DOI Occupational Safety & Health Council

November 7-8, 2017

Sterling, VA

Meeting Summary

Note: The DOI Occupational Safety & Health Council is referred to as SHC or the Council in the following notes.

Agenda

Day One

Welcome Overview (Shari Hanscomb)

  • Admin
  • Agenda review

DASHO Council Meeting Update (Jim Anderton)

  • Jim will send out an email to the group with the attachments and primers that were provided to the DASHO members during the Thursday (November 2, 2017) meeting. The meeting was attended by all principles (all voting members) and two designees. There was representation from law enforcement, emergency management, acquisitions, HR, and Brian Rice (BIA Director). There were sufficient members for a quorum.
  • Mary Pletcher, DOI DASHO, provided opening remarks. She discussed why the DASHO council is important to protect our employees. She provided general statistics over last year for impact of safety on the Department. Statistics are available in the DASHO meeting slide deck.
  • The first main agenda item was the new DASHO Council Charter. The members discussed the main changes associated with the new DASHO charter – related to clarity of council member responsibilities, updated membership, differences in instituting meeting agenda, new decision making process, opened up for vote to institute charter, asked for comments/objections – there were none. The charter is now in effect and instituted.
  • The second agenda item was an overview of the FY17 DOI OSH strategic operations plan (OSH successes and what we still need to focus on). Discussed planning process for FY18 strategic plan. Emphasized that their input was important, as well as input from SHC. They would be able to provide feedback after SHC. The DASHO was pleased to be able to provide input. See draft operations plan.
  • The third agenda item was the department’s safety and health evaluation program. Barry discussed the bureau safety evaluation process. Provided an overview and insight for last two years of evaluations. Mary provided input as well on her expectations on what she expected as a result of those evaluations. What’s the follow up on found issues? The group was in agreement on this point. Second piece is how we move forward. Jim discussed moving away from external third party FOH evaluations and using internal bureau assets/safety professionals to create bench strength and provide mechanism to provide support from the bureaus. This was accepted by the DASHOS and agreed that it was a good idea. In FY18,OSH have planned evaluations for USGS, BOR, and BIE (assessment or evaluation). OSH is working with BIE and BIA to determine how to best use this time with them. DASHO provided feedback. Jim will provide Barry with member feedback. No decision point except for giving feedback on evaluation process.
  • The next agenda item was the SAI on Cumberland Gap, presented by Mike May. This presentation went very well. OSH wants to work on the process movingforward for SAI protocol. Mary said she wants OSH to look at 485 DM Chapter 7; specifically, we need clarity on what process we are using. The way they are conducted is professional; it’s what we do after the investigations are conducted in terms of reporting that needs clarity. OSH will be reviewing and revising DM 7. OSH will put together a work group to review and make revision recommendations. There were no further questions.
  • Tim Radtke provided an overview and briefed the DASHOs on the draft DM chapter on hearing conservation. One key section of the DM lists specific jobs that will be included in the hearing conservationprogram unless bureaus provide data that shows otherwise. The DM also includes a listing of equipment that requires hearing conservation and posting of high noise areas. These key sections will serve as a tool to help bureaus implement the hearing conservation program.There was some concern about bringing attention to a program with some deficiencies and with a time commitment to be in compliance. Tim stated that he will be working with the DOI IH workgroup to develop a rollout implementation strategy.The IH workgroup will also revisit the issue of looking at companies that can provide audio metric testing to help bureaus ID where to go for program testing. There weren’t any real issues with accepting the DM chapter and it was approved by the DASHO Council. OSH will put the new Hearing Conservation DM into the DOI surname process.
  • Jody, BLM DASHO, mentioned the safety culture survey from Towers and Watsons onenergywas really good. Jim is looking at using a survey as part of the FY18 operational agenda.
  • Tim Radtke is acting for Jim as Director of OSH while he is on a 120 day detail with OSEOD.
  • Travis Gilbert provided an overview of the new safety reporting server. It was well received.

Bureau Roundtable (All)

