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At the Oak Point manufacturing plant in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, you can see Chevron Oronite's pro-active quest to maintain a safe work environment in action. By working closely with local community leaders and safety personnel, nearby residents feel safe and secure knowing Oronite takes extra precautions at Oak Point.

Oak Point has made it a regular practice to have sheriff and fire department personnel of the Plaquemines Parish community located southeast of New Orleans visit the Oak Point plant for a first-hand look at its chemical manufacturing processes. These visits educate community safety personnel to the plant's layout, and how to counteract an emergency event, such as a fire or unexpected chemical release.

While this practice can be found in other chemical companies, Oronite goes the extra step. The Oak Point volunteer Emergency Response Team (ERT), made up of personnel from all areas of the manufacturing plant, undergoes intensive fire, hazardous materials and rescue training through the Texas A&M University Engineering Extension Service fire training program.

Also, ERT volunteers attend Chevron's eight-hour fire safety program at its Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi. Taking that training even further, Oronite's Oak Point ERT makes a point of familiarizing community response teams with its emergency practices. This collaboration will reduce the risk of injury or damage in case of an unplanned event. This training qualifies Oak Point ERT personnel as among the most highly trained in the industry.

"We constantly run drills to train our emergency response personnel, and they have more fire and emergency training than any other company in the industry," said Philip Taylor, Oak Point's Safety and Security Supervisor "We revisit our response plans and training matrix regularly to ensure it can operate as planned.

Community Engagement

"We take that extra step by inviting the sheriff, fire departments, Coast Guard, FBI and nearby Navy Base Emergency Manager in for a plant tour to give them an overview of what we do," Philip added. "We also provide training and conduct mutual aid drills together. That way their response teams and ours are familiar with each other and the chemicals involved."

Once every three months, a local community oversight group visits the Oak Point plant to learn of any new processes and procedures. The meetings enable residents and plant officials to develop trust and understanding. It also allows the plant to communicate any planned special events such as a plant wide shutdown or expansion project.

It is common practice at Oak Point, Philip said, for the plant to alert the sheriff's department in advance of any out of the ordinary sounds or plant activities, such as those from upcoming plant wide shutdowns causing increased traffic in the community and alarms due to warning system testing.

The extension of Oak Point's community outreach includes assisting the local government with the recent purchase of communication software that allows local residents to be contacted by phone with a prerecorded message in case special action needs to be taken, including evacuation, hurricane warnings, chemical spills and street closures.

Lessons Learned

The lessons learned from past events, including Hurricane Katrina, have been incorporated into Oak Point's emergency plans. Those plans include items such as:

• Pre-arranging last-minute flights via helicopter so personnel in charge of shutting down Oak Point during an approaching hurricane can be guaranteed evacuation.
• Putting plans in place so any of several Emergency Operating Centers (EOCs) around the country can be activated at a moment's notice, thereby creating a place for plant personnel to call for information and for Management Staff to coordinate efforts for a safe and quick recovery.
• Implementing full business continuity plans, so that when able, services such as housing, food and security can be provided to plant personnel while they focus on bringing Oak Point's manufacturing capabilities back to life.
• And contracting an outside agency to build, operate and then dismantle a Camp Oronite for local housing, food and medical care as needed for plant personnel.

In working closely with the local community and preparing for the worst, Chevron Oronite is taking the added precautions needed to be among the industry's safest, most reliable companies. Oak Point and all Oronite plants around the globe take extra measures to protect people and the environment.

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