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U.S. Chemical Safety and
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Management Challenges
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FEBRUARY 2020
• AUGUST 2020
19-N-0156
May 20, 2019

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Abbreviations
CFR
Code of Federal Regulations
CSB
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
FY
Fiscal Year
OIG
Office of Inspector General
U.S.C.
United States Code
Cover Image: Without new members by August 2020, the CSB governing body cannot carry out
its mission or meet its goals; for the current three members, their terms are set to
expire in December 2019, February 2020 and August 2020, respectively.
(EPA OIG image)
Are you aware of fraud, waste or abuse in an
EPA or CSB program?
EPA Inspector General Hotline
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (2431T)
Washington, DC 20460
(888) 546-8740
(202) 566-2599 (fax)
OIG Hotline@epa.qov
Learn more about our OIG Hotline.
EPA Office of Inspector General
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (2410T)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 566-2391
www.epa.gov/oiq
Subscribe to our Email Updates
Follow us on Twitter @EPAoiq
Send us your Project Suggestions

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At a Glance
What Are Management
Challenges?
According to the GPRA
Modernization Act of 2010
(GPRA stands for Government
Performance and Results Act),
major management challenges
are programs or management
functions within or across
agencies that have greater
vulnerability to waste, fraud,
abuse and mismanagement,
and where a failure to perform
well could seriously affect the
ability of an agency or the
federal government to achieve
its mission or goals.
As required by the Reports
Consolidation Act of 2000, the
Office of Inspector General
(OIG) identifies the issues we
consider to be the
U.S. Chemical Safety and
Hazard Investigation Board's
(CSB's) major management
challenges each fiscal year.
In fiscal year (FY) 2018, we
identified two CSB
management challenges
(Report No. 18-N-0208, issued
June 4, 2018). One has been
closed, while the other remains
a challenge for FY 2019.
This report addresses the
following CSB goal:
• Create and maintain an
engaged, high-performing
workforce.
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBPOSTINGS@epa.gov.
Fiscal Year 2019 U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard
Investigation Board Management Challenges
Based on our continuous work, we have
identified two management challenges for
the CSB for FY 2019. One is new, while the
other is a continuing challenge previously
identified in FY 2018.
The CSB faces two challenges in
FY 2019 that, if not addressed,
may impede its ability to
efficiently and effectively achieve
its mission or meet its goals.
Management Challenge (New): Without New Members by August 2020,
the CSB Governing Body Cannot Complete Its Mission or Meet Its Goals
The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 authorized the creation of the CSB and
established a board of five members responsible for major budgeting decisions,
strategic planning and direction, general agency oversight, and approval of
investigation reports and studies. Each board member is appointed by the
President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a term of 5 years. However, as of
May 2019, the governing body consisted of only three members, with their terms
expiring in December 2019, February 2020 and August 2020, respectively. It took
an average of 10.5 months to confirm the current members after they were
nominated. Following this timeline, there is a risk that if no new members are
nominated and confirmed in the next several months in anticipation of expiring
terms, the governing body will not have enough members to maintain full
functionality by February 2020 and may even have no members by August 2020.
Management Challenge (Continuing): The CSB Has Not Developed
Guidance on Board Member Responsibilities
This challenge was formerly called The Position of CSB Chairperson Lacks
Authority to Hold Board Members Accountable. In FY 2018, we reported that
there were multiple instances when a board member acted inconsistently with
established practices or inappropriately provided information to outside entities.
In December 2018, the board reported to us that there have been no new
incidents. Several people we interviewed—including board members, the acting
General Counsel and the Senior Advisor—attributed this development to better
communication among staff and board members.
Prior Management Challenge Removed
We no longer consider a management challenge identified in FY 2018—Budget
Uncertainties and the President's Proposals to Eliminate the CSB Negatively
Impact Efforts to Attract, Hire and Retain Staff—to be a management challenge.
Congressional committees expressed bipartisan support for the agency in 2018,
and the CSB reported that it is now able to attract, hire and retain staff.
List of OIG reports.