  • IA – We just finished their safety and health program evaluations. IA did a total of 5 in FY17 (made up a couple fromFY16). Just did Alaska region and Great Plains region. In the process of getting reports wrapped up. Working on schedule for FY18. Continuing to work on latest GAO report findings. The second report from GAO was on school inspections and accountability on inspections. As part of IA restructure, BIE is moving to have their own safety program. BIA continues to provide all safety program services. This year, staffing up in BIE – 2 safety specialists are now in place for associate directorate offices. Navajo Nation will also have 2 safety positions. Working on staffing up vacant positions in Albuquerque and Minneapolis offices. We expect to fill 4 safety vacancies as soon as possible. BIA will still need to cover some items for BIE. IA developed a service level agreement for services between BIA and BIE. BIE will be conducting workplace inspections on Navajo schools once staffed up. Working to move 265 long-term SOARS cases to BIA. Working with Anna on e-Comp bill codes and duplicates. IA is moving to e-Comp to process CA7s and CA3s.
  • FWS – Biggest issues from a service level perspective, they are going through a structural change. Moving to a joint admin structure. All regional safety managers will likely fall under headquarters. The Service is at a pause to see the outcome of the joint admin process before determining the path forward. Daryl’s office is focusing on the workers’ comp program. His program manager is establishing a return to work council with representatives from HQ, HR, legal, and senior leaders from regions to actively manage cases and get more employees back to work.
  • NPS – Our DAHSO is back. He’s been acting director for National Capital Region, so he wasn’t at the DASHO council meeting on November 2nd. NPS is starting to implement its safety strategy through use of its implementation tool. The Service completed its first year using the eTool. They are currently evaluating the year’s results to determine what type of gaps it has. We want to evaluate sections that are red/high priority issues to determine next steps. They are getting ready to go out to Deputy Regional Directors with implementation areas over 50% red and provide them tools/templates for them to pass out to Park Units to assist them in improving the red gap areas. Almost everyone in NPS have an EPAP item on safety and health – centered around a % completion on tier one, but just evaluating on % complete probably isn’t the best method. They are considering looking at other indicators on which to be evaluated, in addition to the eTool’s % completion. We have our regional directors in town next week, along with associate directors, to give them an update on the eTool and to discuss changing EPAP criteria for Superintendents. Will have a memorial board ceremony in Director’s hallway for NPS employees killed in the line of duty. During this ceremony they will add the name of the employee killed in the Cumberland Gap incident. The suicide prevention and awareness team completed a report on how the Service is doing; an out brief on the report will be provided as well. Mike hopes to be able to share the report with everyone interested. The NPS had folks in hurricane regions and realized they didn’t have the immunizations they needed for things they faced. Would like something in ROSS to make sure employees have the immunizations they need before getting deployed. Now folks are looking at how to get the care they need after the fact. Jim stated that OSH and OEM put together materials for people responding to these types of events, including medical requirements. The guidance document is up on the new OSH website and it’s also on OEM’s websiteas well; the guidance document is in line with guidelines from OSHA, NIOSH, and CDC. Jim also mentioned that OSH will make a guidebook (similar to the DOI Occupational Safety and Health Program Field Manual) with this information for people in these areas. Tim – We have a meeting scheduled with the OEM on November 16th to discuss immunizations and pre-deployment medical clearance and post deployment follow-up. It’s definitely something OSH needs to solve before people are deployed. NPS position management – finalizing the rewriting of the OSH program manager GS 14 position. Looking to re-advertise the position, but all PDs have to be less than 5 years old and need to be reclassified if older than 5 years. A couple of safety positions just closed (GS 13 positions) but no decisions have been made yet. They are also looking at early approval for a 4 year term position to help with implementation of eTool.
  • BOEM –Continuing to address issues found during the safety program evaluation and updating policies. BOEM does not have a full-time safety position, so they have added two collateral duty safety officers (similar to how BSEE operates).BOEM also has a safety leadership council that’s taking an active role in safety.
  • BSEE – Also continuing to address issues found during the safety program evaluation.The Bureau currently has a team conducting a chemical exposure characterization study for offshore employees. NIOSH and the Department IH’s have teamed up to conduct the study, but the effort was slowed down when NIOSH was pulled away to assist with the recent hurricane recovery efforts. The study was resumed this week. Tim has asked NIOSH to expedite a report to Rose.
  • BLM – Onshore counterpart to offshore drilling – there is a concern about Benzene. Found that while Benzene is an issue in some places, the actual issue is volatile organic and explosion hazards - when people are first opening up the vents when doing sampling. When EPA put the new emission standards in place it caused tanks to be placed under more pressure and are now considered more dangerous for people working around the tanks. When you open up the tanks and do sampling, you get a much larger plume of gases coming out of the tanks. BLM put together some practices based on this – using monitors and how they open the tanks – into the manuals for petroleum technicians. Also adding to classes for technicians to get the work practices in place. The bureau deployed about 165 people for hurricane relief efforts. Biggest challenge was getting the hurricane work money straight. Herb has given the bureau a huge push to get people enrolled/entered into ROSS for call-up in future events. Herb’s office corrected a long standing deficiency – the Washington office now has a safety committee for the 350 people in the Washington office area. We have formally rescinded the field handbook from 2006 and adopted the DOI Occupational Safety and Health Program Field Manual. The bureau is going to use the annual OSHA report format and adoptit as their annual reporting mechanism for states and regions to us. As soon as OSHA’s special questions come out, they need to know. We’ve had to change our compliance review process. Did them in concert with the human capital and EEO reviews, but we need to split this up because the HCap folks don’t want the EEO and Safety information included in their compliance review process.
  • BOR – We are trying to prepare everyone to go to SMIS IAS. Working closely with the department on the program itself. Originally designed for USGS, there are some things in the program we feel like we have to change. Trying to have our version a little BOR orientated with terminology. The safety action plan – people wanted all safety findings and recommendations in one place. They have several groups that investigate and put findings in different places and they are now trying to get everything reported in one single place. SAFE program is in place. Grand Cooley Dam has a lot of new staff who are making a positive effort to shift the safety focus. Monte’s office is moving to lobby cubicles due to renovations. His office is scanning files to get ready for the scheduled March move. They are expected to be in temporary work space for a year. During the renovation period they will be teleworking 50% of the time. He has three positions open in his office – one IH and two program analysts – thatwill be stationed outside of Denver. We were asked to deploy people for hurricanes, but bureau said no because of so many vacancies. They are sending people to CA. Monte’s office is updating their website (combining three into one); hopefully they will be done by the first of the year. Monte set a goal for next year to revise sections of their safety policy. We are also bringing back the occupational health manual and have section 7 refer to the manual. Washington State – what came out of that was working alone and not tracking people as they travel. The RSHS is soon to come out as an eBook hopefully near the first of the year (IT is making it an eBook readable via an eBook App).
  • USGS – USGS worked with Jason to add bio-safety and radiation safety questions to IAS for FY 18 use. Coordinating with HR to discuss Medical Standards Program for Large Vessels and determining HR vs Safety responsibilities. DOI Learn is shifting to a new platform by the end of FY 18 that will impact the USGS Personal Hazard Analysis program. Currently the PHA system links DOI LEARN records to required training tied to job activities. So the new Learning Management System will need to replicate DOI LEARN. Similarly the USGS is undergoing realignment shifting from regions to mission areas. With that comes new organizational codes for SMIS and IAS which will be a significant workload for USGS safety staff in FY 18. Over FY 17, the safety program has lost 1 FTE permanently and has 2 vacancies, i.e., Watercraft and OSH Manager.
  • OSM – Working on program evaluation follow up. We are working on IH plan and implementing safety and health program and chemical hazards plan. Director signed off on it this summer. OSM had major moves, so it was good timing to look at things in our space and the different positions associated with our hazard conditions. Working on getting JHA program rolling. Going out to field locations. Aviation program purchased three drones and conducted a safety evaluation looking at different policies for FAA and OES. Motor vehicles –had training in place. In past few months had several minor accidents. Looking at enhancing this program going into next year. OSM held collateral duty safety officer training this past year for 15 employees. Downsizing for move from SIB to MIB. Western region is moving from downtown Denver to federal region. Mid continental region is moving as well.
  • Barry – Over year, if you are having a safety gathering, we’d like an opportunity to talk to these folks about what we do and to hear any issues they have.
  • Herb –talking about BLS reporting – are we still doing at the national level? What about OSHA record keeping? The actual implementation is going to go down to local level. We need guidance on how this is going to work. Barry will take to lead to work on this.

