    [Senate Hearing 117-643]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                            S. Hrg. 117-643

                      A HEARING ON THE NOMINATIONS OF STEPHEN
                       A. OWENS TO BE CHAIRPERSON OF THE
                       CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD INVESTIGA-
                       TIONS BOARD AND CATHERINE J.K.SANDOVAL
                       TO BE A MEMBER OF THE CHEMICAL SAFETY
                       AND HAZARD INVESTIGATIONS BOARD

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON CHEMICAL SAFETY,
                    WASTE MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE,
                            AND REGULATORY OVERSIGHT

                                     OF THE

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                          ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                        ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                   __________

                               NOVEMBER 17, 2022

                                   __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

            Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                                    __________

                       U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    51-752 PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2025

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                   COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

                        ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                      THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware, Chairman
    BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
    BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont                 Virginia,
    SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island         Ranking Member
    JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
    EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts      KEVIN CRAMER, North Dakota
    TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming
    DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan            RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
    MARK KELLY, Arizona                  JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
    ALEX PADILLA, California             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
                                         DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
                                         JONI ERNST, Iowa
                                         LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina

                 Mary Frances Repko, Democratic Staff Director
                   Adam Tomlinson, Republican Staff Director
                                  ----------

              Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management,
                Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight

                         JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon, Chairman
    BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi,
    EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts          Ranking Member
    MARK KELLY, Arizona                  RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
    ALEX PADILLA, California             DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
    THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware (ex       JONI ERNST, Iowa
        officio)                         LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
                                         SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
                                             Virginia (ex officio)

                               C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                               NOVEMBER 17, 2022
                               OPENING STATEMENTS

    Merkley, Hon. Jeff, U.S. Senator from the State of Oregon........     1
    Wicker, Hon. Roger, U.S. Senator from the State of Mississippi...     3

                                   WITNESSES

    Owens, Stephen A., Nominee to be Chairperson of the Chemical
      Safety and Hazard Investigations Board.........................     3
        Prepared statement...........................................     5
        Responses to additional questions from:
            Senator Capito...........................................    10
    Sandoval, Catherine J.K., Nominee to be a Member of the Chemical
      Safety and Hazard Investigations Board.........................    11
        Prepared statement...........................................    13
        Responses to additional questions from:
            Senator Markey...........................................    15
            Senator Capito...........................................    18

    HEARING ON THE NOMINATIONS OF STEPHEN A. OWENS TO BE CHAIRPERSON OF THE
       CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD INVESTIGATIONS BOARD AND CATHERINE J.K
           SANDOVAL TO BE A MEMBER OF THE CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD
                              INVESTIGATIONS BOARD

                                  ----------

                          THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2022

                                   U.S. Senate,
             Committee on Environment and Public Works,
             Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management,
               Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The committee, met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m. in
    room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jeff Merkley
    (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
        Present: Senators Merkley, Capito, Wicker.

                OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF MERKLEY,
                 U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OREGON

