STEPS Network Meeting August 16, 2006

Hosted by Brent Cook and Antonio Jimenez, Halliburton

Purpose: The South Texas Exploration and Production Safety Network, commonly known as the STEPS Network, promotes safety, health and environmental improvement in the exploration and production of oil and gas in South Texas. The STEPS Network fosters a work environment that relies upon open communication and trust.

Travis Dittman, JJ Keller

• New Manifest Form Required for All Hazardous Waste Handlers

Contact Information: Roxanne Smith, (202) 564-4355 / smith.roxanne@epa.gov

On Sept. 5, 2006, all hazardous waste generators and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities must use EPA's standardized hazardous waste manifest form. Since 1980, the manifest form has provided a complete paper trail of a waste's progress from generation to disposal. It also identifies the type, amount, and toxicity of hazardous waste being shipped. The standardized form that is being implemented today, will save waste handlers and regulators time and money, while guaranteeing the continued, safe management of hazardous waste. The standardized form reduces or eliminates many of the variables in state requirements. EPA's new manifest form also provides check boxes and adds fields that allow for better tracking of complicated shipments, such as container residues, rejected wastes, and interstate shipments. The new form also makes it easier to collect data for hazardous waste reporting.

EPA has ensured uniformity by authorizing printers and providing them with precise specifications. Like the old form, each standardized form carries a unique preprinted manifest tracking number. The standardized form also allows multistate waste handlers to register and use their own manifest forms everywhere they do business. EPA estimates about 139,000 businesses in approximately 45 industries ship about 12 million tons of hazardous wastes annually.

These businesses use between 2 and 5 million hazardous waste manifests. Information on the Standardized Manifest Form:
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/gener/manifest/

List of EPA-approved printers for the forms: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/gener/manifest/registry/printers.htm

Joe Hurt, International Association of Drilling Contractors – Annual Report on Occupational Incidents for 2005

• http://www.iadc.org/asp/aspstats.htm

• Contact information – Joe Hurt, 713-292-1945 or joe.hurt@iadc.org

• www.scsfftag.com
  

• The goal of Safe Nation is to make safety as fun, informative, and entertaining as possible. To us, safety is about more than just rules and controls, borders and boundaries. Safety is not about a bunch of regulations, incident rates, meetings or procedures, although that certainly is part of it. Safety is about hope, love, joy, even faith. It's about the peace of mind that comes from living in a world free from harm. It is about friendship, about caring about the well-being of yourself and others, about going the extra mile and doing the right thing, not for any immediate return or personal gratification, but simply because it is the right thing to do. Safety is verb, a word that conveys action. It's not a slogan. It's not an afterthought. It is the way of living life free of accidents and pain.

• SafeNation is a weekly radio broadcast Saturday mornings on ESPN 1230 AM KSIX 10-11A.M. You may listen live worldwide via streaming audio on www.WJBO.com 1-2 CST.

• http://www.safenation.org/

• Twenty-five work-related fatalities were reported to the Corpus Christi Area Office since October 1, 2005 (five were oil and gas related).

• General OSHA information PowerPoint Presentation available - Click Here

The next meeting will be held Wednesday August 16, 2006 at 8am at the Holiday Inn Airport in Corpus Christi.