Earlier this month the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) officially added Catherine Sandoval, a law professor, as its newest board member. Sandoval was nominated to the CSB Board by President Joe Biden in June 2022, when the Board had three members, but the then-CSB Chair resigned shortly thereafter, leaving the CSB with just two Board members, Sylvia Johnson and Steve Owens, both of whom joined the agency in February 2022, according to a press release from the CSB.
By law, the CSB is supposed to have five Board members. The agency has not had a full Board since 2011, however.
Chemical Processing’s Mark Rosenzweig has written about the drama at the CSB for years. He noted the trouble started in 2008 when the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report that detailed serious shortcomings at the CSB (“Chemical Safety Board Gets Rebuke”).
He also suggested in 2014 that turnover undermined the CSB’s effectiveness (“Turmoil Takes a Toll on Chemical Safety Board"). And in 2017 he wrote about the very existence of the CSB coming into question when President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget completely eliminated funding for the agency (“Save the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.”)
Prior to joining the CSB, Board Member Sandoval was a tenured professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law in California, and she has had extensive experience in both government and the private sector.
With two vacant seats still up for grabs, the CSB still has a chance to add members with actual process safety experience and heed Rosenzweig’s advice: “Add Industry Perspective to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.”
The CSB’s core mission activities include conducting incident investigations; formulating preventive or mitigative recommendations based on investigation findings and advocating for their implementation; issuing reports containing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations arising from incident investigations; and conducting studies on chemical hazards.
The agency's board members are appointed by the president subject to Senate confirmation. The Board does not issue citations or fines but makes safety recommendations to companies, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA.
