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| Power plant honored for high safety standards |
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| Written by Jonathan Partridge / Patterson Irrigator / | |
| Saturday, 29 September 2007 | |
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“We want to be above what's required.” - Terry Coble, Plant Environmental Specialist & Safety Coordinator  Elias Funez / Patterson Irrigator California’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday presented Covanta with a flag at a ceremony to honor the incinerator and power plant for qualifying for its “Star” Voluntary Protection Program. Plant representatives say they hope to improve even more. “Most people think that raising a flag during a ceremony would be like crossing the finish line in a race,” said Tim Jenkins, VPP chairman for Covanta’s Stanislaus facility. “But, in fact, raising the flag is more like a starting point.” Fifty-one plants in California and 1,844 facilities nationwide have qualified for the OSHA VPP Star program. Participating plants must continue to show improvement in safety, give an annual progress report, show no fatalities and few injuries and mentor folks at other plants that want to enter the program. In return, they are exempt for three years from routine compliance inspections. Covanta’s Crows Landing facility is the third plant in Stanislaus County to enroll in the program. Georgia-Pacific Corp.’s container facility in Modesto and International Paper’s plant in Turlock also have qualified. Plant environmental specialist and safety coordinator Terry Coble noted that the power plant also was named to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Performance Track in March. Coble said of the federal award that the plant wanted to go above and beyond required emissions requirements. “It’s not just for us; it’s for the surrounding community,” he said. Covanta, which burns garbage and converts steam into electricity, has fallen under criticism in the past from some environmental groups that oppose incinerators. However, Coble said the company hopes to meet air and solid waste requirements and be a good neighbor.  Elias Funez / Patterson Irrigator Coble said the process entailed many meetings, and Cal-OSHA representatives made several recommendations. Those included creating lifting stations for chemical barrels and improving signs around the plant. In addition, workers receive annual training from the American Red Cross in skills such as CPR. John Klett, chief operating officer of Covanta, compared the plant’s operations with ducks floating on water — they look smooth and easy at first glance, but there is a lot of paddling going on to make it happen. “They’re power plants,” he said. “They’re dangerous operations.” The plant, which mostly burns trash from Stanislaus County and the city of Modesto, is allowed to take as much as 1,700 tons of trash a day. Coble said it has not always been easy to get all 43 of the plant’s employees to buy in to the safety program. Still, many workers seemed enthusiastic Wednesday. “It’s a good opportunity for the plant to show the improvement,” auxiliary operator Jaime Villegas said. Shift supervisor Dino Rivas said it takes longer to do jobs than it used to, but people pay more attention to safety now and take more pride in their work. “It brought a lot of the guys together,” he said. Iraj Pourmehraban, California VPP manager for Cal-OSHA, said he was impressed with the local plant, the only incinerator in California to be a part of the VPP program. “The team that did the evaluation was impressed with the cooperation they received from management,” he said.  Elias Funez / Patterson Irrigator Ridenour said he regularly drops off items to destroy at the plant, and the plant workers are always extremely conscious of safety. The sheriff’s department regularly drops off contraband such as guns and drugs. County supervisors Jim DeMartini, Jeff Grover and Dick Monteith also showed up to Wednesday’s ceremony, as did a representative from the office of Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater. The ceremony also included a time for raising the VPP flag. Coble said Covanta workers wanted to make sure they would not lose that token of honor. “We want to be above what's required,” he said. To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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