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^£DSX
s rjQLi \	UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
|	j?	WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460
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*1 PRO"^	OFFICE OF
INSPECTOR GENERAL
May 20, 2019
Kristen Kulinowski, Ph.D.
Interim Executive Authority and Board Member
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
1750 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 910
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear Dr. Kulinowski:
Enclosed is the Office of Inspector General's (OIG's) fiscal year 2019 management challenges report for
consideration as part of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's (CSB's)
Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act review. The Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 requires our
office to report what we consider to be the most serious management and performance challenges facing
the CSB. We used audit, evaluation and investigative work and additional analysis of CSB operations to
arrive at the issues presented.
We added the challenge Without New Members by August 2020 the CSB Governing Body Cannot
Complete its Mission or Meet its Goals due to the expiring terms of the existing board members and the
time it has historically taken to nominate and confirm board members. We renamed a challenge from
fiscal year 2018 to The CSB Has Not Developed Guidance on Board Member Responsibilities because
the board has not fully completed its corrective actions. We removed the fiscal year 2018 challenge
Budget Uncertainties and the President's Proposals to Eliminate the CSB Negatively Impact Efforts to
Attract, Hire and Retain Staff because of support expressed for the CSB by Congress and the agency's
determination that it has been able to hire qualified staff.
You are not required to provide a written response to this final report. Should you choose to provide a
response, we will post your response on the OIG's public website. Your response should be provided as
an Adobe PDF file that complies with the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973, as amended. The response should not contain data that you do not want to be released to
the public; if your response contains such data, you should identify the data for redaction or removal
along with corresponding justification. We will post this report to our website at www.epa.gov/oig.
Sincerely,
Charles J. Sheehan
Deputy Inspector General
Enclosure

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cc: Manuel H. Ehrlich Jr., Board Member, CSB
Rick Engler, Board Member, CSB
Anna Brown, Director of Administration and Audit Liaison, CSB
Tom Zoeller, Acting General Counsel, CSB

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Background
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) was created under the Clean Air
Act Amendments of 1990 and is the independent federal agency charged with investigating
chemical incidents and hazards.1 The CSB examines all aspects of chemical incidents, including
the cause (e.g., equipment failure) and root cause (e.g., determining why the equipment failed).2
The CSB began operations in fiscal year (FY) 1998 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
There is also a CSB field office in Denver, Colorado, and employees work remotely from other
locations. The agency is managed by a board, which is composed of five members who are
appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The board's Chairperson serves as
the Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for agency administration. The board is responsible
for major budgeting decisions, strategic planning and direction, general agency oversight, and
approval of investigation reports and studies for the agency. Board members may participate in
accident investigations. In practice, individual board members oversee the investigation and
report writing for each incident examined by the CSB. All report findings, determinations of root
cause and safety recommendations must be approved by the board.
The CSB 2017-2021 Strategic Plan has three goals:
1.	Prevent recurrence of significant chemical incidents through independent
investigations.
2.	Advocate safety and achieve change through recommendations,3 outreach and
education.
3.	Create and maintain an engaged, high-performing workforce.
CSB FY 2018 ACTIVITY
The CSB released the following three reports in FY 2Q18:4
1. Chlorine Release and Community
Shelter-in-Place in Atchison, Kansas.
The CSB found that sulfuric acid was
inadvertently uploaded from a tanker
truck into a fixed sodium hypochloride
tank that produced chlorine gas. The
plume led to a shelter-in-place for
thousands of residents (report issued
January 3, 2018).
1	42 U.S.C. § 7412(r)(6).
2	FY 2018 CSB performance information can be found in the CSB Performance and Accountability Report.
3	Compliance with CSB recommendations is voluntary.
4	Information about completed CSB investigations can be found on the CSB's "Completed Investigations" webpage.
Chemical release plume at plant in Atchison, Kansas.
(CSB photo)
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2.	Hot Work Explosion in DeRidder, Louisiana.
The CSB found that contractors were
conducting hot work activities5 near a
100,000-gallon tank that contained flammable
atmosphere and ultimately exploded, resulting
in three contractor fatalities and seven other
contractors being injured (report issued
April 24, 2018).
