{photoSource}East Oregonian{/photoSource}

HERMISTON — Every morning, families across Umatilla County click their lights on, flip the switch on their coffee makers and take showers warmed by an electric current. Their workplaces are air conditioned and laptops charged by wires threading through the county’s golden countryside — wires with enough voltage to kill with a simple mistake.

The men and women at Umatilla Electric Cooperative work with these live wires every day so we can enjoy these simple pleasures. While the worst workplace injuries in most industries might be a joint injury or broken bone, those working with these currents face a different kind of danger.

“These guys miss the wrong thing and it kills them,” said Chris McMahon, UEC’s administrative safety assistant.

But over the last nearly 5-1/2 years, or 2,004 days to be exact, Umatilla Electric Cooperative has avoided all accidents leading to lost time, which McMahon described as an accident where someone injures themselves during work-related duties and is not able to work.

This is not a simple achievement with electrical work posing such a risk for injury or death. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 75 fatalities in the five years between 2014 and 2019 in the electrical power transmission, control and distribution industry alone. This number does not include nonfatal injuries.

Another Bureau report in December 2020 found there were 750 fatalities related to exposure to electricity across all industries from 2015 to 2019.

“The motive to constantly be learning and to be diligent in what we do is paramount in what happens,” McMahon said, “because the simplest of mistakes can easily kill somebody.”

Whether working on construction, doing repairs or making sure trees are pruned away from high-voltage power lines, the dangers are persistent — especially as brutal heat continues to pound the Pacific Northwest and puts a strain on the state’s electrical system.

There also is a potential for a backfeed of electricity from somebody running a generator because their power went out. When employees go out to do a simple repair there may be dangerous levels of electricity from the generator that unintentionally flows backward towards workers.

“It’s a day-to-day occurrence that these guys are constantly in that environment,” McMahon said.

“I stand with Umatilla Electric employees who have demonstrated safety for their community and safety for one another,” said Robert Echenrode, UEC’s general manager and CEO. “In my years in the utility industry, this is a milestone I am most proud of and want to express to each employee my appreciation for continuing to keep safety at the front of their minds and reaching this incredible achievement.”

According to McMahon, UEC made safety a top priority to make it so far without injuries, starting with hiring people with the right mindset and who are cautious about their work.

“It’s a culture of safety that we develop here at Umatilla Electric,” McMahon said.

While they have their daily actions, procedures, policies and safety meetings, UEC employees also study near misses. Whether it is their own near misses or those in other facilities, the information is accessible and open to review.

“A near miss is essentially something that potentially could have been a lost time accident, but it was not just due to the grace of God,” McMahon said. “We’re able to look at that and learn from other people.”

On Tuesday, July 27, its 2,000th day without an accident, UEC held a celebratory dinner for employees and families at the Maxwell Event Center, Hermiston. The cooperative had employees anonymously vote for someone they felt went above and beyond and embodied the safety culture in the organization and named Glen Saul the Umatilla Electric Safety Champion.

“They’ve shown that they can do this,” McMahon said. “They got it down. They understand and they’re constantly practicing.”

“Collectively it takes everybody to be able to do something like this and to constantly be engaged in what happens each and every day,” McMahon said, “because complacency kills.”