Commissioners Briefed on Fatal Accident at Rock Island Dam

Chelan PUDs Safety Director Brian Odell gave PUD Commissioners an update Monday on steps taken since technician Eddie Bromiley was killed June 13th at Rock Island Dam.  Bromiley was hit by a piece of steel from a spillway structure during a testing procedure.

As a precaution, Odell said all the spillway rail structures at Rock Island Dam have been modified, "they have a similar rail configuration as the one that became dislodged.  We have since gone in and taken the pins that hold them from rotation and replaced them with bolts to secure them in place" Odell explained.  The spillway gate where the accident happened was taken out of service as well as  a second one of the same design.

Odell and Tracy Yount, External Affairs Director and Incident Investigation Team lead also briefed Commissioners on the notifications made to federal safety officials at OSHA and the State Department of Labor and Industries (L & I)  and investigation time tables.  Dept. of Labor and Industries is expected to return to Rock Island Dam in early July to begin the formal  investigation.   Odell said the L & I investigation must be completed within six months.

Yount said the PUD has also hired an outside, independent third party for a thorough internal review but has set no timeline.

Yount told Commissioners the tragedy warranted the hiring of an outside review under the PUD's incident reporting and investigation standard, "and depending on severity, the procedure allows for either an internal team to perform the investigation or to utilize outside experts and for this, we have chosen an outside firm to perform the investigation"