Rich SeaPak Corporation, Brunswick Plant - Executive Summary |
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Rich SeaPak Executive Summary The Rich SeaPak, Brunswick Plant, is committed to ensure the safety of its associates, the public, and the environment. Rich SeaPak's Risk Management Plan is designed to prevent or minimize the impact of an accidental release of hazardous chemicals. Since the opening of the Brunswick Plant in 19972, Rich SeaPak has not had a reportable release of any of the EPA's listed chemicals. At Rich SeaPak, everyone takes a very serious and proactive approach to prevent accidental releases of hazardous chemicals. Rich SeaPak trained operators and trained emergency response team work together to prevent and minimize accidental releases. Written programs, such as Emergency Response, Process Safety Management, Hot Work Permits, Lockout/Tagout, Management of Change, etc. are not only in place but put into practice. Rich SeaPak is working closely with the Local Emergency Planning Commission (LEPC) and other local emergency agencies to assure that if there is eve r an accidental release, the emergency response teams will be immediately put into action to minimze the impact of such a release. The listed chemicals that are used at the Brunswick plant are Anhydrous Ammonia, Chlorine, and Propane. Anhydrous Ammonia is used as the refrigerant in our closed loop, 2-stage refrigeration system for our cold storage areas and process refrigeration. Chlorine is used in our potable water system and in our wastewater treatment operation. Propane is used as an alternate fuel to Natural Gas for our cooking processes. All personnel working in areas with hazardous materials are trained and highly qualified to perform the safe functions of their assigned jobs and the safe operation of the associated equipment. The Risk Management Plan requires two scenarios for each covered process, a worst case and an alternative case scenario. The worst-case scenario for anhydrous ammonia would have to be in the event that we lost our entire refrigerant charge to the ou tside air. In this unlikely scenario, we would have to loose 38,000 pounds within ten minutes, or 3,800 lbs./minute. Considering the location of the plant and the surrounding wooded areas, the Brunswick plant would be considered an "urban" site. The toxic end point estimate for a worst-case scenario is approximately 2.3 miles, using EPA's RMP Comp Ver. 1.06 for all calculations. This assumes endpoint concentration is 200 parts per million. It is highly unlikely that this scenario could take place unless our facility was totally destroyed. Our facility is constructed so that it has many different pressure vessels and pipe runs scattered all throughout, and in different areas, such as on the roofs, in the process plant areas, equipment room, etc. The refrigeration system has many isolation valves that would prevent a complete loss of refrigerant. A more likely release scenario would be a failure in a liquid pump seal or a piping system failure. Under these circumstances, the ma ximum volume of our largest header system or of the liquid accumulator would be 5000 pounds. If we lost the maximum 5000 pounds in ten minutes, the distance to toxic end point would be 0.1 miles. With either case, the ammonia leak detection system would alert associates of a leak and a response team would be put into action to stop the release as soon as possible. The worst-case scenario for chlorine would be the rupture and total release of 2 full one ton chlorine cylinders. It is unlikely that the contents of a one ton cylinder would ever be emptied before one of the emergency response team members could stop the discharge and prevent this from happening. The toxic end point for this scenario is 1.3 miles. The alternate case for chlorine would be loss of the contents of a 75% full one ton drum of chlorine due to moving a drum or due to some other accident. If this were to happen, the toxic end point is estimated at 0.5 miles. By using proper work practices and procedures t hat are in place, every precaution is taken to prevent this from happening. The same is true for propane, that is, it is very unlikely that the worst case scenario would ever happen because of built-in safety features, checks in operation, associate training, and Rich SeaPak' commitment to its associates, the public, and the environment. |