The U.S. Department of Labor has cited a New Jersey water tower painting company for three willful and 19 serious violations after finding the contractor failed to provide or install required safety equipment that would have prevented an employee from falling 80 feet to the bottom of a Bayville water tower and suffering severe injuries in January 2024.
Inspectors with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that U.S. Tank Painting Inc. employed workers to sandblast and paint the tower’s interior and exterior and replace a ladder attached to the structure to access the tower’s peak. OSHA learned the injured worker fell while climbing a maintenance tube ladder into the water tank.
“An employee suffered numerous severe injuries because their employer did not make sure legally required fall protection was provided for workers climbing up and down the inside of an 8-story water tower,” said OSHA Area Director Paula Dixon-Roderick in Marlton, New Jersey. “We intend to hold employers responsible when they fail to follow rules put in place to protect the safety and wellbeing of workers.”
In addition to failing to protect employees from fall hazards, U.S. Tank Painting exposed employees to respiratory injuries and hearing loss while working in a permit-required confined space, fire and explosion hazards, and long-term lung damage related to unsafe levels of silica dust. Specifically, OSHA cited the company with three willful and 19 serious violations for failing to do the following:
- Ensure workers used fall protection while ascending or descending the maintenance tube ladder.
- Reduce noise levels below the permissible exposure level using hearing protection, administrative or engineering controls.
- Evaluate the hazards within the water tower which was considered to be a permit-required for confined space hazards, and ensure the hazards were eliminated.
- Complete required confined space permits.
- Develop a rescue plan for those working inside the water tower, for which the company was cited in 2017.
- Provide continuous air monitoring equipment for use inside the water tower.
- Take proper safety precautions when flammable paint was being used.
- Evaluate employee exposure to crystalline silica contained within paint, which was found to be over safe levels.
- Train workers on crystalline silica hazards and have a specific silica program for the Bayville site.
- Develop a site-specific respiratory protection program.
- Ensure the use of a carbon monoxide detector when workers used supplied air respirators.
- Provide the required respirator cartridge needed to filter crystalline silica.
U.S. Tank Painting faces $485,580 in proposed penalties for violations identified at the Bayville work site.
Aqua New Jersey, a subsidiary of Aqua – a water supply company operating in eight states – contracted U.S. Tank Painting Inc., based in Millstone Township, for the maintenance and repair project.
Operating for more than 30 years, U.S. Tank Painting is an industrial painting and sandblasting contractor serving public and private sector clients in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.