This Year's Program

INTEGRITY OWNERSHIP SAFETY RESPECT CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TEAMWORK FIFTH Annual Salt of the Earth Awards Ceremony NOVEMBER 6TH, 2020 Salt of the Earth noun – 1. an individual or group considered as representative of the best or noblest elements of society. 2020 marks the fifth annual presentation of the Nuclear All NWP and subcontractor employees are eligible for Waste Partnership Salt of the Earth awards, the highest consideration and are nominated by their coworkers. employee recognition given by NWP. The award Nominations are then reviewed by a team of employees recognizes significant contributions to the WIPP mission who make recommendations to senior management. that exemplify and reinforce the NWP core values and Awards are presented to individuals who exemplify one or expectations. more of the six core values – Safety, Integrity, Ownership, Respect, Teamwork, and Continuous Improvement. In its fifth year, dozens of nominations were submitted for consideration, but only 22 employees are being recognized as WIPP’s Salt of the Earth. A Message from Sean I am honored to present to you the 22 Salt of the Earth award winners for FY20. This year’s honorees have made significant contributions across the organization. Their embodiment of our core values is inspiring, and they are more than deserving of the highest Nuclear Waste Partnership employee recognition award. It is especially impressive that these award winners were nominated by those who know them best, their co-workers, who see their hard work and dedication on a daily basis and took the time to nominate them. While they don’t go above and beyond because they are seeking recognition, each of these exceptional employees should feel a great sense of pride in the very important part they play at WIPP, a project that is critical to our nation. Thank you for everything you do to ensure our success! Sean Dunagan President and Project Manager Nuclear Waste Partnership 1 SAFETY Patrick Quintana - Mine Operations Patrick Quintana has demonstrated a safety-minded attitude and shares his attitude with management and with the Mine Ops group. He contributes Richard Brugman - C&IP with suggestions in safety briefings and toolbox talks and hasn’t had an incident Richard Brugman maintains that during his time at WIPP. He has received construction safety is the top priority safety bucks on several occasions for for his projects. He leads by example, performing new tasks without incident whether walking down a construction site and is quick to call safety pauses or stop for environmental concerns and potential work if he recognizes a hazard or process hazards or opening a meeting with a that has not been mitigated. He never safety lesson from his own considerable cuts a corner. past experiences. A team member need not ever worry that cost, schedule Nominated by Tony Mihelic pressure or the politics of the moment will compromise worker safety or health, since safety is always a top priority and guiding value. As Lead Project Subcontractor Technical Representative for the Utility Shaft Capital Asset Project, he ensures that in areas that look unsafe or where Eddie Thomas, Jr. - Security Protective Force incorrect methods are being deployed by contractors, he stops the activities Describing SPO Eddie Thomas in one and discusses what he is seeing with the contractors. One mpleexa word: valuable. He always excels beyond is where a contractor was performing excavation work neare theast what is expected and sets an extraordinary side of the WIPP Site Property Protection Area. The contractor wasn’t example, both on and off the job. He is properly sloping the excavation for workers’ safety in therench. t He also respected among his supervisors and paused the work, got the contractor supervisor and projectanager, m peers. He is always willing to voice safety and then discussed how to safely perform the excavation tolow al safe concerns. For example, when conducting access by personnel who needed to work in the trench. Not only does perimeter fence line inspections, he he work with contractors, he also keeps NWP management informed as noticed a need for repairs, ensuring that to safety issues and concerns and regularly consults with NWP safety pictures were taken and a report was personnel to ensure contractors are performing work in accordance written immediately. He deserves to be with DOE Order 851. commended for doing an excellent job in finding deficiencies and for raising Nominated by Stephen Smith & Jerry Clark the bar on awareness with inspections. Another example was in February when he was one of the first to suggest that the WIPP site start taking the temperatures of all employees and vendors entering Jeffrey Graham - Underground Maintenance the site due to COVID-19. He also suggested that all suchoyees empl with possible COVID-19 symptoms be immediately isolatedom fr the Jeff Graham has worked in different normal work population and escorted by medical personnelrough th departments and on many projects, and an alternate exit route to avoid contact with others. Heso is proactive al working safe is one of his best qualities. by reminding employees to practice social distancing andar we a He can be depended on to watch out for mask. He has been instrumental is keeping the employees assafe they others due to the fact that he has years of enter or exit the security gatehouse and, as a work condition,made a experience and the knowledge needed change from utilizing the vehicle trap to using the gatehouse. On the to perform safely. He follows the rules range, he encourages his team members to practice good ysafet when better than anyone. If he doesn’t feel manipulating weapons. The Salt of the Earth award is the least that he comfortable with a job, he will question it should be awarded. until he is sure the job is right to perform. There is no better worker to have on your Nominated by Julissa Calleros & Bobby Martinez team. He understands better than anyone what the goal is at WIPP and always leads by example. Nominated by Danny Florez “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi, legendary Green Bay Packers coach 2 INTEGRITY Andrea Kelly - Business Management Andrea Kelly ensures that costs are submitted to DOE accurately each month. Kevin Barnhart - Information Technology This became challenging earlier this year when faced with having to telework When it comes to “modeling high to complete tasks. She continued to standards,” this and Kevin Barnhart are examine each labor file to ensure the one and the same. Last year, the Flam new COVID-19 codes were coming over Gas Team in Idaho had an issue with a correctly. She researched discrepancy and stand-alone computer with one of their errors in the credit card file. She identified flam gas units. Following a power outage, errors with a purchase order that affected this computer would not boot back up. He commitment balances, implemented a took the issue on like he does all issues mid-year pool reallocation and submitted that come his way. Head on. After working her STARS file upload to DOE remotely. on this problem for a few months, his She did not let the fact that there were solution was an easy one. In Idaho, there issues with connectivity, speed of the was a unit that wasn’t being used anymore server and isolation from co-workers that was the same make and model and prevent her from ensuring costs were with the same operating system on it, so accurate and timely when submitted to he took the hard drive from the broken DOE. She always works with the greatest level of integrity, strives to do computer and set up two hard drives in the right thing and takes the utmost pride in everything she does both the unit that was being used. This not only at work and at home. She is always willing to help out, even volunteering worked great and saved all of the data to help other organizations at work and in the community. on each hard drive but saved thousands of dollars in procuring a new computer, software and flam gas unit. He did what he said held do,wou Nominated by Alisa West & Joy James-Foster “fix the issue.” Nominated by Michael Grenfell Diane Senutovitch - Security Within an organization where safeguards Jerry Graham - Engineering and security are cornerstones, there are often some personnel who get overlooked. They don’t man the portals Jerry Graham has been with NWP for or drive the vehicles with flashing lights. more than 35 years and has been referred They don’t carry weapons, and they to as an “institution” due to the strong don’t have a uniform that makes them foundation he provides both for NWP readily recognizable to the rest of us, as a whole and also in Engineering. His but their roles and responsibilities are integrity is one of his strongest traits, just as important and are often, if not as he is known for always doing the always, complicated. These individuals right thing the right way at the right maintain all of the records for maintaining time. He does not push issues aside – the security profiles, clearances and he always takes challenges head on. He access controls to our sites. Diane holds his entire team accountable for Senutovitch does this and so much more. implementing all of NWP’s core values, Her in-depth knowledge of the security which alone demonstrates clear integrity. systems and requirements has been a highly-valued resource for so many of Nominated by Nichole Havelin our workers, all the while keeping the information that sheandles h protected and the personal identification information forach e of us secure from unauthorized access.

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