3.	Chemical Fire and Facility Flooding from
Hurricane Harvey in Crosby, Texas. The CSB
found that three refrigerated trailers
containing organic peroxides, which are
unstable at some temperatures, burned in two
separate fires when the trailers lost
refrigeration and caused evacuations within a
1.5-mile radius (report issued May 24, 2018).
Explosion damage at the Packaging
Corporation of America facility in DeRidder,
Louisiana. The bottom-right corner of the
photograph shows the upside-down foul
condensate tank base. The explosion
separated the tank from its base. (CSB photo)
First refrigerated trailer to burn (shown smoldering)
at the Arkema Crosby, Texas, chemical facility after
flooding from Hurricane Harvey in August 2017.
(CSB photo)
5 Hot work refers to welding, brazing, cutting, soldering, thawing pipes, torch-applied roofing and chipping
operations, or the use of heat guns or spark-producing power tools.
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CHALLENGE. Without New Members by August 2020, the CSB
Governing Body Cannot Complete Its Mission or Meet Its Goals
BACKGROUND
According to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990,6 the
CSB governing body shall have the following composition
and responsibilities:
•	Five members—including a Chairperson-
appointed by the President and confirmed by the
U.S. Senate.
•	Investigate (or cause to be investigated),
determine and report to the public in writing the
facts, conditions, and circumstances and the cause of any accidental release resulting
in a fatality, serious injury or substantial property damage.
The Chairperson and the other board members are the governing body of the CSB. As of
May 2019, the CSB governing body had three members and two vacancies. However, the terms
of the three members will expire in December 2019, February 2020 and August 2020,
respectively. The average time that had been taken to confirm the three current board
members was 10.5 months from the time they were nominated, and that estimate does not
include the time needed to search for and identify qualified individuals for nomination.
Following this timeline, even if potential new members had been nominated in May 2019, the
governing body would have only two members by December 2019. As another member's term
expires in February 2020, it is possible that the governing body would only have one member at
that time and thus would not have full functionality. Further, the third existing member's term
expires in August 2020, so it is possible that the board will have no members at that point. In
addition, the CSB currently does not have a presidentially appointed Chairperson, only an
Interim Executive Authority.7
CSB regulatory language at 40 CFR § 1600.5(a) establishes how many board members
constitute a quorum in certain circumstances. However, the regulatory language lacks clarity,
such as by leaving open whether a single board member may constitute a quorum. Regardless,
it is clear that allowing the board to reduce to one or zero members will deeply impair the
ability of the board to conduct such critical business as deciding which investigations to open
and the finalization of reports.
MAY 2019
AUGUST 2020
6	42 U.S.C. §7412(r)(6).
7	After the prior Chairperson resigned in June 2018, the board members internally selected an Interim Executive
Authority, as the administration did not select a Chairperson or install an interim Chairperson.
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CHALLENGE
As of May 2019, there was a risk that the CSB could have a governing body consisting of one
member by February 2020 and have no governing body by August 2020 because of the time it
takes to select, nominate and confirm a board member. With one member, it is uncertain
whether a quorum can be established. However, the governing body must obtain a quorum to
meet its mission and goals because staff do not have the authority to carry out functions such
as budgeting, planning, oversight and approval of investigations.
Congress has documented its support of the CSB mission to the current administration. In an
August 2018 letter to the White House Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform and the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Interior
acknowledged the management challenges facing the CSB and urged the administration to
select new members, including a Chairperson, to improve CSB management. In an October
2018 letter to the White House Chief of Staff, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works and the Chair of the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear
Safety also acknowledged the management challenges facing the CSB and urged the
administration to fill the Chairperson position and other governing body vacancies. The Senate
letter made these additional statements:
•	The CSB has investigated chemical accidents at industrial facilities since 1998.
•	The CSB has issued corrective measures to the facilities and made recommendations to
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, and other agencies.
•	Congress has continued to fund the agency with broad bipartisan support.
