Located on Banta Road just outside Tracy, a former railroad hub, the plant began operating in 1971. In August 2007, the Tracy plant became part of the Olin family. Olin’s Tracy plant is a major producer of bleach, which plays a crucial role in food processing, water treatment and life-saving disinfectants that help protect our food from the farm to the fork.

20 full-time employees come to work at Olin’s Tracy plant every day. Olin spends almost $1.0 million a year with local businesses, purchasing goods and services that support some 58 local jobs. Olin also pays annual taxes — taxes that go to schools, to community services and development, and to those in need. In the end, however, its people that make the difference.

As a corporate neighbor, it’s important that we add value to life in Tracy. Adding value means giving of ourselves to charitable and worthwhile efforts in the community, whether it’s creating them or contributing to them.

A number of our people or spouses serve as volunteers in our community, helping such organizations as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, Habitat for Humanity and the United Way. They also work with local schools, assisting them with reading and science programs, and they have raised thousands of dollars for PTAs. And recently a group of employees formed a bike team that rode 175 miles and raised $4,000 for the local chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. We encourage our people to volunteer, to give back to the community. We believe this is an important part of corporate responsibility and is essential to community success and growth.

Tracy is a growing community of nearly 82,000 people in the beautiful San Joaquin Valley. It’s just 60 miles from San Francisco. “Tracy is a railroad town; brakemen eat surly meals in diners by the tracks. Trains howl away across the valley. The sun goes down long and red.” That’s how Jack Kerouac summed up the this city. It sprung from the new line of the Central Pacific Railroad on September 8, 1878. Today, this dusty farming and railroad town has become a vibrant, growing suburban community.

In 2007, Tracy was ranked the 17th safest city in California and 56th in the U.S. There are beautiful parks, open spaces and quality schools. Tracy is a place where families and businesses thrive. There’s an abundance of natural resources. There’s also the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts, a 37,000-square-foot visual and performing arts arena that provides a year-round schedule of performances, musical concerts, dance, films and fine art.

One of our main goals at the Tracy plant is a safe working and living environment for our people and their families and our neighbors. Olin takes precautions to ensure that no employee or community resident is ever put at risk.

Over the past three years, Olin Tracy has invested almost $2 million in plant improvements. A good portion of that investment went toward creating a new rail spur inside plant grounds so rail cars could be kept under lock and key, increasing security and providing additional protection for the community. Plus, the plant installed a new bleach filter that improved the quality of our bleach product and increased its stability. This improvement ensures that our municipal water treatment plant customers are getting an exceptional product.

That kind of performance has led to a number of environmental and safety awards, like the Chlorine Institute’s Award of Merit, which the plant received for working extensive employee hours without one incident. Olin’s Tracy plant has a good safety record, and we plan to keep it that way.