        Senator Merkley. Good morning and welcome to today's
    hearing to examine the qualifications of two individuals
    nominated to serve as members of the U.S. Chemical Safety and
    Hazard Investigations Board, or CSB, one of whom, Stephen
    Owens, is currently serving on the Board as interim Chairman
    but has been nominated by President Biden to fill that position
    for a full term.
        For more than two decades, the CSB has been responsible for
    investigating industrial chemical accidents at fixed industrial
    facilities. This small agency and its team of investigators
    consisting of chemical and mechanical engineers, industrial
    safety experts and other specialists with experience in the
    private and public sectors decide what accidents to investigate
    and get to the root causes.
        They then offer recommendations to facilities, local and
    State governments, regulatory agencies, industry organizations
    and labor groups on how to fix and avoid similar incidents.
    Their mission is to drive chemical safety change through these
    recommendations and they have a long record of doing so. The
    agency has investigated over 100 accidents from large
    explosions that destroyed communities to small releases in labs
    and isolated work sites.
        For many years, this agency was considered to be the global
    gold standard in conducting industrial accident investigations.
    We know, however, that the agency and the dedicated men and
    women within it have faced more than their fair share of
    challenges in fully carrying out their mission and duties over
    the past few years. The previous Administration attempted to
    zero out the budget but refused to nominate replacements for
    board members whose 5-year terms had expired. As a result, the
    agency only has nine dedicated investigators today, less than
    half the 24 once employed by the CSB.
        In addition, a number of vacancies in key staff positions
    has kept the agency from being able to fully utilize resources
    provided to them by Congress leading to a backlog of incomplete
    investigations. This situation, purposely created, is
    unconscionable and inexcusable for an agency vital to
    preventing industrial catastrophe.
        One article from 2016 quotes Trish Kerin, the Australian
    Director of the Institution of Chemical Engineers Safety Center
    as saying, ``The rest of the world is jealous of the CSB. We
    wish we had one because its purpose is to investigate and
    understand what happened, not because of community pressure or
    for the purpose of prosecution.''
        The good news is that under the Biden Administration, there
    is still a good way to go but I believe the situation at the
    U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is
    improving. At the end of last year, the Senate confirmed two of
    President Biden's nominees, Sylvia Johnson and Steve Owens, to
    fill vacancies on the Board and return it to a functioning
    quorum.
        These leaders have taken it upon themselves to try to
    rejuvenate the Board, bring on new staff, conduct listening
    sessions to hear the concerns of current and former staff and
    former Board members. Just last month, the CSB released final
    reports on two concluded investigations along with updates on
    four more ongoing investigations demonstrating their ongoing
    commitment to addressing the backlog.
        It is critical that here in the Senate we help them in
    these efforts. Toward that end, we will hear today from two
    nominees who have the potential to contribute greatly to these
    efforts to restore and revitalize the Board.
        Steve Owens currently serves as a member and the interim
    Chairman of the U.S. Board since his confirmation last
    December. He is currently nominated for a full term as
    chairman. Since being sworn in, he has worked to increase
    transparency and information sharing, identifying ways to
    reduce the backlog, and increased collaboration and
    communication between agency leadership and CSB career
    professional staff and stakeholders.
        Professor Catherine Sandoval is a tenured law professor at
    Santa Clara University where she teaches and conducts research
    on energy, communications, antitrust and contract law. A
    regulatory and legal expert for over three decades, a safety
    leader for more than two decades, Professor Sandoval's
    interdisciplinary work advances infrastructure safety,
    reliability, access and equity.
        In addition, Professor Sandoval has served a 6-year term as
    a Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission to
    which she was appointed by Governor Brown and unanimously
    confirmed by the California State Senate. During her prior
    Federal service, she served as Director of the Office of
    Communications, Business Opportunities at the Federal
    Communications Commission.
        Former California Governor Davis appointed her to serve as
    Undersecretary and Senior Policy Advisor for Housing, and
    before that as Staff Director of California's Business,
    Transportation and Housing Agency. In that capacity, she worked
    with law enforcement, including the California Highway Patrol,
    to respond to infrastructure vulnerabilities and hazardous
    incidents.
        That is quite a variety of responsibilities, and quite a
    breadth of experience.
        I would like to thank both of our nominees for being here
    with us today.
        Now, I will turn it over to our Ranking Member, Roger
    Wicker.

                OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER WICKER,
               U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

        Senator Wicker. Thank you, Chairman Merkley.
        I want to welcome our two nominees today. Steve Owens has
    been nominated to serve as the Chair of the Chemical Safety and
    Hazard Investigation Board, or CSB. I have learned that he is a
    Memphis boy and grew up right up the highway from me, where I
    grew up in north Mississippi.
        Mr. Owens appeared before this subcommittee last year when
    he was first nominated to be a member of CSB and he was
    confirmed by the Senate for that position last December.
    Catherine Sandoval, who has been nominated to be a member of
    the CSB, is also with us this morning. I appreciate their
    willingness to serve.
        As the Chair mentioned, the CSB is an independent, non-
    regulatory agency charged with investigating the root causes of
    chemical accidents at industrial facilities. Congress created
    the CSB to investigate accidents, to understand what went wrong
    and help prevent them from happening again. This investigative
    work is vital for the safety of our Nation's communities.
        Since becoming operational in 1998, the CSB has
    investigated three accidents that occurred in my State of
    Mississippi. A 2002 explosion injured three workers; a 2006
    explosion killed three contractors and seriously injured
    another; and in 2016, an explosion occurred in which
    fortunately no one was hurt.
        The CSB works to investigate these types of incidents in
    order to prevent them from happening again. This work is
    vitally important and can save lives. It is therefore critical
    that the Board be filled with experts in chemical process
    safety.
        Today's hearing presents an opportunity to hear from each
    of these nominees about their qualifications for this important
    role. I look forward to getting to know them and hearing more
    about their experiences.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Senator Wicker.
        We will start with Stephen Owens. The floor is yours.