•	Until Congress decides to eliminate the agency, it is imperative that the President and
not CSB members select the CSB leader.
•	The President should nominate someone from outside the agency to be the
Chairperson.
The CSB reported that the Interim Executive Authority had a meeting with the White House
Office of Presidential Personnel in February 2019. The conversation concerned the roles and
responsibilities of being a board member and what experiences should be considered for
candidates for nomination. The CSB stated that it does not expect any consultation before
nominations are made. However, given the amount of time necessary to identify, nominate and
confirm a board member, there is a high risk that the governing body could be reduced to a
level that would not allow a quorum required to govern CSB operations.
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WHAT REM All	ME
The actions necessary are outside the control of the CSB. If the CSB is to complete its mission
and goals, under its current authority, the President must nominate new members and the
Senate must confirm the members prior to February 2020.
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CHALLENGE: The CSB Has Not Developed Guidance on
Board Member Responsibilities
BACKGROUND
The Clean Air Act requires that board members be
appointed based on technical qualification; professional
standing; and demonstrated knowledge in the fields of
accident reconstruction, safety engineering, human
factors, toxicology or air pollution regulations. The
statute permits removal of a board member for
inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.
Unless removed, board members serve fixed terms of 5 years.8
CSB Order 028 establishes the Chairperson's executive and administrative functions, including
authority over all personnel matters and the authority to supervise and authorize CSB official
communications, except those that require full board approval.9 Board members serve as the
principal spokespersons at accident sites and conduct community meetings, hearings and
boards of inquiry during accident investigations. The day-to-day conduct of investigations and
preparation of draft reports are largely delegated to CSB professional staff, who include
engineers, safety specialists and attorneys. Following board approval of accident investigation
reports, board members play significant roles in advocating the adoption of the board's
recommendations by industry, labor, government and others. Board members regularly
participate in conferences, in safety forums and on committees, and meet with leaders of other
federal agencies. Board members also contribute written works to scholarly journals and trade
publications, and present papers at professional meetings and through other venues.
CHALLENGE
As identified in the Office of Inspector General's Fiscal Year 2018 U.S. Chemical Safety and
Hazard Investigation Board Management Challenges report (Report No. 18-N-0208). issued
June 4, 2018, board members and managers said there were multiple instances in FY 2018
when a board member acted inconsistently with established practices or inappropriately
provided information to entities outside the CSB. Specifically, a board member publicized
budget information before it was presented to Congress, attempted to share information with
one stakeholder before sharing it with all stakeholders, and made comments on a proposed
rule before a CSB position was developed.
In December 2018, the board members stated that there have been no new incidents of
improper communications from board members. Several people we interviewed —including
8	42 U.S.C. § 7412(r)(6)(B).
9	For access to CSB orders, see the Board Orders website.
BOARD
MEMBER
BOARD
MEMBER
BOARD
MEMBER
BOARD
MEMBER
CHAIRPERSON
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board members, the acting General Counsel and the Senior Advisor—attributed this
development to better communication among staff and the board members.
The lack of additional incidents in FY 2019 is a positive sign for the board; however, guidance is
needed to define the roles of the board members. The CSB authorizing legislation does not
create a supervisory role for the Chairperson with respect to the other board members.
Without the explicit authority for the Chairperson to hold board members accountable, an
environment exists that enables behaviors that impede the CSB's mission and lowers morale
among CSB career staff.
WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE
To follow up on our FY 2018 management challenge on this issue, the board agreed as an
interim step to take the following actions.
1.	Finalize board member roles and responsibilities in an official policy to include internal
enforcement guidelines for situations in which board member behavior deviates from
established policy.
2.	Improve onboarding materials for new members that will include clear guidance on
expectations, roles and responsibilities.
However, these actions have not been completed. In addition, the authority to fully address the
remaining FY 2018 management challenge and make changes lies with Congress because the
CSB structure was established by law and the board members are presidential appointees.
Therefore, the Office of Inspector General suggested that the CSB should request that Congress
assess the issues and make necessary changes to give the Chairperson supervisory authority to
hold board members accountable.
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