American Electric Power Hydrogen Explosion

Attorney: Plant blast could have been avoided

MARIETTA - Attorneys representing an American Electric Power worker injured in a 2007 explosion at the company's Muskingum River power plant said Tuesday reports and emails will be entered into evidence in coming days that show AEP officials knew an explosion was possible and avoidable, yet failed to act.

"It was not a matter of if, but when it would explode," said Geoffrey Brown, a Wheeling attorney representing Drummand McLaughlin, 53, of Caldwell, a former AEP worker injured in the blast.

AEP denied any wrongdoing, suggesting the hydrogen storage system that exploded and injured McLaughlin was maintained by another company. In all, the explosion killed one man and injured nine workers. The explosion has resulted in several civil suits, with McLaughlin's case being the first to go to trial.

Testimony in the trial is set to continue today in Washington County Common Pleas Court before Judge Ed Lane. Jury selection was held Monday, with opening statements and the first witnesses taking the stand Tuesday. The trial is scheduled to run two weeks.

In his opening statement, Brown said 16 months before the explosion at the Beverly plant there was a similar blast at AEP's Kammer, W.Va., facility. He said that blast -coupled with information from another blast that occurred in 2003 in Indiana- investigations and reports were generated detailing what went wrong and how to correct the problem.

Brown said simple steps could have been taken to prevent the 2007 blast, including replacing copper relief valves with stainless steel, removing the roof from the storage area so gas could not accumulate and storing the gas away from people and buildings. He said those steps were all outlined and distributed throughout the AEP system more than a year before the Muskingum River power plant explosion.

"Sixteen months later, (this unit) still had copper, was still located under a roof and still located near buildings and people," he said.

Brian Swiger, one of the attorneys representing the utility company, said AEP relied upon its hydrogen supplier, General Hydrogen, to maintain the systems. Hydrogen is used as a cooling agent in the electric generation process.

Swiger said General Hydrogen was asked to inspect the hydrogen storage systems at the Beverly plant in the wake of the Kammer, W.Va., explosion.

"Not one witness is going to say General Hydrogen asked us to do something and we said no," Swiger told jurors during his opening statement. "We don't know hydrogen; we know how to generate electricity.

Electrical company supposedly knew of dangers before deadly blast ...

This week jurors heard the opening statements related to a workplace explosion that happened in 2007.

The case stems from a 2007 blast at an American Electric Power plant where nine workers were injured and one worker was killed. The claim is that the electrical company knew of the possible dangers that could cause the workplace accident , yet the company failed to do anything about it.

According to an attorney representing one of the injured workers, 16 months before the explosion there had been a similar incident at another facility, as well as another blast in 2003. From those two earlier incidents the company had learned what had gone wrong and how to prevent explosions in the future, but yet supposedly did not follow any of the advice that had been suggested.

Those steps included storing the hydrogen gas - used for cooling - away from people and buildings, and to also make sure that the gas was in an area without a roof. In addition, another step should have been to replace the copper relief values with stainless steel valves.

However, according to the attorney none of those steps had been taken.

As of now American Electric Power is denying any responsibility for the accident, and claims that the company had been relying on its supplier, General Hydrogen, to maintain the systems.

From the 2007 explosion numerous workers have filed civil lawsuits, yet this is the first one to go to trial. In this case the 53-year-old worker suffered from shoulder, back and neck injuries that required surgery. In addition, the man can no longer work, and reportedly suffers from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the blast.

The trial started earlier this week and is scheduled for a total of two weeks.

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