    STATEMENT OF STEPHEN OWENS, NOMINATED TO BE CHAIRPERSON OF THE
            CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD INVESTIGATIONS BOARD

        Mr. Owens. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        If I may, at the beginning I would like to introduce the
    members of my family who are with me as well. My wife, Karen
    Owens, is behind me to my left and my son, Ben Owens, is behind
    me to my right.
        Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Wicker and members of the
    Subcommittee, thank you for holding this hearing and inviting
    me to be here today. It is good to see you again, both of you.
        Senator Wicker, I didn't get a chance to say hello but
    hopefully we will get a chance to chat before the end of the
    hearing. It is good to see you as well.
        I am extremely honored to be nominated by President Biden
    to be the Chairperson of the Chemical Safety and Hazard
    Investigation Board. I have been a member of the Board since
    February of this year, confirmed by the Senate last December. I
    became the Board's Interim Executive Authority in July after
    our former chairperson resigned.
        As I said when I appeared before you last year, the CSB is
    a very small agency, but it has a very big and very important
    mission: to conduct investigations and make recommendations
    that help ensure that chemical facilities are operated safely
    and that the people who work in them, and the families who live
    near them, are protected from chemical disasters.
        Since I have been the Interim Executive, I have worked very
    closely with my fellow Board member, Sylvia Johnson, and the
    dedicated career public servants at the CSB to address the
    serious challenges facing the agency, including reducing the
    backlog in investigation reports, addressing staff vacancies,
    improving morale, breaking down silos, and increasing
    communication between CSB leadership and career staff.
        For example, since late July, we have released the final
    reports for three investigations: the fatal 2017 explosion at
    the Loy-Lange Box Company in St. Louis; the fatal 2016 fire at
    the Sunoco terminal in Nederland, Texas; and the 2019 fire and
    explosions at the PES refinery in Philadelphia.
        Prior to issuing the Loy-Lange report in late July, the CSB
    had not released an investigation report in over 10 months.
    Going forward, we anticipate releasing the final reports for
    another three investigations by the end of this calendar year.
        In the last few years, the CSB has suffered serious
    attrition among our investigative and other critical staff, and
    fell to one of the lowest levels of career staff in its
    history. Since I have been the Interim Executive, we have hired
    a new Chief Information Officer to address the serious
    cybersecurity and information technology issues plaguing the
    CSB, and we will be adding other IT staff soon.
        We onboarded a new chemical incident investigator and plan
    to hire several more in the months ahead. We also hired two
    recommendations specialists, and we are recruiting other key
    staff as well.
        Additionally, in September, we deployed a team to
    investigate the fatal fire and explosion at the BP-Husky
    Refinery in Ohio. This was the first deployment that the CSB
    had undertaken in 14 months.
        We also have increased transparency and are providing more
    information to the public and our stakeholders. For example, we
    have begun to post data on chemical incidents that we receive
    under the agency's reporting rule.
        We also have reinstituted public comments at CSB Board
    meetings. In September, we issued updates on four
    investigations, including the 2020 fatal fire and explosion at
    the Optima Belle facility in West Virginia and the fatal 2021
    liquid nitrogen release at the Foundation Food Group facility
    in Georgia.
        The agency had stopped providing these updates last year,
    but we believe that they provide important information to the
    public and stakeholders. In the next few weeks, we plan to
    issue an update on another investigation, the fatal 2021
    explosion and fire at the Yenkin-Majestic facility in Ohio.
        The Chemical Safety Board began operations in January 1998.
    As we approach the 25th anniversary of the CSB, I am very
    optimistic about the agency's future. I strongly believe that
    we can rebuild and revitalize the CSB and perform our mission
    as Congress intended. I look forward to working with this
    committee to do that.
        Thank you again, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Wicker,
    for the opportunity to appear before you. I will be happy to
    answer any questions you may have.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Owens follows:]
       [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Merkley. Thank you very much.
        Ms. Sandoval.

    STATEMENT OF CATHERINE J.K. SANDOVAL, NOMINATED TO BE A MEMBER
         OF THE CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD INVESTIGATIONS BOARD

