Mr. William J. Gibson
Manager, Regulatory Compliance
James River Pennington, Inc.
Naheola Mill HC 66
Box 315
Pennington, Alabama 36916
Dear Mr. Gibson:
This is in response to your letter of May 11, addressed to Mr.
Joseph A. Dear, Assistant Secretary of the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) concerning your request for a
permanent variance and interim order from 29 CFR
1910.261(g)(17)(i). Your letter was forwarded to the Directorate of
Technical Support for a response.
The above standard requires that "A safety valve shall be
installed in a separate line from each pressure vessel; no hand
valve shall be installed between this safety valve and the pressure
vessel. Safety valves shall be checked between each cook to be sure
they have not become plugged or corroded to the point of being
inoperative." In lieu of complying with the standard, you are
requesting a variance to use process computers to continuously
monitor your batch digester operations and to use conventional
relief valves which function independently.
Currently, we are evaluating your request to determine if it
merits consideration for a permanent variance. We will contact you
when the evaluation is completed.
Regarding your request for an interim order, OSHA acknowledges
that the Agency's regulation (29 CFR 1905) provides for interim
relief where a permanent variance has been sought. However, OSHA
has long held that section 6(d) of the Occupational Safety and
Health Act, which provides for the grant of permanent variances,
does not provide for the grant of interim relief. Therefore, the
provisions of 29 CFR 1905.11, which address the grant of interim
relief, are inoperative.
If you have any questions concerning your variance request,
please contact Ms. Juanita Jones in the Office of Variance
Determination at (202) 219-7193.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Adkins, CIH
Director
Directorate of Technical Support