Safety & Health

Optima Chemical Group LLC places the highest priority on safety programs throughout the facility. Our commitment to safety is evidenced by our record. Our plant has completed over 7 years of operation with only one OSHA Lost Time incident and our OSHA recordable rate is well below the industry average over the same period of time.

Optima has been recognized for exceptional Safety, Health, and Environmental performance awards over the last several years:

• Georgia Department of Labor, Safety Engineering Division – “Award of Excellence in Safety” received in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
• Most Improved Safety Program Award for the State of Georgia for the years 2000-2005 awarded by the Georgia Department of Labor in 2005.
• Safety, Health, and Environmental Achievement Award for 2002, 2003, & 2004 - awarded by the Synthetic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA).
• SOCMA Environmental, Health, Safety, and Security Achievement award Recipient – 2005 & 2006
• Certified as a Drug Free Workplace for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 -Georgia Board of Workers Compensation.

Optima participates in the OSHA Voluntary Compliance Program, conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, for the State of Georgia. This program involves a comprehensive audit of the facility every 3 years by OSHA experts. If any compliance issues are discovered during these inspections, they are immediately and voluntarily remedied by the company.

Additionally many of our contract manufacturing customers conduct audits of our site as well. Since 2004, we have hosted ~20 of such audits. We encourage these audits and consider them valuable as another “outside” assessment of how we are operating our plant and part of our commitment for continual improvement in our safety systems.
Optima is an active member of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA), and also endorses the ChemStewards® Program. SOCMA's ChemStewards® program is the only Environmental, Health, Safety and Security (EHS&S) program designed specifically for the unique requirements of the batch, custom and specialty chemical industry. It provides guidance that helps ensure compliance with all federal laws and regulations. The company is required to report details of its compliance programs to SOCMA on an annual basis.
Many of our production processes are covered under the OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) requirements. As a result, the facility has such programs as Mechanical Integrity, Preventive Maintenance, Incident Investigations, Management of Change, Process Hazard Analysis, etc. for all manufacturing processes.

 

Environmental

Likewise our Environmental performance has been exceptional as well. No audits over the last 8 years have yielded any violations of our permits. Routine unannounced inspections are conducted by the permitting authorities listed below:

• The Georgia Environmental Protection Division issues and administers the Synthetic Air Emissions Permit for the facility. Pollution control equipment under this permit includes: Flare system for emergency relief, cryogenic (-70 degrees C) process vent recovery system, baghouse filter for particulate removal, and scrubbers for individual processes.
• The Georgia Environmental Protection Division issues and administers the Hazardous Waste Handling Permit for the facility. Under this permit the facility is allowed to generate hazardous waste, store it up to 90 days, and ship it for disposal.
• The Georgia Environmental Protection Division issues and administers the Stormwater Discharge Permit for the facility.
• The City of Douglas (POTW) issues and administers the Wastewater Discharge Permit for the facility. This permit allows facility wastewater to be discharged to the local POTW under strict guidelines.
• The Federal Department of Treasury issues and administers the Alcohol (ethanol) User Permit for the facility.
• The Federal Department of Transportation issues and administers the Hazardous Materials registration.

As with our Safety and Health programs, many of our contract manufacturing customers have conducted Environmental audits as well with no adverse findings.

In summary, our customers find our Safety, Health, Security, and Environmental performance more than satisfactory to support our relationships. Although we take pride in that aspect, our most important motivation is the responsibility we have for the protection of our employees and local community.