The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, the independent federal agency that investigates refinery explosions, fertilizer plant fires, and other industrial disasters, is suffering a leadership implosion.
In Washington, D.C., on Thursday, a public meeting aimed at CSB's troubled management ended as soon as it started, because only two of its five-member board were present. Two others quit or were forced out earlier this year.
The two board members who did show up, Richard Engler and Mark Griffon, had taken control of the agency last week, and on Tuesday forced its managing director and general counsel on leave.
Paralysis among board members would halt release of investigation reports from the agency, charged by Congress in 1998 with uncovering the root causes of industrial disasters.
"This is a totally bizarre situation," Marshall Breger, author of Independent Agencies in the United States: Law, Structure, and Politics, told BuzzFeed News. "The White House really needs to step in here."
"Here we have the agency charged with the safety of our industrial infrastructure and it is paralyzed," Jeff Ruck of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a federal scientist whistleblower protection group, told BuzzFeed News. He also called for the White House to name a new board for the agency.
In response, Engler told BuzzFeed News that employee meetings next week will stress making investigations more efficient and getting information out out to the public faster. "Everything we are doing is trying to right the ship and get the agency back on course," Engler said.
"It's not a secret that this agency has some of the lowest morale in the entire government," he added. "We have had a lot of investigations that take too long to get out."
The agency has been in hot water with Congress for years. Oversight hearings have detailed retaliation against whistleblowers, an exodus of experienced investigators, and ineffective leadership that delayed completion of investigation reports for years after industrial accidents.
The agency's senior managers now placed on leave were also the subject of bipartisan calls for resignation in March by the House Oversight Committee.
"Richard Engler has begun the process of rebuilding confidence in the CSB and we look forward to working with him on additional reforms," Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. "This is another step in the right direction to improve management of the Board."
BuzzFeed News asked agency spokesperson Hillary Cohen for comment on the leadership changes. "This is an internal CSB matter," she wrote by email. "All CSB investigations are proceeding according to schedule."
The CSB is supposed to have five board members appointed by the president, but one quit earlier this year because of a "toxic" work environment. Then, in March, the chair of the board, chemical engineer Rafael Moure-Eraso, was asked to resign. One of the remaining three board members, Griffon, will see his five-year term on the board expire later this month, leaving only Engler and the third board member, chemist Manuel "Manny" Ehrlich, remaining.
The full name of the agency is the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. An earlier version of this post misstated its name.