OSHA and sewer firm agree on penalty

A Hugo company has reached a settlement with OSHA over workplace violations connected with two St. Paul sewer deaths. The firm acknowledged two violations and will pay $28,000 in fines.

By ANTHONY LONETREE, Star Tribune

Last update: October 2, 2009 - 5:10 AM

Lametti & Sons Inc., the Hugo sewer company that saw two workers swept to their deaths in the Mississippi River in St. Paul, has settled a dispute with the state over alleged workplace violations connected with the 2007 incident.

Under an agreement reached with the state Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSHA), Lametti acknowledged two violations -- OSHA had accused it of five -- and agreed to pay $28,000 in fines, down from $106,600.

The company also managed to avoid being tagged with a "willful violation" -- one of the stiffest in the OSHA hierarchy, with a minimum penalty of $50,000. Two of the five citations initially issued against Lametti by OSHA had carried the "willful" designation.

James Honerman, an OSHA spokesman, said the agency was confident in agreeing that Lametti had addressed the issues uncovered during a post-drownings inspection and that its work sites would be safe in the future.

"The main goal at the end of the day is to address the hazards that we saw," Honerman said.

Arnold Kraft, a Lametti spokesman, said that he had not been involved with the negotiations, and could not comment. Fred Chase, the company vice president who signed the August agreement, did not return a phone call Thursday.

The two workers -- Dave Yasis, 23, and Joe Harlow, 34 -- died when a sudden downpour on July 26, 2007, flooded the tunnels and carried them from the city's Frogtown area to the Mississippi River.

They were among six workers who'd grown frustrated by the slow pace of a crane-and-hoist system lifting employees out of a sewer shaft at Avon Street and Edmund Avenue. The six rushed to a ladder more than two blocks away, but only four of them made it out.

Because of the alleged inadequacies of the hoist system, Lametti was cited in 2008 with a "willful violation." In the August settlement, however, that violation was lowered a notch to "serious," and a $25,000 penalty was assessed.

Lametti also was ordered to pay $3,000 for a second "serious violation" involving the alleged inadequacies of the tunnel communications system.

Honerman said that the company has paid the penalties.

Anthony Lonetree • 612-673-4109

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