May 3, 2001

At approximately 7:30 PM the evening of Wednesday, May 2, 2001, Apache's Community Alert Siren began sounding without being activated by Apache Management. The siren continued to sound for over five minutes until Apache personnel were able to turn it off. There was no emergency or incident at Apache. Within a few minutes Apache personnel contacted the Sheriff's office to notify them that there was no emergency. In addition, Apache's Community Alert Network (CAN) was utilized to send a message to Apache's nearby neighbors to notify them of the error, and the local radio station, CAVE 97.7, was asked to notify its listeners that the siren had sounded in error. Finally, Apache's Hotline phone, 720-ANPI (2674) was updated with an appropriate message.

While a thorough investigation is ongoing, it appears that a Security Guard at the plant was using a radio to contact an Apache worker, and unknowingly pushed keys on a radio keypad that activated the siren. Apache is initiating a process to avoid this error in the future. Apache apologizes for any inconvenience this error may have caused.

As many of you are aware, Apache has been working to reduce NOx emissions during the start-up of our Nitric Acid plants. Over the past year we have been utilizing hydrogen peroxide to continuously reduce emissions as we developed this new process. On May 2, 2001, we experienced our most effective start-up, with emissions being approximately 60% less than prior to our implementation of the hydrogen peroxide process.

If you have any questions or comments, you may contact Lyndon Denton, Director of Resources, at 520-720-2190.