        Ms. Sandoval. Thank you very much.
        I would like to begin by introducing my family: my husband,
    Steve Smith; my sister, Barbara Sandoval; and also my family
    friends, Didas Catagi [phonetic] and Esther Noltrig [phonetic].
    Thank you so much.
        Senators, thank you for this opportunity to discuss my
    nomination to serve as a member of the U.S. Chemical Safety and
    Hazard Investigation Board. I would also like to thank
    President Biden for the honor of this nomination and my family,
    particularly my husband, Steve, my sister, Barbara, my late
    sister, Anna Lugo, my father, Vernon Kissee; and my friends,
    colleagues, and Santa Clara University for their support and
    encouragement of my safety leadership work.
        In the decades before the CSB was founded, prior to the
    Clean Air Act, and before the establishment of the Occupational
    Safety and Health Administration, my great uncle, Ishmael
    Martinez, was killed in a chemical explosion at the Apache
    Powder Company near Benson, Arizona.
        Apache Powder made nitroglycerin-based dynamite used in the
    mines near my mother's hometown, a small town served by a rural
    electric utility. My mother, Maria Elena Martinez Sandoval----
        Kissee, who watches this hearing from heaven; my Uncle Juan
    and Aunt Tina often talked about the fear and dread they felt
    as the explosion rocked the town.
        Fear quickly turned to shock and sadness as they learned
    that several workers were killed in the blast including Tio
    Ishmael, who lived with their family. A joint funeral Mass, and
    the birth and naming of my cousin Ishmael, better known as
    Smiles, in memory of my great uncle, began the journey toward
    community healing.
        That company operates today as Apache Nitrogen Products,
    making ammonium nitrate-based products through safety
    management systems now required by OSHA and EPA rules.
        As my family's history illustrates, the CSB's mission to
    protect people and the environment through independent
    investigations and recommendations that drive chemical safety
    is vital to communities, families, workers, the environment,
    and the economy. The chemical incidents the CSB investigates
    are often lose, lose, lose, lose calamities. They may injure or
    kill workers, cause community harms including injury, death,
    and property damage, and loss of job opportunities, release
    hazardous chemicals into the environment, and generate losses
    for investors and insurers. The CSB's root cause analysis and
    recommendations can create quadruple wins.
        If honored by Senate confirmation, I would bring to the CSB
    more than 30 years of regulatory and legal experience, two
    decades of safety leadership and expertise as a tenured Energy,
    Communications, Antitrust, and Contracts Law Professor. My
    collaborative management experience for multi-billion-dollar
    budget organizations would contribute to effective CSB
    operations.
        As a former Commissioner of the California Public Utilities
    Commission and former Undersecretary and Staff Director of
    California's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, I
    gained experience in collaborative response to chemical
    incidents. My CPUC colleagues and I responded to the largest
    industrial methane leak in U.S. history at the Aliso Canyon
    natural gas storage facility in Los Angeles, California.
        To address the safety, air pollution, and energy challenges
    this 2015 incident created, we listened to communities, worked
    with public and private stakeholders, and engaged with experts
    to conduct a root cause analysis and adopt responsive measures.
    That investigation built on expertise developed in responding
    to the 2010 natural gas explosion in San Bruno, California
    caused by Pacific Gas and Electric. That methane explosion
    killed eight people and leveled a neighborhood.
        The CPUC's root cause analysis examined the pipeline's
    metallurgy, including welding, process safety and human factors
    including recordkeeping and operational deficiencies, risk
    identification and management.
        These experiences and my work with the California Highway
    Patrol in responding to refinery incidents when I was BTH Staff
    Director and Undersecretary highlight the importance of safety
    management and operational integrity. My experience in working
    with first responders during and following incidents, and in
    developing policy with first-responder input would be an asset
    to CSB investigations and safety recommendations.
        My work with underserved and disadvantaged rural, urban,
    and tribal communities would enhance CSB community
    collaboration. My approach to CSB investigations would be
    driven by the facts and by science, and faithful to the
    agency's statutory safety mission.
        If I were to earn the honor of Senate confirmation, I would
    serve the CSB and the American people with dedication and
    diligence.
        Thank you very much for this opportunity.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Sandoval follows:]
        [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Senator Merkley. Thank you for the testimony from both of
    you.
        Mr. Owens, since this is a nomination for you to serve as
    Chair, I noted in my opening remarks that the staff has been
    quite short. I know you have been working in the interim
    capacity. How much progress so far? Do you have the funding you
    need to be able to hire the number of investigators you need?
    Is the backlog getting worse or better? What would it take to
    make it better?
        Mr. Owens. Senator, I was going to ask how much time we
    have to talk about that today. I could talk all day about this.
        Senator Merkley. Concisely.
        [Laughter.]
        Mr. Owens. I will be concise.
        The answer is, we have very concrete plans to hire
    additional staff. As I mentioned, we have already hired a
    recommendations specialists, a chief information officer, and a
