Worker Falls From 8-Story Water Tower: $485K OSHA Fine

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited a New Jersey water tower painting company for three willful and 19 serious violations after finding the contractor failed to provide safety equipment that would’ve prevented an employee from falling 80 feet to the bottom of a water tower.

U.S. Tank Painting Inc. employed workers to sandblast and paint the tower and replace a ladder attached to the structure to access the tower’s peak. In January 2024, a worker fell while climbing a maintenance tube ladder into the water tank and suffered severe injuries.

After an investigation, OSHA safety inspectors determined U.S. Tank Painting failed to protect workers from fall hazards and “exposed workers to respiratory injuries and hearing loss while working in a permit-required confined space, fire and explosion hazards, and long-term lung damage related to unsafe levels of silica dust.”

OSHA’s Response

In a press release, OSHA Area Director Paula Dixon-Roderick in Marlton, New Jersey, issued a statement on the investigation.

“An employee suffered numerous severe injuries because their employer did not make sure legally required fall protection was provided for workers climbing up and down the inside of an 8-story water tower,” Dixon-Roderick said. “We intend to hold employers responsible when they fail to follow rules put in place to protect the safety and well-being of workers.”

OSHA cited the company for three willful and 19 serious violations for failing to:

• Ensure workers used fall protection while ascending or descending the maintenance tube ladder.
• Reduce noise levels below the permissible exposure level using hearing protection, administrative or engineering controls.
• Evaluate the hazards within the water tower, which was considered “a permit-required confined space”, and ensure the hazards were eliminated.
• Complete required confined space permits.
• Develop a rescue plan for those working inside the water tower, for which the company was cited in 2017.
• Provide continuous air monitoring equipment for use inside the water tower.
• Take proper safety precautions when flammable paint was being used.
• Evaluate employee exposure to crystalline silica contained within paint, which was found to be over safe levels.
• Train workers on crystalline silica hazards and have a specific silica program for the jobsite.
• Develop a site-specific respiratory protection program.
• Ensure the use of a carbon monoxide detector when workers used supplied air respirators.
• Provide the required respirator cartridge needed to filter crystalline silica.

U.S. Tank Painting faces $485,580 in proposed penalties for the violations.