MADAWASKA – For the second time in one week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has hit Fraser Papers Inc. with penalties for what it claims are five violations discovered during an inspection that lasted for months.

The newest violations, termed serious and willful by OSHA, calls for penalties of up to $90,500. The company has 15 days to contest the violations and penalties or pay the penalties.

The citation and notification of penalties was dated Oct. 17.

Although the inspection, which lasted from April 20 to Oct. 13, started the day an employee died at Fraser, the accidental death and the name of Marc Baron, the employee who died, are not mentioned in the report.

A week ago, OSHA cited Fraser with 65 violations and $55,000 in penalties. Those issues dealt with accidents and incidents that were not reported within allotted times by the company.

Marc Baron died April 20 when he fell 28 feet into a large tank which usually contains Hydrex, a clay like ingredient used in the papermaking process. The tank is inside an area of the mill where catalog paper is made.

Baron, an electrician, was wiring a motor atop the tank when a grating he was standing on collapsed and he fell into the tank. Baron had been working at Fraser for 27 years when the accident happened. He died instantly of blunt force trauma.

It was the first fatal accident at Fraser since 1962, when two men died after entering a tank.

Company officials and OSHA officials were called for clarification of the latest penalties, but neither returned calls Tuesday.

The most serious of the citations, termed willful by OSHA, called for a penalty of $70,000. It claims employees were exposed to a fall of 28 feet to the bottom of the Hydrex tank inside the catalog mill, and employees did not wear safety harnesses.

Other citation, two of them termed serious, called for penalties of $7,000 each. The citations claimed the company had not identified tank covers used as walking and working surfaces, such as the Hydrex tank cover, as a hazard, and that the company had not performed a workplace assessment to determine if fall hazards were present.

Also termed serious was a citation that claims that employees working atop the Hydrex tank were not properly connected to a fall arrest device and that employees accessed an opening on the tank without fall protection. The penalty for that violation was $5,000.

The last penalty, $1,500, was because the company did not post caution signs at all tanks, chests and pulpers to restrict access or require fall protection or fall arrest systems.

Finally, a citation for a damaged door and protruding hinges on a coater in the catalog mill was noted in the report. There was no penalty attached to this citation, termed “other.”