ASTI Board of Directors: Our Board of Directors includes a mix of veteran public safety and private industrial members who work together to achieve our vision. The following is a summary of the Board membership:

□        President: Gary Smith – Retired Fire Chief (33 years of service) with 20 years of work with ammonia refrigeration emergency management.

□        Vice Present/Chair of the Board Sonny Basaldua – Chief of operations at the Americold cold storage facility in Watsonville; 28 years of refrigeration service, maintenance and repair experience; 15 years with ASTI.

□        Treasurer Ron Hill – CEO and President of Hill Brothers Chemical Company; Ron is a graduate of the ASTI 40 hour class in 1990 and worked with his uncle, Doug Hill who co-founded ASTI in 1987. Ron has 25 years of management experience and has worked with ammonia during his entire career.

□        Secretary Martin Jeppeson –Director of Regulatory Affairs for California Ammonia Company (CALAMCO); Martin has worked with the ammonia industry for the last 10 years and has been affiliated with ASTI for the last 7 years.

□        Board Member Kent Anderson – Executive Director for the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration; during his 22 years of ammonia safety background he has contributed to many national improvements to the regulatory and safety management system. He joined the ASTI Board in 2004.

□        Board Member Don Tragethon – Executive Director for the Refrigerating Engineers and Technicians Association (RETA) and engineer for Western PreCooling in Salinas; Don has been affiliated with ASTI since its inception and is an engineer/designer in the ammonia industry for the last 19 years.

□        Board Member Frank Wewers – Founded and operated Manning Instruments Inc. (recently sold to Honeywell); Frank developed ammonia monitors (fixed and hand held) and has been much respected in the ammonia industry for the last 35 years. He joined the ASTI Board in 2004

□        Board Member Tim White – Owner/operator of Cool Time Refrigeration; Tim is a refrigeration engineer and facility manager who joined the ASTI board in 2004; he is aggressively involved and very supportive of worker safety and promotion of responsible methods of managing ammonia.

□        Board Member Bob Cole – Deputy Fire Chief, Chevron Chemical, (Pascagoula, Mississippi) for the last 30 years (recently retired); Bob is a graduate of the 40 hour ASTI class and currently teaches for ASTI. He is very experienced in dealing with the fire and accidental chemical releases, and has experienced the value of PMP and emergency management during several hurricane disasters. He joined the ASTI Board in 2004

□        Board Member Mark Reasons – Manages Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville and is a graduate of the 1997 ASTI 40 Hour class. Mark is known for his knowledge and commitment to professional management and safety readiness. His professionalism motivated us to invite him to participate as one of our newest Board members.

□        Board Member Grant Golding – President/CEO of Alliance Refrigeration in Los Angeles; Grant has over 35 years of engineering and business experience and has always promoted education and safety as paramount values in the way he does business. Grant gives many hours of his personal time to promote education and safety.

□        Ad Hoc Member Anders Lindborg – Anders is retired from Frigoscandia Refrigeration and resides in Helsingborg, Sweden; he is a big contributor to worldwide ammonia users, his 38 years of experience and exceptional knowledge is used when designing and building ammonia refrigeration systems; he has been affiliated with ASTI since its inception in 1987.

□        Director of Training Jim Ennes – Jim joined the ASTI team 10 years ago after retiring from the fire service (30 years of service) as a fire chief; Jim is from the Manteca/Lathrop Fire District. He coordinates all of our training and works aggressively at finding the best way to recognize, prevent, and respond to emergency events involving ammonia.

□        Office Administrator Amanda Meyers – Amanda manages the ASTI business and administrative needs; she helps to set up classes and manages the organizational needs such as insurance, budget and Board member needs. She has worked for ASTI for the last 8 years.

 

Organizational Supporters: The following is a summary of those who support ASTI in achieving our mission.

□        Hill Brothers Chemical Company: We have received tremendous support with the financial and resource needs when researching and developing response protocols for ammonia releases.

□        Industrial Customers: We receive a lot of support from our industrial customers such as Ocean Mist Farms (host of our 40 hour class), Americold, Alliance Refrigeration, ConAgra, Ralph’s, Western PreCool, PermaCold, L.A. Roser, and many more.

□        Public Safety: Especially for the utilization of the 30 Minute Plan and the protocols for stopping major events from being a threat to the community and environment.

□        Regulators: ASTI works closely with OSHA, EPA, Chemical Safety Board, County and State health and emergency services managers

□        Industrial Service Organizations: ASTI has a close working relationship with IIAR and RETA and we have given presentations to the IRAW and many college and private sector training organizations.

□        Safety Days supported by industrial contractors and public agencies: ASTI is an active participant in Safety Days that occur in Salinas, California; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; Tri-Cities, Washington; Yuma, Arizona; and, Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

Special skills and abilities of ASTI

□        Changing fact and theory into meaningful training content; our class members are attentive and they retain our training very well. ASTI training engages a very technical curriculum (meeting OSHA 1910.120 (q) requirements). We use the lowest common denominators to teach so that the class members develop a base foundation to build on as they engage and take in more technical information about safety and emergency response.

