Environmental

Incident
Investigation &
Reporting
ENGR. FE R. RUBIO
BICOLANDIA ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING &
CONSULTANCY SERVICES (BETCS)
PCO TRAINING – LEGAZPI CITY
Do we want to be in the news?

Cavite Fire Incident

February 2017
Accident or NOT ?
KENTEX RUBBER FACTORY FIRE INCIDENT
LAFAYETTE OCTOBER 2005
INCIDENT
GUIMARAS OIL SPILL
ILOILO OIL SPILL
Do you want to be in the news?
 As a PCO, what is your role
on Environmental Incidents?
 Overview
• What is Required
 Law
 As a PCO
 Annex 4
• What is an Environmental Incident
• Investigate?
– Why
– How
• Analyze & Mitigate
• Document
What is an Environmental Incident
• an occurrence or set of circumstances, as a
consequence of which pollution (air, water,
noise, or land) or an adverse environmental
impact has occurred, is occurring, or is likely
to occur.
– Adverse environmental impact includes
contamination, harm to flora and fauna (either
individual species or communities), damage to
heritage items and adverse community impacts.
 Environmental issue
• Any occurrence or set of circumstances that
has the potential to cause or lead to an
environmental incident or non-compliance if
not rectified.
 Pollution incident
• an incident or set of circumstances during or as a
consequence of which there is or is likely to be a
leak, spill or other escape or deposit of a
substance, as a result of which pollution has
occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur.
• It includes an incident or set of circumstances in
which a substance has been placed or disposed of
on premises, but it does not include an incident
or set of circumstances involving only the
emission of any noise.
Examples of environmental incidents
Environmental Incident - Air

Dust exceeding reasonable levels

without active management system
Environmental Incident - Air

Odor that travels beyond site boundary

 Environmental Incident - Air

Operations & maintenance of plant in a

manner that causes air pollution.
Environmental Incident - Water

Discharge of water on or off site boundary

as a result of poorly maintained plant or
operation of plant in an inefficient manner
Environmental Incident - Noise
Environmental Incident - Land
Environmental Incident?
All incidents should be
reported as soon as
practicable.
 Incident Reporting - Management
• Verbal notification - The supervisor or manager must be
notified verbally immediately.
• Incident Report - Environmental incidents must be
documented & reported to management within 4 hours of its
occurrence or first being observed.
• Additional details of the incident are to be recorded in the incident
report within 48 hours of the incident first being observed.
 Incident Reporting - Regulatory
• DAO 2014-002.
• Section 10 , no. 14
 Report in writing within 24 hours environmental incidents to
EMB RO when:
 Breakdown of Pollution Source – Pollution Control Facility
or monitoring instruments
 Release (e.g. leaks, spills, etc.) of chemicals or hazardous
wastes (EMB & DOH).
• Section 10, no. 15
 Report in writing within 24 hours when lab results are
available or exceed effluent &/or emission standards.
Annex 4
 Why investigate an environmental
incidents?
• To prevent their recurrence by
making improvements to equipment,
procedures etc.
• Legal duties on employers and employees
under health, environmental & safety
legislation to report and investigate all
incidents.
• Reputation!
 What do we get from an “Incident
Investigation”?

 From experience and analysis: they are

“caused occurrences”
Fatalities
– Predictable - the logical outcome of
hazards Severe Injuries

An incident (accident)
– Preventable and avoidableis controllable.
- hazards
do not have to exist. They are caused
An incident stops the normal course of events and
Minor injuries
by things people do -- or fail to do.
cause$ property damage or personal injury, minor
or serious, and occasionally results in a fatality.
Close calls

Hazardous conditions
 We Investigate
• Prevent future incidents (leading to catastrophic /
fatal incidents).
– To assist in providing the company with a solution to prevent
recurrence.
– Reduce injury and worker compensation costs.
– Maintain worker morale. No blame.
• To determine the work element and root causes of
incident,
– Identify and eliminate hazards. What went wrong?
– Expose deficiencies in process and/or equipment.
• Meet DOLE rule requirement that you investigate
serious accidents.
• A thorough investigation will reveal the root cause of the
incident.
 Keys for a Good Investigation
• “Trained” & clear understanding of Roles & Responsibilities by
people involved in the investigation.
• Management support
• Team approach – ID additional corrective action that will help
prevent similar incidents in the future.
• Must be constructive, credible & timely.
 No blame
 “What happened, what can be done to prevent the incident from
happening again.
 Timing is crucial. Memory fades & evidences are disturbed.
 < time for investigation to complete = operations resumes
 Begin Investigation Immediately

• It’s crucial to collect evidence and interview witnesses as soon as

possible because evidence will disappear and people will forget.
 Gather Evidence
• Interviewing involved employees
 Put individual at ease.
 Be aware that injured employees & witness to injuries
may have some emotions involved that affect them –
trauma.
 Stress fact gathering – let them tell the story & clarify
after their story. No assumptions or state opinions.
 Conduct the interviews at the scene, if possible.
 Try avoiding asking WHY questions – makes people
defensive.
 Close the interview in a positive note. Reaffirm the
purpose of the interview.
 Gather Evidence
• Use the right tools
 Take notes (record times, places, names,
distances, comments, conditions or anything else
you may think may help.
 Take pictures. Use a scale to determine the size in
the picture.
 Draw a sketch or diagram to indicate where key
objects or people were during the incident.
 The Root Cause Analysis

• must be undertaken
for all incidents.
• Root cause – the most
basic cause (or
causes) that can
reasonably be
identified that
management has a
control to fix and
when fixed will
prevent (or
significantly reduce)
the likelihood of the
problem recurrence.
Root Cause Analysis Checklist
Basic Element of Root Cause

Individual Organization & Leadership

Factors Culture /Supervision

incident

Equipment & Procedures / Environment &

tools Task Work site
instructions Description
 Document the Findings
• Good Investigation = Identifies the work elements that caused
the incident & helps eliminate the root cause(s).
• Reports should contain the following:
 When the incident happened (date & time)
 Who or what was affected or hurt by the incident.
 Where it happened?
 What object, if any , caused the accident.
 What work element was deficient and most directly caused the incident.
 What system failure (or root cause), if any, was evident that needs to be
corrected that will prevent a recurrence.
 List corrective actions to be taken, identify the responsible person to
implement and the target completion.
 Follow Up & Analyze
• Track implementation of corrective actions.
• Look for similarities of incidents or near
misses that may suggest a closer look of the
programs being implemented.
 Q&A
• Nature Break
 Incident Investigation
• Incident investigation is to be completed with
reference to any initial investigation reports.
– Includes.
1. Sequence of events = record the sequence of events that led to
the incident.
2. Findings - Given the sequence of events, what are the key findings
of the investigation (i.e. what are the main causes of the incident).
3. Management methods - Used to record the management methods
to be changed and/or implemented to avoid the incident
reoccurring.
4. Key learning - What can we learn from this investigation into the
incident? Are there any elements of this incident investigation that
can be or need to be shared with other projects or as a Lessons
Learned process, environmental alert or similar?