Marathon Pipe Line’s (MPL) Heath Area operations in Heath, Ohio, recently received recognition as a Star worksite from Ohio’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). A celebration and flag raising ceremony was held in June.

This is MPL’s sixth facility to achieve VPP status. They join 17 other Logistics and Storage (L&S) facilities in receiving this distinction. VPP Star Status recognizes a workplace’s commitment to employee safety and is administered by the state-level Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) office.

There are 23 employees and several support personnel stationed at the Heath Area facilities. They started the VPP certification process in 2016 with notification of intent to pursue VPP to OSHA.  An Area Gap Assessment was constructed, which then lead to the development of a plan and schedule for items to be resolved.

The onsite audit for certification took place July 31 through Aug. 2, 2018, where they received word that they had no 90-day items to resolve. The Heath Area facility received confirmation of certification in February 2019. Heath Area operations is one of 83 sites in the state of Ohio to achieve this certification.