US CSB recommendation on alarm floods: still open
13 May 2025 (recommendation 24 June 2024).
After its investigation of the September 2022 fire at the BP-Husky refinery in Oregon, Ohio, the US Chemical Safety Board recommended that ISA revise its alarm management standard, ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016, to add performance targets for alarm floods: number, duration, alarm count and peak rate, with at least a target peak flood rate. In May 2025 the Board recorded ISA’s response as acceptable, after ISA gave a plan and timetable. No revised standard has been found (CSB).
What it means for operators: until the standard sets flood targets, each site sets its own. Higher automation and more units per control room make that target part of the change, as Havtil’s Johan Sverdrup order shows. More: AI in process control and the DCS.