Degussa’s Hopewell Plant Conducts Successful Emergency Exercise  

Joint Exercise Tests Critical Emergency Response Skills  

HOPEWELL, Va., May 15, 2007 -- Degussa’s wholly owned subsidiary, Goldschmidt Chemical Corporation, successfully tested its emergency response plans on May 3.  

The exercise, which simulated an onsite chemical spill at the Hopewell site, lasted four hours and involved the Shell Chemical Company -- a key raw material supplier, the city of Hopewell’s Bureau of Fire and CHEMTREC.  

“We were very pleased with the way in which Degussa together with Shell Chemical Company, the city of Hopewell and CHEMTREC responded to this simulated incident,” said Reinhold Brand, President, Goldschmidt Chemical Corporation. “I am extremely grateful to all our partners for their continuing commitment and support. Their contribution to this exercise was essential to highlight areas for improvement. I would also like to recognize the excellent planning and coordination by our Hopewell employees, which were keys to making this exercise so successful.”  

The simulation demonstrated that a high level of co-operation between the organizations was critical to a successful response. Additionally, it provided the organizations opportunities to share their knowledge and experience.  

“The public should be reassured that we are doing everything we can to ensure we are prepared for incidents such as the one tested Thursday,” said Russell Mait, Director Environmental Health Safety & Quality, Goldschmidt Chemical Corporation. “The response of our partners was top-notch. At the end of the day, the key lessons for us were that communication and organization are critical elements of a successful emergency response.”    

Phil Munson, Hopewell Site Manager, said that a key objective of this exercise was to analyze our capability and improve upon our existing response plans.  “It is important that we test our ability to deal with an incident of this nature,” he said.  

Degussa: Creating Essentials™
Degussa -- a wholly owned subsidiary of the RAG Group -- is the global market leader in specialty chemicals. Our business is creating essentials: innovative products and system solutions that make indispensable contributions to our customers’ success. In fiscal 2005, our 44,000 employees worldwide generated sales of $13.9 billion and operating profits (EBIT) of $1.1 billion.