Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - Dow Community Advisory Panel Minutes

A meeting of the Dow Community Advisory Panel was held on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 at the Dow plant site in Plaquemine, Louisiana.

The facilitator called the meeting to order and welcomed those present. The minutes of the November 2003 minutes were reviewed and approved by the group. The facilitator reminded the group that five of the members on the CAP in 2003 had their terms expire in January.

The first item of business on the agenda was voting on new members for the CAP. New members will serve a two-year term on the CAP beginning in February. Eleven potential new members were nominated from Iberville Parish. Nine new members were nominated form West Baton Rouge Parish. The facilitator distributed a ballot listing all nominees and reminded the CAP that in voting for new members, consideration should be taken of balance in geography, race, age, and gender. The facilitator gave panel members an opportunity to discuss any nominee that they felt strongly about. The facilitator then asked members to vote for five new members and two alternates. The goal is to get the CAP's membership back up to sixteen members. Members who were absent from this meeting will be sent ballots via mail. Votes will be tabulated and new members will be invited to the February meeting.

The facilitator turned the meeting over to Mr. Earl Shipp, for a presentation and update on the situation at Grand Bayou, LA. (See attached power point presentation)

Chris Baldridge updated the CAP on Dow's Responsible Care Performance Measures. Since the last CAP meeting in November, two OSHA recordable injuries occurred on the plant site, both in November of 2003. One recordable was a back injury to a Dow employee. The second recordable was a torn calf muscle on a contract employee. As of January 13th, there have been zero recordable injuries in 2004.

There were two serious transportation incidents since the last CAP meeting. The first was a leaking ethylene oxide railcar at a customer's site in Westlake, LA. Dow secured the leak. The second transportation incident was a derailment of eighteen railcars in Crowley, LA. None of the cars developed a leak.

Ms. Baldridge reported that there were zero complaints from the community over the previous two months; there were zero spills affecting the local community; and there were zero outside agency audits.

There were six agency reportables during the period from November 12, 2003 through January 12, 2004:

Date	Plant	Description
11/18	LHC II	Water non-compliance. Outfall sample exceeded TOC
12/3	Solvents	TSS water exceedence
12/6	Poly A	Ethylene - open flare
12/12	LHC II	Butadiene - furnace leak
1/5	LHC II Power II	Fuel gas leak
1/6	Vinyl II	Ehtylene dichloride release

Babs Babin updated the CAP members on "Dow in the News."

The CAP discussed the meeting date for February and the remainder of 2004. CAP member expressed the need to set the meeting on a standard date. The facilitator expressed the feelings of one CAP member who stated that she would like the meetings to remain on Mondays. The CAP agreed to move the February meeting back to Monday the 9th. A discussion will take place during the February meeting with the entire CAP, including new members, as to a standard meeting date.

In the absence of a specific request by CAP members, Dow will establish the agenda for the February meeting over the next two weeks.

The next meeting of the Dow CAP will be held on Monday February 9, 2004. An orientation of new members will take place immediately prior to that meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.