A career cultivating safety culture

Pete Girtz, deputy director of the Environment, Safety, and Health (ESH) Department at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), recently retired after eight years at the facility. During his tenure, SURF achieved major safety milestones including two years and one-million hours without a lost-time on-the-job injury.

“Pete Girtz’s dedication and leadership as deputy director of ESH have been nothing short of exemplary,” said ESH director Julie Ewing. “His commitment to excellence and his passion for safety have set a high standard for all who follow. As he steps into retirement, we celebrate not just his career, but also the excellence he leaves behind. Pete will truly be missed.”

Girtz spent his career promoting a culture of safety including eight previous years at the Rapid City Regional Airport and 24 years serving in the United States Air Force as both a B-52 gunner and a B-1 mechanic. 

“I came to SURF from aviation, where I was working at the 30,000-foot level. At SURF, I had the opportunity to work at almost a mile underground, which was completely the opposite direction. I have been very blessed to do both,” Girtz said.

Girtz gives credit to everyone at SURF for building and maintaining the strong safety culture that enabled the achievement of major injury-free milestones.

“That's everybody from the administration side of the house that works at SURF, to the folks working underground on a day-to-day basis. Each and every person is involved in those safety milestones. In any one of those work situations, somebody could have got hurt and that would have not allowed us to get there. So, it was everybody pulling together to ensure that we maintained the mindset and safety culture to meet that goal,” Girtz said.

For Girtz, dedication and mindfulness from all personnel is an important part of building and maintaining a safety culture on a complex site like SURF, which includes everything from timbers inside old mine workings to cryogenics in state-of-the-art science experiments.

“I think the biggest thing is just to be in the moment and always understand where you're at. It’s important for the ESH department to spend time in the field, to interact with the folks who are doing the work, and the day-to-day challenges each job takes. I was fortunate when I first started that I had the opportunity to work with each group. I think that helped a lot in my understanding and how they handled safety in their given tasks,” Girtz said.

Girtz says he will miss seeing the people at SURF each day.

“The people at SURF are such a huge asset,” Girtz said. “I feel especially fortunate to have worked with the rock-solid team in the ESH department. It was also a great opportunity to work at a place that has such a wide range of backgrounds, you know, from the Homestake miners to the scientists in all the different experiments that are going on at SURF.”

“We are all grateful for Pete’s work in helping to shape the ESH program at SURF,” said Mike Headley, executive director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority and Laboratory Director at SURF. “We frequently receive praise from independent safety experts for the world class program our ESH Department runs. It’s thanks to Pete and our whole ESH team for helping to make SURF the world’s best underground lab.”

Girtz notes that time goes by quickly and he encourages everyone to enjoy their work at SURF while they can. In his retirement he and his spouse are enjoying time in travel seeing family and reconnecting with old friends across the country.  Girtz says he won’t be a complete stranger. You might catch him riding a Harley Davidson or driving a Ford Mustang around the Black Hills, or even run into him at a future Jack Stratton Memorial Car Show that happens each summer at SURF.