    new incident investigator. We are currently in the process of
    advertising, I don't think it has been posted yet, for another
    four to five chemical incident investigators.
        What my colleague Sylvia Johnson and I did, after I became
    the Interim Executive, is sit down with our budget staff to
    identify what were the priority positions we needed to hire. We
    prioritized, obviously, chemical incident investigators and IT
    staff as the two highest. Recommendations specialists go along
    with that.
        Under the current funding that we have, under the
    continuing resolution, we should be able to accomplish all of
    that over the next several months. We are keeping our fingers
    crossed on the appropriations bills that are currently pending
    in front of both the House and the Senate which would increase
    funding for the CSB, which would enable us to bring on
    additional chemical incident investigators as well as other
    much needed staff in our administrative offices like HR,
    finance, contracting, and a few other positions that would
    support our legal team responding to FOIA requests as well as
    helping on other mission critical activities.
        Our challenge is, as you have noted, is that there has been
    a great loss of experienced personnel at the agency. We do have
    less than half the number of investigators that we had not that
    long ago, less than 10 years ago.
        The backlog is enormous. We have reduced it by three
    already. We plan to reduce it by another three by the end of
    this calendar year. But that is still going to leave us with 11
    more reports that we anticipate being able to issue by the end
    of the next calendar year. We posted a plan on that. But if we
    can get additional funding, we would be able to hire the
    additional investigators to do that and clear up the backlog.
        Senator Merkley. To summarize, how many investigators do
    you have right now?
        Mr. Owens. Well, at the moment, it depends on how you count
    them. We have 10 in the field investigators, plus two
    supervisors and a third person, so anywhere from 10 to 13. The
    people who actually go out and do the heavy lifting in the
    field, we have about 10.
        Senator Merkley. How many more do you need?
        Mr. Owens. My goal would be to get it up to at least 20.
        Senator Merkley. Thank you.
        Ms. Sandoval, you really answered my question which was to
    highlight the two or three things that make you a very good fit
    for this position. I won't ask you to repeat those; they were
    in your testimony.
        How did you hear about the position? How did you become
    interested in serving on this board?
        Ms. Sandoval. Thank you, Senator.
        The White House asked me if I would be interested, given my
    energy expertise and my experience in responding to chemical
    safety incidents. We honor the victims of the San Bruno natural
    gas explosion by recognizing the chemical safety, energy and
    utility regulation failures that leveled a neighborhood.
        That is something that we talk about in my energy law
    class. I tell students that they get a bonus class in part
    looking at the science. Because much of energy as well as water
    work marches through the periodic table in dealing with
    hydrocarbons and other types of chemicals.
        I have experience in responding to a variety of chemical
    incidents and then also looking at the process safety, human
    factors and material factors that caused failures.
        Senator Merkley. As you were talking, I was thinking about
    Roseburg, Oregon, where the entire downtown was leveled by an
    explosion when I was a child. I remember seeing the charred
    city blocks. It wasn't actually a factory, it was a chemical
    truck that was left parked and then a fire in an adjacent
    building blew it up and it blew up the town.
        I think that is probably outside the purview of the CSB but
    it sticks in my mind, the destructive power that can occur when
    chemicals are not carefully managed.
        Let me turn this over to my colleague.
        Senator Wicker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Dr. Sandoval, on the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage
    facility, the largest industrial methane leak in U.S. history,
    tell us a little about that. We do not have a lot of time. Were
    there any injuries?
        Ms. Sandoval. I hesitate because the causation has been
    hotly debated and is still currently being litigated.
        Senator Wicker. So, the question of causation is still up
    in the air?
        Ms. Sandoval. There is a nearby neighborhood where several
    people complained about nosebleeds and headaches. They have
    entered into a settlement with the natural gas utility that ran
    that field.
        That particular field didn't have any homes on top of it or
    structures on top of it other than what was needed to run the
    natural gas facility. But the homes that were approximately a
    mile and a half away with some of the fumes from the methane
    leak as well as some of the other hydrocarbon, CO2 and other
    things incident to that field, they complained of nosebleeds
    and headaches. In fact, many of them were evacuated for a time.
        Senator Wicker. You mentioned root cause analysis. Do you
    have an opinion about the root cause?
        Ms. Sandoval. Yes. The root cause analysis for that
    incident has been completed. There was a tremendous methane
    flare and actually the son of Red Adair came to help to put it
    out. It took a long time to kill the well, as they said.
    Finally that happened through some great ingenuity.
        Ultimately, it was found that corrosion in the natural gas
    pipeline, which happened through microbial corrosion from water
    leaking down through the ground, was part of what caused the
    leak in the pipeline. Then actually the CO2 in the pipeline
    nourished the water and made the leak worse.
        Then the methane leaked throughout the field, as will
    happen geologically because methane is lighter than air, so it
