Safety issues revealed in watermain repair audit

The city's current safety standards when it comes to watermain excavation and repair are not acceptable, according to Mayor Marianne Matichuk.

Donning her safety hat, Matichuk said she was alarmed to find in auditor general Brian's Bigger report on the city's watermain repair practices that crews did not consistently meet the minimum requirements of the Ministry of Labour or the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) regarding excavations, nor the city's standard operating procedures for trenches and excavations.

The city performs about 278 watermain repairs requiring excavation each year, Bigger wrote in his report. Current excavation work crews may not consistently slope excavations, and the audit concluded that the current partial sloping methods do not follow OHSA regulations, which might expose the city to significant legal liability in the case of an accident.

Matichuk said the situation has slipped over the years since she was involved in helping to shape regulations with the city's joint health and safety committee and management to ensure the safety of workers. There are trenching regulations that must be followed, she said, and “those were the standards set when I left, and I've noticed it has deteriorated since then.”

“I'm wearing my safety hat here, and I see areas in need of serious and immediate improvement,” Matichuk said. “These standards are not acceptable. It should never have gotten to this point. In saving money, it should never take away from saving a life.”

Matichuk called for an independent safety audit on the city's safety practices, “because this is showing me there are problems that need to be corrected. I want to ensure our staff are following the minimum standards in all areas to protect themselves.”

The use of trench boxes was the method suggested in the audit to address the safety issue, as well as a potential cost-saving measure. Using trench boxes could potentially save the city about $322,000 a year if this method completely replaced the sloping practices, with the potential to free up 1,688 productive hours.

Management has already identified trench boxes, crew productivity and evening shifts as opportunities at which they had been looking, Bigger said. He said many observations made only served to confirm what management already knew.

Through discussion with management, it was agreed upon that the city would implement trench boxes about 50 per cent of the time while working to adhere to the minimum safety standards. As such, it would potentially save the city $31,000 a year over using the current sloping method 100 per cent of the time.

“We have a plan in place now to implement a more widespread use of trench boxes as a tool not only to maintain the safety of our employees on a consistent basis, but also to help us be as efficient as possible in conducting our operations,” Nick Benkovich, director of water wastewater services for the city, said.

When it came to light that there was an observation from the auditor that a trench was deemed unsafe, the city took immediate action to protect employees through retraining and refamiliarization with safe practices, and through reaffirmation with all team members that it is important to follow all of the regulations as consistently as possible, he said.

“It has always been our intention to conduct our operations in full compliance with the provincial regulations, and we're going to follow through to make sure that's what is happening in the field.”

To that end, the city has already ordered two trench boxes, each with an approximate $10,000 price tag, he said.

“We have indicated our agreement with the recommendations and our willingness to implement as many of them as possible,” Benkovich said. “We have a commitment in water wastewater for continuous improvement and that's not just a saying, it's something by which we try to live. If someone like the auditor general has an opportunity to identify where we can improve our operations, we're more than happy to try them and implement them as soon as possible.”

One of the things about the safety finding in the audit is that it is correctable, Benkovich added, and staff have moved fast to correct it.

“We've put that situation behind us,” he said. “What was very gratifying to find was that the auditor had no recommendations on water quality or how we conduct our core water wastewater functions. From our perspective, it just goes to show the community can rest assured that we are providing consistently safe drinking water and that we have environmentally responsible water wastewater operations.”

Indeed, Bigger said the audit of the city's watermain repair practices is a great example of a successful process. Management was open to discussions and to making improvements.

“The most important piece of any audit is management response and the actions taken to address solutions,” Bigger said. “The key message here is, that by the time this report landed on the desks of the audit committee members, management had already implemented the recommendations, and that has set a high standard for future audits.”

Other recommendations in the audit are reducing crew sizes to three from the current four-person crew with the implementation of trench boxes; enhanced supervisory control over overtime, as in one instance, auditors observed a case of overtime abuse; implementing afternoon and weekend shifts; centralized deployment of water wastewater distribution and collection work crews to aid in improving divisional performance.

Posted by Mark Gentili