Covanta Energy's Mt. Lassen Power and Burney Mountain Power Earn Cal/VPP STAR Designation

BURNEY, Calif., July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Covanta Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE: CVA) and a world leader in the development and operation of large scale Energy-from-Waste and other renewable energy projects, today announced its Covanta Burney Mountain Power and Covanta Mt. Lassen Power biomass facilities have earned STAR status in California's Voluntary Protection Program (Cal/VPP) administered by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA).

STAR designation is the highest honor given to worksites with comprehensive, successful safety and health management systems. Sites such as Burney Mountain and Mt. Lassen are committed to the highest levels of employee protection, going above and beyond the requirements of state and federal standards. Participants develop and implement systems to effectively identify, evaluate, prevent, and control occupational hazards with an ultimate objective of preventing injuries and illnesses.  In awarding this elite status, Cal/OSHA gives strong consideration to the level of employee engagement and ongoing involvement in on-site health and safety program development combined with long term commitment and support from management. STAR recipients routinely incur injury and illness rates that are at or below the state average for their specific industry.

"At Covanta, our commitment to the continuous improvement of health and safety programs at all our facilities permeates every aspect of our operations and is central to our corporate culture. Mt. Lassen and Burney Mountain employees have embraced this commitment and made health and safety a core component of their workplace culture," said Seth Myones, President of Covanta Americas. "It's this commitment to health and safety that has led to achievement of Cal/OSHA VPP STAR status. I applaud the teams at each of these facilities on their achievement and thank them for their diligent efforts."

Burney Mountain and Mt. Lassen are the 30th and 31st Covanta Energy facilities, respectively, to have achieved the prestigious VPP STAR designation. The facilities join three other Covanta Cal/VPP STAR sites in California, making them five of only 78 other worksites to have received this award.

"I congratulate the employees of Mt. Lassen and Burney Mountain for the outstanding work they have done to achieve Cal/VPP STAR status. In reviewing their safety programs and results, Cal/VPP observed an excellent level of teamwork and cooperation between local management, hourly employees and corporate staff to continuously improve workplace safety," said Vicky Heza, Cal/OSHA. "Covanta's unwavering commitment to effective health and safety programs is evident in the five facilities in California that have achieved Cal/VPP STAR status."

Mt. Lassen and Burney Mountain combined generate up to 22 megawatts of clean, renewable energy from processing biomass waste materials, enough to power up to 20,000 homes.  Unlike traditional methods of power generation that rely on exhaustible fossil fuels, biomass energy is generated by utilizing wood and agricultural fuel from a variety of local, renewable sources. Biomass energy facilities reduce greenhouse gases by replacing fossil fuel generated energy and preventing the release of greenhouses gases from organic waste that would otherwise decompose in the open. Additionally, the collection and use of wood waste for use at biomass facilities like Mt. Lassen and Burney improves the health of American forests by removing combustible material left on forest floors, reducing the potential for wildfires. The U.S. Forest Service notes that the "advantage of biomass is that it produces electricity 24/7 while not adding any additional CO2 into the atmosphere. The development of wood energy is needed to ensure our energy security."  

About Covanta

Covanta Energy is an internationally recognized owner and operator of large-scale Energy-from-Waste and renewable energy projects and a recipient of the Energy Innovator Award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  Covanta's 45 Energy-from-Waste facilities provide communities with an environmentally sound solution to their solid waste disposal needs by using that municipal solid waste to generate clean, renewable energy. Annually, Covanta's modern Energy-from-Waste facilities safely and securely convert more than 20 million tons of waste into more than 9 million megawatt hours of clean renewable electricity and create over 10 billion pounds of steam that are sold to a variety of industries. For more information, visit www.covantaenergy.com.

SOURCE Covanta Energy

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