    seeks to escape.
        This is why the plume from Aliso Canyon was visible from
    NASA's satellites. It is an example where these chemical
    incidents have tremendous impacts on the environment as well as
    having impacts on public health. And also secondary impacts in
    this case on energy. It was the largest natural gas storage
    facility in the Los Angeles Basin. So it had impacts and
    consequences for energy, safety and reliability. We had to
    manage the public safety issues as well as the environmental
    issues and the energy issues while working with the community
    and with experts.
        Senator Wicker. Is it still functional?
        Ms. Sandoval. Yes, it is.
        Senator Wicker. Thank you.
        Let me ask you, Mr. Owens, a key aspect of your work is
    identifying and applying process safety management principles.
    What are some of the core principles that you are working to
    advance regarding process safety management?
        Mr. Owens. Senator, thank you for the question.
        As you know, there are 14 aspects, 14 elements of process
    safety management. I think probably the simple one is
    prevention, identifying causes, and having plans in place so
    that you can anticipate problems before they arise and involve
    employees of the facility in identifying what the issues may be
    that could create problematic conditions that could result in a
    release, or an explosion or a fire, those kinds of things.
        We have identified a number of issues in the course of the
    history of the CSB recommendations that address various
    elements of process safety management. A couple of the most
    important ones are employee involvement and also taking sort of
    a hierarchy of controls approach to addressing conditions that
    exist at facilities so when there are conditions that could
    lead to an upset, or a release, or a fire and explosion, that
    there are systems in place to minimize the consequences of that
    if not actually prevent it in the first place.
        Senator Wicker. Thank you.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Merkley. Senator Capito.
        Senator Capito. Thank you, Chairman Merkley, and thank you,
    Ranking Member Wicker for having this. And I thank the both of
    you for being before the committee. We appreciate it.
        We are obviously considering both your nominations, Stephen
    Owens and Catherine Sandoval. I guess the entire Board consists
    of five, but there are presently just two. Is that correct?
    Yes.
        Congress obviously established the CSB to investigate
    facts, conditions, circumstances and causes of chemical
    releases. It is a critical role in determining, certainly for
    where I live, we are called Chemical Valley, and for a reason.
    So your role is very important to us in my home State.
        But we do have some question as to how the CSB has been
    fulfilling its responsibilities. The EPA inspector report
    stated that the CSB's operations are challenged by vacancies in
    mission critical positions and an inability to fully use
    resources Congress has allocated.
        Further, CSB staff are concerned that leadership, internal
    review processes, and reported backlogs are impeding CSB's
    ability to accomplish its mission. The inspector general also
    identified significant data vulnerabilities. So attracting and
    maintaining full-time staff is difficult.
        I want to say we have many boards in front of us. You are
    not alone here. This is an issue I think government wide as we
    see a turnover of people in their 60's moving on.
        But to only have 12 chemical incident investigators now
    working on 17 open investigations, what happens when we have
    the next accident? You can see why everything is so delayed and
    timely release is pushed back.
        One of the questions that came to mind that I have along
    those lines is keeping us, as members of the Senate and also
    over on the House side, apprised as to what has happened with
    investigations in our own States. I think Senator Wicker talked
    about something that is parochial to his State. I would ask, I
    think it came about that we have had an accident and we were
    not made aware of what the final findings were until after it
    was made public to the press.
        Mr. Owens, I don't know if we can elicit a promise from you
    that you will take into better consideration the updates and
    final reports before going public. We would certainly like to
    have a little bit of a heads up there.
        Mr. Owens. Senator, thank you for the question. The answer
    is absolutely. That is a commitment I will make here today and
    is one we have tried already to do. I was saying before you
    arrived, we just released updates on four investigations,
    including the Optima Belle incident in 2020 that occurred in
    your State.
        The agency had stopped doing those updates last year. But
    Sylvia Johnson, my fellow board member, and I determined that
    these provide very important information to stakeholders as
    well as members of the House and Senate. We are going to
    continue to do that.
        We are more than happy, and in fact, eager to brief you and
    your staff on any incident. We can certainly give you a heads
    up before we release a final report so you will know what is
    going on with it.
        Senator Capito. Thank you. That would be much appreciated.
        Ms. Sandoval, can I elicit the same response from you, that
    you would be more inclusive of giving us a heads up and updates
    in our offices?
        Ms. Sandoval. I absolutely would be happy to coordinate and
    I certainly believe in transparency.
        Senator Capito. Good. It is essential for us to in order to
    conserve our constituencies but also to provide the best
    information to them. A lot of times we are working with county
    and city officials to make sure we understand what the reports
    are saying. We want to be helpful to you but we also want to be
    helpful to those who are going to be interacting.
