• Number of employees: 92
• Average number of full-time contractor employees on-site: 20
• Annual direct economic impact in Southwest Louisiana: $20 Million
• Product(s) or Service(s): CWM's Lake Charles Facility has been established as a comprehensive, full service treatment center for hazardous waste management. The facility is fully permitted to process a variety of wastes through its bio-treatment process, acid neutralization unit, stabilization, drum management and secure landfill operations.

    Prior to 1975, the site was primarily agricultural. Waste management activities began at the site in 1975 under the ownership of Sediment Removers, Inc. (SRI) which operated an industrial waste landfarm. CWM acquired the 280 acre facility from SRI in December 1978 and initiated numerous activities to upgrade disposal operations. One of these activities was to construct a slurry wall around the entire site west of John Brannon Road. A total of 81 groundwater monitoring wells were installed throughout the property, 53 of which are tested semi-annually to ensure groundwater quality is not harmed. Disposal and treatment operations began in 1979 on the west property. Currently the permitted 120 acreage east of John Brannon Road houses the site's heavy equipment maintenance shop, and transportation division.

• Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LaDEQ)
• United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Region 6
• Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

A twenty-six person Emergency Response Team (ERT), is alerted on pager call-out. All team members are Haz-Mat technicians and are industrial fire brigade certified. Each member is a state-certified First Responder in first aid. Two members are national certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). The team includes a special four-man certified rescue squad which is skilled at repelling, evacuation and extrication.

One Emergency Response Van with 24-hour response capabilities. Equipment on board includes:

• Medical gear (backboards, oxygen, fracture pack, etc.)
• Emergency rescue (ropes, pulleys, harnesses, etc.)
• Fire brigade equipment (bunker gear, S.C.B.A.s, etc.)
• Haz-Mat response and repair (patch kits, cleanup and decon equip., etc.)
• Totally encapsulated suits (three different response capabilities)
• Monitoring equipment

    One 750-gallon 1000 gallons per minute (gpm) Firetruck with four 2½" and two 1" hose line connections. Includes one removable deck gun and a 60-gallon foam capacity.

A 400,000 gallon water tank connected to a 4,500 gpm at 150 lbs. automatic trip diesel pump that supports both wet pipe sprinklers and dry pipe systems.

In the event of an incident that could result in a release of hazardous waste or hazardous waste constituents which could threaten human health or the environment, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LaDEQ) and the Louisiana State Police Hazardous Materials Unit and LaDEQ Emergency Response will be notified immediately.

The Louisiana State Police - Troop D will be contacted if there is a need for traffic control on LA 108 or John Brannon Road. The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Depart serves as backup support.

• The Chemical Waste Management (CWM) Lake Charles Facility has been a recipient of CWM's highest safety achievement, the President's Safety Award. The award is presented only to those CWM divisions that exhibit superior safety performance and exceptional health and safety program quality. The Lake Charles Facility has achieved this award in numerous years.

    To earn the prestigious award, divisions must successfully complete a progressive qualification process. Initially the division must have worked a predetermined number of hours each year and achieved a total OSHA recordable rate equal to or below the yearly goal.

Other criteria examined during the selection process include the effective use of engineering control measures to reduce employee chemical exposures as documented by industrial hygiene monitoring and the development of innovative programs to control hazards, reduce risks, or raise overall safety consciousness. Additionally, the facility must have received favorable ratings for internal and/or external safety audits.

• The Lake Charles Facility has also been awarded the President's Silver Environmental Excellence Award. This award is obtained only by those facilities that have developed systems to ensure that environmental regulations and requirements are met and exceeded wherever possible. Each employee must strive for environmental excellence in every aspect of operations from receipt and analysis to treatment and disposal, including all the operations between.

The award was earned based on the Lake Charles Facility's performance as it relates to a set of criteria established for all CWM facilities.

• In 2001, the Lake Charles Facility earned the Southwest Louisiana Quality Award for significant progress.

CWM operates a "wheelwash" at the exit of its active landfill operation. This wheelwash is used to clean the tires of vehicles and equipment exiting the landfill unit to eliminate the potential to track waste out of the landfill and onto facility and public roadways. In addition, a truckwash utilized for cleaning roll-off containers is operated near the exit of the facility.

    In the past, all of the wastewaters generated at these units have been managed as contaminated water and have been shipped off-site for disposal. Working with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LaDEQ) the staff of the Lake Charles Facility developed and received approval to initiate a recycling program for these washwaters. The concept of the recycling system is to reuse recycled waters from the units to perform the initial rinse of the vehicle to remove excess solids and to then perform a final rinse with clean water. Also, recycled waste waters are used for dust control on the landfill surface.

CWM-Lake Charles Facility has reduced the annual volume of hazardous waste generated by 20 percent from 1996 to 2000. A majority of the reduction can be contributed to recycling efforts implemented by the Lake Charles Facility.

CWM operates on an "open door" policy welcoming any visitors that wish to tour the facility. Although tours can be conducted on a "drop in" basis, prior notice helps in assuring the availability of staff to conduct the tour.

    A CWM Community Liaison Committee (CLC) was formed in November of 1993. The primary objective of this committee is to establish and maintain an ongoing, proactive dialogue between CWM management and interested parties in the community. The dialogue serves to help CWM gain a better understanding of the environmental, social and economic concerns of the community in which it operates. Committee members develop a better understanding of the hazardous waste industry and its role in achieving the societal goal of a cleaner and healthier environment.

    CWM is a member of the Calcasiue Community Advisory Panel (CAP) where industry representatives keep key community members abreast of the latest developments at area plants.

    An employee volunteer group, CWM*I*CARE, is active in the community. This group responds to community needs including fundraising for non-profits, volunteer work with various agencies, environmental projects such as road cleanups, and special community projects such as Christmas in April.

    Area agencies are supported through financial donations, as well as donations of equipment and volunteer time.

    W.W. Lewis Middle School and CWM are in their thirteenth year as Partners in Education. This partnership has resulted in the development of the annual Earth Day Commemorative Calendar featuring artwork by W.W. Lewis students. Additionally, the 12,000 square foot W.W. Lewis Botanical Garden and Outdoor Science Laboratory, complete with a 2,400 square foot pond, was completed and dedicated in 1994.

    We are continuing the projects for rewarding students who maintain top grades and who increase their GPA from reporting period to reporting period.

CWM recently donated nine computer systems to W.W. Lewis as a part of our continuing support to education enhancement.