Tooele Transcript Bulletin
September 25, 2003

Workers’ safety perception at TOCDF increases

by Karen Lee Scott
Staff Writer

The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF) located at Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD) has been on a maintenance outage since Sept. 4.

The main reason for the outage was to replace a Spent Decon System (SDS) tank liner. Such tanks are used inside the plant during decontamination processes to store liquids.
In addition, TOCDF officials determined that other minor preventive maintenance should take place “to ensure sustained, reliable processing operations through the remainder of the VX nerve agent destruction campaign.”

During the maintenance outage, special attention has been placed on many items some of which were the Deactivation Furnace System and the Metal Parts Furnace (MPF) discharge airlock and ducts.

According to Stephen Frankiewicz, general manger for contractor EG&G Defense Materials, operations are planned to restart in early October.

He told county commissioners on Sept. 23 that the outage will put the planned schedule of events approximately 35 days behind, however he is also confident the operation could catch up.

Frankiewicz said there will be approximately 160 one-ton containers, 17,472 155mm projectiles, 1,070 M-55 rockets, and 51 M56 rockets that are behind schedule.

In addition to the outage report he also gave the commissioners results of a survey conducted by EG&G. The survey was similar to one the Army conducted in 2002. Results were tallied from over 200 employees responses to questions about the effectiveness of EG&G’s “Safety Culture,” a program designed to improve safe production.

Of those surveyed, 80 percent said management placed sufficient emphasis on safe production compared to last year’s much lower approval rate of 48 percent.

The 2003 survey showed that 61 percent said that had known of a safety concern that was reported to management and was sufficiently addressed. This is 41 percentage points higher than last year’s result of 20 percent.

Also this year two percent of those surveyed said they knew someone who had been exposed to agent but did not report it, a decline from last year’s four percent rating.

The recent survey found that one out of 25 persons (four percent) said they have been asked to fix a problem but not report it, compared to last year’s 16 percent. Four percent of those surveyed said they knew someone who was fired after reporting a safety concern, in contrast to last year’s finding of 11 percent.

Additionally 91 percent of those surveyed said they did not feel pressure to continue working even when they felt working conditions were unsafe. Eighty-six percent said they felt they could easily express safety concerns to their immediate supervisor, and 64 percent said they could communicate the same to the plant manager.

Since the Army conducted its 2002 survey, the management of the plant has been changed. Frankiewicz added that the 2003 survey asked employees to respond only to the questions from their experiences since the beginning of the VX campaign.

He said though some may have missed that portion of the instructions, the good news is that in comparison to last year’s survey, improvements were shown across the board. Frankiewicz said there is definite room for improvement, but added that everyone can’t be pleased, “no matter what you do.”