□        State of the art training materials – We use interesting video clips, colorful workbooks that require students to fill in key information as we lecture, and a lot of character, allowing SAL Monia and LANCE (safety and readiness super-hero) to speak to the class; we constantly improve and add hands on skill building and a quality real world relationship to the training subject. We recently introduced computer generated simulations where releases, rescue needs and emergency action can be played out as a realistic video; we use digital pictures of our customer facilities to promote a facility specific training experience.

□        The training themes are well organized and they connect – starting with chemical/physical characteristics and then moving to hazard analysis and risk management we teach how to read and respect the powers of ammonia.  We preach a “prevent them all” approach with emphasis on PMP and connect that logic to a response strategy that has appropriate PPE and SOPs so that when an incident occurs the response team is ready to “stop it small” (using LANCE and SIMPLE). The major event strategy includes methods of working with public safety using the 30 Minute Plan.

□        Creating strategy and tactics that work appropriately for ammonia users and public safety is critical for developing relationships that work in the long term; when the roles and expectations are clear and accepted by all of the players the resulting action will be effective. ASTI recognizes that the strategy for the facility readiness to engage for on-site control must mix with the public safety mission to stop off-site problems. This is why “stop them small” is a priority for the on-site teams, while the 30 Minute Plan is critical for the larger incident that threatens off-site community and environment.

□        Our ability to do live releases: Seeing is believing and we show key points about ammonia such as reaction with water, tarp and cover, shelter in place, positive pressure ventilation, monitoring an ammonia release, etc. We use this experience with industrial ammonia users, public safety, regulators, and community leaders so that they will understand the true hazards and risks and act appropriately.

 

Future Plans

□        Recognized world wide as the preeminent training organization and major contributor leading to making ammonia the safest managed hazmat in the world.

□        Promote ammonia as an environmentally friendly product that is respected rather than feared; we will portray ammonia’s true risks and hazards by using logical, entertaining and engaging methods of gaining knowledge; once we master this skill we will achieve our mission and expand our efforts to other subjects – preventing accidents, injuries and emergency events of all kinds.

□        Promoting Ammonia as a “Green Fuel Option”: ASTI is currently developing a strategy and risk assessment for promoting green fuel opportunities that ammonia offers; if the systems are constructed and society accepts the risk and cost of development, ammonia could easily become the fuel of choice for stationary engines, and vehicle fuel. If the strategy and risk assessments work out appropriately, ammonia (hydrogen fuel) is the opportunity to significantly reduce dangerous carbon dioxide pollution and it can easily be generated locally using air, water, and/or biomass.

□        Engage managers and leaders to build a stronger and more effective safety culture, walking the talk about safety and connecting between employees and the employer regarding the need to build on safety and readiness training as foundational cornerstones for the success of their operations; making safety and response readiness productive, cost effective, and profitable.

□        Zero tolerance for injury or death on site or off site; it simply does not happen if you address the statistical chance of acting on the 640 smaller incidents that proceed serious injury or death; it’s all in convincing the organization to engage the “Cycle of Safety and Response Readiness”. If we get more of this engagement the industry as a whole will respond and the statistics will show that the strategy works…that experience will then be transferred to all hazardous materials and other types of occurrences that have risk and hazard such as fire, storms, terrorism, disaster circumstances, and even risky sports activities.

□        Measuring success will depend on our ability to measurably affect each of the following goals:

o        Reduce the amount of ammonia reports to the National Response Center to one half of the number reported in 2006

o        Reduce the number of deaths and injuries attributed to ammonia by one half

o        Increase the connection of public safety and ammonia users with the 30 Minute Plan and Shelter in Place logic by linking with at least half of the fire agencies; priority on communities that have a lot of ammonia.

o        Increase regulator readiness to regulate ammonia by teaching the true risks and hazards and most appropriate methods of PMP and emergency response.

□        A permanent school that will be state of the art for trainers and class members alike. We want to develop a site that allows for simulations, music, comfort, and high quality teaching tools (projectors, sound systems, smoke generators, etc.) so that our training message is highlighted with memorable, engaging and enjoyable experiences for our class members. It will be the “Disney Land” of training facilities that will have a foundation of solid background and training expertise to implement a highly valued training mission.

□        Marketing and management staff; we need to hire two lead staff positions in the near future to help us grow the organization.

 

Funding: Our current financial status is stable; we generate approximately $300,000 annually and have invested all of our funding in training cost, research and development and text/video production.

□        Corporate sponsorships – working together to reduce hazard and risk in an effective and affordable way while also improving the image of ammonia as an environmentally friendly chemical.

□        Grants – Homeland security, community safety, public safety, chemical safety and, safety management

□        Colleges and Universities – cooperative training ventures

□        Train the trainer and  training tuition from certification

□        Insurance industry support for “Prevent them all and stop them small”

□        Product Sale of simulations, books, and other ASTI products

 

OPTION #1: Training Costs – All training meets CFR 1910.120(q) standards

8 Hour Technician Refresher/Operational - $210 per class member,

12 student minimum

24 Hour Technician/Scene Manager Certification - $525 per class member,

10 student minimum