        Mr. Owens, I went through some of what the inspector
    general said. Do you agree with the report that came out? Do
    you take any issues with the quotes that I decided to kind of
    handpick out of there?
        Mr. Owens. Thank you for the question. There have been a
    lot of inspector general reports. I think most of them are
    right on. They are very spot on in terms of the issues they
    have identified with the lack of board members, decreasing
    personnel, IT and cybersecurity issues. We are working very
    hard to address all of those.
        I worked very closely with the EPA Inspector General when I
    was at EPA during the Obama administration. I am very
    appreciative of the work that they do. They have highlighted
    some very important issues for us to address.
        Senator Capito. In terms of hiring, you do have a much,
    much higher attrition rate than the EPA. What plans does the
    Board and the agency, or the whole entity have to fill these
    much-needed positions?
        Mr. Owens. Senator, thank you for the question.
        We have already begun the process of filling some of the
    more mission critical positions. We hired a new chief
    information officer who is already working on a lot of the
    cybersecurity issues, working with the CSIA to address some of
    those concerns.
        We have hired a new chemical incident investigator already.
    We are in the process of advertising for another four or five
    more. We have hired a couple of new recommendations specialists
    already. Those are the people who actually write the
    recommendations and work with our investigative staff to help
    produce the reports.
        But as you very correctly identified, with only 12 or so
    investigators who not only go into the field and do the
    investigations when we do deployments, they have to come back
    and write those reports. They are already overloaded. When we
    did the deployment to the BP-Husky Refinery in Ohio back in
    September, we had to take a half dozen or so investigators off
    of writing reports and send them to the field. That is a very
    significant incident that occurred there. They have interviewed
    100 people already in conjunction with that incident.
        We are very eager to get new staff onboard. We are working
    within the resource constraints we have, but we feel very
    optimistic that we can do that.
        Senator Capito. I certainly hope you can, too. I think
    these are important jobs that you are filling and important
    reports that you are generating. Obviously in this time of
    cybersecurity, it is extremely important in terms of some of
    the dangerous materials being produced gladly here in this
    Country.
        Thank you very much.
        Senator Merkley. Thank you very much.
        I think Senator Ernst was hoping to join us but she is in
    another meeting right now. I will ask you one question and we
    will see if she returns.
        I was thinking about the massive explosion that happened in
    Lebanon that leveled a good portion of a city. Does the storage
    of chemicals in warehouses also fall into the purview of the
    CSB?
        Mr. Owens. Senator, thank you for the question.
        Yes, it does. The incident in Lebanon involved, as you
    know, ammonium nitrate. One of the issues that we had in the
    investigation the CSB did was in West Texas at the West Texas
    fertilizer facility where there were very, very large amounts
    of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate.
        That has been a big issue that the CSB has been
    investigating. We are working very closely with EPA and OSHA,
    for that matter, both with the EPA's risk management plan,
    proposed rule and OSHA's process safety management standard, to
    encourage them to take more action from a regulatory
    perspective in dealing the storage of substances like
    fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate.
        Generally, the jurisdiction of the CSB are facilities that
    process, use, store, and handle chemical substances. It is
    within the parameters of the Clean Air Act, but it is a very
    broad jurisdiction.
        Senator Merkley. I have just been alerted that a couple
    Senators are trying to make their way here, so I will fill in a
    little bit here.
        After you make these recommendations, do you have any
    leverage in getting them implemented? If that leverage exists,
    in what form does it exist?
        Mr. Owens. The biggest leverage is in the form of the
    persuasiveness of the recommendations themselves and
    implementability. That is one of the things the agency does
    when we are developing recommendations, is discuss them in
    advance with the recipients of the recommendations to make sure
    they can actually do them. Because it does not do us any good
    to issue recommendations that no one can implement.
        But in a broader sense, we work very closely with the
    recommendation recipients to try to encourage them to implement
    them, especially some of the regulatory agencies. For example,
    EPA and OSHA, now that I and Sylvia Johnson are on the Board
    because of experiences we have had, myself at EPA and herself
    working in labor organizations and being very familiar with
    OSHA, that we have in a personal sense, we have a better
    relationship with both those agencies and have already been in
    communication with people there about implementing some of the
    longstanding recommendations that we have issued to EPA and
    OSHA.
        More important than that, with some of the trade
    associations as well as individual companies, trying to stay in
    touch on a more continuous basis, so that they don't just get a
    recommendation from the CSB, as sometimes happened in the past,
    and then the agency will check in once a year to see how it is
    going. Before you know it five, six, or 7 years have gone by
    and a recommendation has just been hanging out there without
    being implemented.
        So we are working on improving communication with
    recommendation recipients, but also making sure we are more in
