D C S SANITATION MANAGEMENT, INC.

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, D C S SANITATION MANAGEMENT, INC. — a industry sector 00 facility located at 1501 E. 8TH ST., LIBERAL, KS 67901 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 17 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $27,250.00. The inspection case was opened on 1993-03-04.

The volume of citations issued during this inspection suggests systematic compliance deficiencies rather than isolated incidents. Facilities with 10 or more citations typically face comprehensive abatement requirements and may be subject to follow-up inspections.

State Context: Within KS, this facility's penalty places it at the 99th percentile among 19,826 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $3,225.89.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 17 citations spanning 8 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 8 serious — A workplace hazard that could cause death or serious physical harm exists, and the employer knew or should have known about the condition. 7 other-than-serious — The violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning January 7, 1992 with the latest abatement deadline set for April 6, 1993. Of the 17 total citations, 15 (88%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, indicating substantial compliance with corrective action requirements.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $27,250.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $1,602.94 falls within the standard penalty range.

The citation profile for D C S Sanitation Management, Inc. reveals a profound systemic failure in energy control and hazardous noise management, indicative of a high-risk operational environment. The heavy concentration of violations under 29 CFR 1910.147 (Lockout/Tagout) suggests that the employer failed to establish a functional safety culture regarding the neutralization of kinetic and potential energy during sanitation activities. Specifically, the high-gravity citations for inadequate periodic inspections, insufficient training, and a lack of specific energy control procedures point to a management team that treated LOTO requirements as administrative suggestions rather than life-saving mandates. For workers, this creates a catastrophic environment where the risk of crushing injuries, amputations, or fatalities during machine cleaning is significantly elevated. Furthermore, the penalty severity—particularly the $4,000 assessments for individual LOTO standards—is notably high for the early 1990s, signaling that OSHA inspectors identified egregious gaps in the facility’s safety infrastructure. The concurrent violations for noise exposure and respiratory protection further reinforce the conclusion that this was not an isolated lapse, but rather a comprehensive breakdown in the facility's overall health and safety management system (HSMS). The presence of multiple serious violations with maximum gravity ratings indicates that the hazards were not only present but were well-known or should have been obvious to supervision, representing a pervasive neglect of fundamental industrial hygiene and mechanical safety protocols.