have to be
meet federal accessibility
requirements.
While Waldher is
involved, he said the Uma-
tilla County Board of Com-
missioners does not want
tax revenue going to the
trails project, so the com-
mittee is seeking state and
federal funding.
“Bringing it to fruition
will be a lengthy process,
but community support is
there,” he said.
“I probably won’t live
to see it happen, but I’d
like eventually to extend
the trail all the way to
Pendleton,” Elfering said.
“It’s county road most
of the way.”
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