Simplot’s Conda Pump Station Sets the Standard for Workplace Safety

One of Idaho’s largest and best-known private entities, The J.R. Simplot Company, makes a lot more than just french fries. Simplot is also a major producer and distributor of phosphate fertilizers that supply crop and plant nutrition for the agriculture and turf and ornamental industries in North America. 

Simplot’s Smoky Canyon Mine, located on the Idaho-Wyoming border, extracts phosphate ore, a key nutrient for fertilizer, that is ground into a fine powder and combined with water to create a slurry. Simplot then transports the slurry through an 87-mile pipeline to Pocatello, where it is manufactured into finished products at the company’s Don Plant that sits along Interstate 86 to the west of the city. 

Due to the steep terrain and elevation changes along the pipeline route, it’s necessary to repressurize the slurry flow at a pump station in Conda, Idaho, near Soda Springs. A crew of 13 employees oversees the 24-hour, 365-day operations. The facility includes a machine shop, welding shop, offices, four 1,200 horsepower driven pumps and a control room to monitor operations.

The pump station plays a critical role in Simplot’s fertilizer production process and employees at the facility have maintained an exceptional safety record, with zero injuries over the past nine years. This exceptional record comes despite working with and around heavy industrial equipment and complex machinery. 

“For more than 20 years, our Conda site has been recognized as part of the OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program, a designation awarded to workplaces with exceptional safety and health management systems,” said Kelly Stumpp, production supervisor at Simplot’s AgriBusiness Mining & Manufacturing Division. “This requires our team to undergo rigorous on-site evaluations and submit annual safety reports and goals to maintain its status.” 

According to OHSA’s website, the Voluntary Protection Programs recognize employers and workers in the private industry and federal agencies who have implemented safety standards while maintaining injury and illness rates below national Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries.

“This nine-year injury-free streak is no accident,” said Stumpp. “It’s the result of daily, intentional efforts by everyone on our team to look out for one another and prioritize safety in everything we do.”