Audit: North Carolina agency rarely fined propane gas rules violators

By Emery P. DalesioThe Associated Press RALEIGH - A state agency responsible for checking the reserve of propane and other liquefied petroleum gas facilities rarely fined operators, even when they repeatedly violated regulations, according to an audit released Thursday.Inspectors for the standards division of the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services found 7,466 violations representing potential threats to public health and reserve in the year after October 2009, when the agency was authorized to hand out stiffer civil penalties, the audit by State Auditor Beth Wood's office found. LP gas, primarily propane, can burn or explode if it comes in contact with the spark.The violations included nearly 200 cases in which emergency shutoff valves didn't work, the report said. Other violations included gas storage plants that were not locked when unattended, leaks around tanks and pipes, and documentation deficiencies, the report said. Nearly 10 percent of the violations were repeat discoveries of problems that hadn't been fixed, with some operators having as many as seven repeat violations, the report said.While the Agriculture Department could have assessed the total of up to $2.5 million in fines for some 7,000 violations, it instead only hit two facilities with fines totaling $7,100, the report said. Those fines were negotiated down to $4,000, state auditors said. About 80 percent of fines collected go to public education.The Agriculture Department said in the response that it assessed few penalties because its database was incapable of tracking violations, and without the database it risked inconsistent treatment of companies being fined different amounts for similar violations. The database and the schedule aligning violations with penalties became effective for inspections of bulk storage plants in September, and since then seven civil penalties have been issued, the agency said. Other types of facilities will be added to the database in the fu! ture, th e agency said.Standards Division Director Stephen Benjamin also told auditors that besides being the regulator, the Agriculture Department sees its job as educating those it inspects and suggesting solutions to their problems. The department is more concerned with getting companies in compliance with regulations than punishing them for violations, Benjamin told The Associated Press.The report by Wood's office rejected that view."Based on the volume of repeat violations at LP-gas facilities, the department's expectation of voluntary compliance with respect to repairs or corrective action has been ineffective," the audit report said. "Thus, the threat to public health and reserve continues and directly conflicts with the department's goal to protect consumers."A complaint from the public triggered the review of the state agriculture agency's LP gas program, the audit report said.In the response accompanying the audit report, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said the $2.5 million figure for potential fines totaled the maximum penalty on all violations, though state law allows the commissioner to consider the extent of potential harm."The wording of the statute would seem to preclude the imposition of the maximum penalty for all violations," said Troxler, who is the Republican. Wood is the Democrat.The majority of propane gas companies want fines assessed against violators because responsible companies are spending thousands of dollars to comply, North Carolina Propane Gas Association executive director John Jessup said.