    touch with recipients up front.
        Senator Merkley. You don't just want that recommendation to
    be implemented at that particular company, but across the scope
    of that industry or related circumstances.
        Mr. Owens. That is correct, Senator. Historically, the
    agency has done a very good job of looking at issues that are
    broader than just the individual facility.
        The recommendations themselves are based on the specific
    facts of the incidents that occurred, but especially when we
    have noticed patterns over the years of incidents where it is
    one of those things that, does it happen at one facility but
    either has happened or can happen in other facilities?
        The agency has tried to make the recommendations as broadly
    applicable as it can. That is where working with trade
    associations, for example, and with regulatory agencies really
    comes into play.
        Senator Merkley. The fact you don't issue citations, you
    don't deliver information for criminal prosecutions, helps
    greatly in actually getting to the root of the problem and
    being able to understand the challenge in a way that allows
    those recommendations to carry forward.
        Mr. Owens. Yes, Senator, that is absolutely right. It is a
    nonregulatory agency. Again, our ability to get things done is
    dependent on the relationships we have developed, the factual
    accuracy of the reports, the implementability and
    persuasiveness of the recommendations.
        But the fact we do not have individual enforcement
    authority or regulatory authority as an agency, having been on
    the other side of that, both as a regulator and representing
    parties who did work with regulators, I like this situation
    much better, because we can work more closely with entities
    that we are investigating and really get to the causes of the
    problems and find solutions to them.
        Senator Merkley. Ms. Sandoval, do you want to add anything
    to the points Mr. Owens has made?
        Ms. Sandoval. Yes, thank you, Senator. Here is an area
    where I also think my academic background may be helpful. As a
    law professor, certainly when I write law review articles, I
    can recommend things, but I have no power except the power of
    persuasion and analysis. Even with my students, I may assign
    things and hopefully they will turn in their assignments.
        So I am certainly accustomed to working through the power
    of persuasion. I wanted to also underscore the importance of
    working in advance with a large group of stakeholders.
        I also have regulatory experience and experience in looking
    at root cause analysis, and as well as doing the enforcement
    side. I think the independence of the Chemical Safety Board is
    important because it really creates an opportunity, as Board
    Member Owens said, to look at the facts of that specific
    incident but also to take a broad look at other incidents that
    are arising.
        A couple things I would like to highlight is we have seen
    growing examples of where the loss of electricity has actually
    caused chemical incidents as happened in the Arkema fire in
    Texas, and as well flooding. We need to be looking forward to
    some of those commonalities to ensure we are not just
    responsive to chemical safety incidents, but we are also
    thinking proactively with companies, with insurers, with
    communities and first responders so we can hopefully prevent
    some of these incidents and damage in the future.
        Senator Merkley. Thank you very much.
        I am going to wrap up now with three questions that this
    committee asks all nominees who appear before it. They are
    basically yes or no questions. If you feel the necessity of
    answering in a more complicated fashion, I understand. The
    press asks electees to answer yes or no questions all the time,
    when we see things, but I think these are important points.
        So I will ask each of you, do you agree, if confirmed, to
    appear before this committee or designated members of this
    committee and other appropriate committees of the Congress and
    provide information subject to appropriate and necessary
    security protections with respect to your responsibilities? Mr.
    Owens?
        Mr. Owens. Yes, Senator.
        Senator Merkley. Ms. Sandoval.
        Ms. Sandoval. Yes, Senator.
        Senator Merkley. Second, do you agree to ensure that
    testimony, briefings, documents, electronic and other forms of
    communication of information are provided to this committee and
    its staff and other appropriate committees in a timely manner?
        Ms. Sandoval. Yes, Senator Merkley.
        Mr. Owens. Yes, Senator.
        Senator Merkley. Thank you. Do you know of any matters
    which you may or may not have disclosed that might place you in
    a conflict of interest if you are confirmed?
        Mr. Owens. No, Senator.
        Ms. Sandoval. No, Senator.
        Senator Merkley. With that, I appreciate my colleagues
    coming to share in this hearing.
        We have a standard way of wrapping up. I ask unanimous
    consent of all the committee members present to submit into the
    record a variety of materials related to today's hearing.
        Hearing no objections, so ordered.
        [There was no material related to today's hearing submitted
    prior to the time of print.]
        Senator Merkley. Finally, Senators will be allowed to
    submit written questions for the record through the close of
    business on Wednesday, November 23d. We will compile those
    questions and send them to our witnesses who we will ask to
    reply by Wednesday, November 30th. So, the 25th to the 30th, we
    would appreciate you giving intense attention to any questions
    that are submitted.
        Thank you for working to address such important issues and
    being willing to serve the American public in this capacity.
        The hearing is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 10:45 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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