Wildland Fire Program Update (Rod Bloms)

  • Provided an update with FY17 fire season, update on stats, and NWCG update.
  • 2017 fire season wasn’t a record, but a little over 8.8 million acres burned across the US. It’s below average for fires, but above average for acres burned (53,500 fires with 8.8 million acres burned). 28,000 people involved in incidents. Many fires in Pacific Northwest, Rockies, Montana, and a little down in Florida and GA. Alaska still has a large footprint for active fires.
  • For DOI CY Jan1 – October 2017, showed size class of fires.
  • Reviewed ICS 209 stats
  • Large fires in northwest – lightning storms came through causing many fires.
  • OWF anticipates another very active fire season next year.
  • NWCG risk management community is talking about how physical fitness plays a role in the wildland fire community. We are finding that our FMOs do not have a physical fitness background and they don’t know what type of program should be in place. Looking to create more guidelines around physical fitness. Charter for IST goes to the board to review next week. Plans to bring group back together and incorporate physical fitness into the group’s focus.
  • Australia’s fire season is looking to be bad. We will potentially have our fire resources there for their summer during our winter season.
  • Chimney Tops 2 Fire – Planning to have a meeting with NPS to have a discussion about this fire.
  • This morning on wildfire.com, he saw from 2015-2017, 52 firefighters lost their lives due to suicide. This is a critical topic to talk about in the fire community. In 2017, there were 9 fatalities to date (driving, heart attack, and hazard trees are often causes). CHS - For 2017, there are over 5,000 exams at 3.5 million cost. Tim would like for someone to touch base with Dr. Sawyer regarding the suicide data to see if she can offer any assistance.
  • Monte had a question about techniques. Is it a problem when wildland fires go into suburbs? On emerging incidents, if structures are involved, the structural fire community will respond, but the wildland community is there to protect the wildland area and provide support. There’s an effort with UAVs to reduce firefighter exposure to structures to help them assess buildings. USFS wildfire engines can look like structure engines, but are for federal agency properties. The changes in risk management safety– they are getting really good at dialoguing what to expose the fire community to in order to reduce their inherent risks.

Office of Emergency Management (Jason Steinmetz)