PPL Montana's Corette power plant is the first industrial site in the state to receive a top federal safety award for its health and safety programs.

Representatives from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration awarded the plant "Star" certification in the agency's Voluntary Protection Program during a ceremony at the facility this morning (6/9). The program recognizes companies that go beyond compliance to protect worker health and safety. The VPP Star certification is the highest safety recognition given within the program.

"At PPL Montana, health and safety come first," said Brad Spencer, PPL Montana's vice president and chief operating officer. "Employees at Corette have challenged themselves to continuously improve plant safety. Their success is reflected in the new Star status, and their efforts protect one of our greatest assets — our people."

Companies that qualify for VPP status view OSHA standards as a minimum level of safety and health performance and set their own, more stringent, standards for effective employee protection. VPP participant sites generally experience 60 percent fewer lost-workday injuries than average sites of similar size in their industries. Only about 1,250 of the more than 7 million sites that OSHA monitors nationwide have achieved VPP recognition.

The Corette plant's "designation as a VPP site is a testament to sustained excellence in all areas of your safety and health management system," wrote Jonathan L. Snare, acting assistant secretary for OSHA, in announcing the award.

OSHA evaluates the following components of a safety and health program to determine if a facility is worthy of VPP Star status: management leadership, employee involvement, work-site analysis, training, and hazard prevention and control. An OSHA team re-evaluates VPP Star sites every three to five years for recertification. To be recertified, sites must continue to show improvement in their safety and health programs.

"Corette has an excellent safety record, and our teamwork throughout the VPP process has only helped to sharpen our focus on safety," said Don Hendricks, business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 44. "It's nice to be recognized with the Star designation. More importantly, it’s nice to know you work in a safe place."

Corette began the VPP process in the summer of 2003 and is the first PPL Montana power plant to achieve OSHA's Star status. This year, PPL Montana's Kerr hydroelectric facility is expected to apply for the designation and the company's Colstrip power plant will start the VPP process.

The 154-megawatt, coal-fired Corette plant, which began operation in 1968, is on the Yellowstone River southwest of downtown Billings. The plant employs 35 people.

PPL Montana operates 11 hydroelectric power plants along the Missouri, Madison, Clark Fork and Flathead rivers and Rosebud Creek, as well as two coal-fired plants in Colstrip and Billings, that give it a combined generating capacity of about 1,200 megawatts. The company employs about 500 people at its facilities throughout the state with offices in Billings, Butte and Helena.