Staff at Harsha Lake finds low-cost solution to safety hazard

Published April 17, 2014
Keith Chaney, maintenance chief; Todd Hansen, maintenance mechanic; and Brian Wilson, maintenance worker; show off the new lockout/tagout boxes in the control room.

Keith Chaney, maintenance chief; Todd Hansen, maintenance mechanic; and Brian Wilson, maintenance worker; show off the new lockout/tagout boxes in the control room.

While preparing to begin extended work inside the conduit and control tower at Harsha Lake, Batavia, Ohio, the maintenance staff discovered that the lock out/tag out procedure (the process of cutting off all power to machinery or equipment, thereby preventing the release of hazardous energy while employees perform servicing and maintenance activities) in the dam control tower left room for potential danger.

Often, work in the conduit is done below the water level, so lockout/tagout ensures there is no inadvertent movement of gates or water that could endanger employees. The old lockout/tagout procedure involved turning off the electricity and removing handles from the hydraulic control valves. The Harsha Lake staff discovered that even with those safety measures in place, the hydraulic pressure within the valves could still be released, lowering the gates.

"We had been working in the control tower a lot getting ready for our periodic inspection in fiscal year 2015," said Keith Chaney, maintenance chief. "As a team with my Maintenance Mechanic Todd Hansen and Maintenance Worker Brian Wilson, we would throw ideas back and forth to each other while we were working in the tower. Finally, we came up with the design that we thought would work."

The team worked with a local welder to create lockable boxes that would completely cover the valves, preventing any accidental release of energy—a simple but elegant solution to the existing hazard.

"When you identify a hazard, it is your responsibility to eliminate or reduce the hazard down to an acceptable level before moving forward with the task. These guys did just that," said Mark Ostbloom, Louisville District safety specialist.

"The initiative these Corps employees took on their own, with support from their Park Manger, Jim O’Boyle, illustrates their commitment to safety and protecting their fellow employees," he added.

"Safety is something our maintenance staff takes seriously," said Jim O’Boyle, Harsha Lake park manager. "One way we improve safety is to look at ways we can engineer safety measures to counter the human error factor that so often is the root cause of safety mishaps. Our Maintenance Chief, Keith Chaney, is very proactive in making safety improvements and this lockout/tagout system is a good example."