Evonik’s Calvert City Facility Completes Successful Emergency Exercise

Evonik Degussa Corporation, which operates a catalysts manufacturing plant and research and technology center at 5150 Gilbertsville Highway, conducted a successful emergency drill at the site on Wednesday, March 30.

Michael Ross, site manager, praised the efforts of Evonik employees, Marshall County Emergency Medical Services, Occunet - an occupational medicine clinic - and Lourdes Hospital’s Emergency Department in making the drill a success. He noted that companies such as Evonik periodically undertake emergency exercises as part of their strong commitment to ensuring the highest standards of preparedness and safety.

“Everything went according to plan,” said Ross. “Each site must have an emergency plan, and the idea behind the drill was to test this emergency plan,” he said. “All of the participants share a professional interest as first responders in improving their emergency preparedness. We would like to thank the Emergency Medical Services, Occunet, and Lourdes Hospital’s Emergency Department for their participation and their contribution to the success of the exercise.”

Ross noted that exercises such as the one conducted Wednesday ensure the readiness of local personnel in the unlikely event of a real occurrence.

“We saw first hand the professionalism, cooperation, and communication between various agencies and Evonik – something residents of the area should be proud of,” said Daran Janecek, ESH & Process Technology Manager at the site. “We are very pleased with the excellent responses and are extremely grateful to all our partners for their continuing commitment and support.”

Melissa Combs, Director of Marshall County Emergency Management, noted that the mock drill demonstrated a high level of co-operation between the county and Evonik and provided the organizations opportunities to share knowledge and experience. “Events such as Wednesday’s drill allow us an opportunity to test and refine plans prior to an actual event. It also allows us an opportunity to strengthen our partnership with industrial facilities such as Evonik,” she said. “By working together we improve overall response and continue to strengthen multi-discipline unity throughout the entire response framework. Local responders and Evonik staff demonstrated their continual commitment to safety and preparedness.”

Donna Croft, Emergency Department Director at Lourdes Hospital, praised the alertness and training of all participants and noted that communication and organization are critical elements of a successful emergency response. ‘We hope we never have an actual emergency,” said Croft of Lourdes. “But it is important that we test our ability to deal with an incident of this nature. We want to be safe, not sorry.”

Wednesday’s mock scenario involved a worker being hypothetically exposed to a toxic waste gas at the plant. The employee, who was wearing personal protective equipment
that was resistant to the gas for up to 30 minutes, was treated by onsite emergency responders from Occunet and transported to Lourdes Hospital for further testing, treatment and observation. After an hour or so at Lourdes, the employee was released.

Evonik Degussa’s Calvert City facility manufactures precious metal powder catalyst used in agricultural, pharmaceutical and fine chemicals production as well as continuous process catalysts used in petrochemical and fuels processing. The plant has around 50 employees.

For additional information about Evonik in North America, please visit our website: www.evonik.com/north-america.