Workers at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, located at the Deseret Chemical Depot, achieved a major safety milestone this month — reaching and surpassing 6 million consecutive man hours worked without a lost workday injury.

“Achieving this milestone shows that all of our workers recognized the importance of working safely,” said Ted Ryba, the TOCDF project manager. “I congratulate them for their accomplishment.”

The contract workforce of almost 1,000 — from contractors EG&G Defense Materials and Battelle Memorial Institute — at TOCDF jointly accumulates 6,000 man hours for each work day worked, Grieser said, which means this safety record has been in the making for over three years.

“This is the first time we’ve reached the six million mark,” Grieser said, adding that the previous safety record the plant had set was 3.5 million safe man hours back in September 2004.

Grieser said TOCDF’s injury rate on a national scale falls in between that of computer training and financial-based companies, which have an entirely different set of risks associated with day-to-day operations.

“Very few industrial plants in the world have achieved this level of safety performance, let alone one with such a challenging and high-hazard mission,” said Gary McCloskey, EG&G vice president and general manager. “Our people have made this project successful, and they deserve recognition for their outstanding achievement.”

Operations began at TOCDF in 1996 and since then more than 1 million chemical weapons have been destroyed, along with nearly 10,000 tons of chemical agents, according to Grieser.

Currently, operations are focused on destroying thousands of ton containers of mustard agent. In July, workers wrapped up a sampling project in which all the mustard containers were tested for elevated levels of mercury. Those that contained an elevated level were separated from those that contained minimal levels of mercury. The containers with minimal levels are currently being processed, while the others will be processed following the installation of a special filter designed to capture the mercury before it is released through the exhaust system into the atmosphere.

Grieser said the safety achievement should give the community faith in TOCDF’s continuing work.

“This is a way to tell people that we’re still here, we’re still working and we’re almost done,” Grieser said. “It shows that as a team we recognized the importance of safely working together.

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com