Montell USA, Inc. - Executive Summary |
|
Montell - Bayport Plant, 12001 Bay Area Blvd, Pasadena, Texas EPA Risk Managemnt Plan INTRODUCTION: The Federal Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990, section 112(r), mandated EPA to establish a program for the industry to follow in prevention of serious accidental chemical releases that may potentially affect the public health, welfare, and the environment. This EPA program addresses the following: 1) Risk Managment Plan - It summarizes the overall risk management program and will be initially submitted to EPA by 6/21/99, and available to state and local emergency planning officials and the public. 2) Hazard Assessment. 3) Accident Prevention program. 4) Emergency Response program. ACCIDENTAL RELEASE PREVENTION AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE POLICIES Montell USA, Inc. is committed to the protection of health, safety, and environment of the employees and public (community), by implementing, enforcing, and auditing its policies, work practices, & standards which are based on accident prevention and safe operation. Montell's Policy Statement on Health, safety, and Environment,reads, The Company shall manage activities in such a way as to take foremost account of: - the health and safety of employees, contractors, customers and the public. - protection of the environment. - avoiding damage to property. It shall adhere to the principles and the recommendations of the "Responsible Care" program of the chemical Industry. FACILITY INFORMATION AND REGULATED SUBSTANCES HANDLED Montell USA, Inc. - Bayport Facility, was originally constrcuted in the early 1970's. At the time a single polypropylene (plastics) manufacturing unit was built and was owned & operated by Hercules Incorporated. In 1983 hercules merged its plastics business with Montedison of Milan, Italy to form Himont. In 1995 Montell was formed by a merger between Himont and Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies. As of 1/1998, Shell became the sole owner of Montell. Montell-Bayport is located in LaPorte, H arris county,Texas. and is about 25 miles southeast of Houston. The Montell Bayport plant employs about 200 people, and currently consists of 4 polypropylene production units capable of producing 1.81 billion pounds of polymers a year. The plant property is aproximately 213 acres, 165 of which is used for the manufacturing activites. Montell Polyolefins is a worldwide organization dedicated to the development, manufacturing, & marketing of a diverse range of polyolefins. Olefins are hydrocarbons produced by the oil refining industry, such as propylene, butene, propane, and ethylene. Polymer is manufactured by a catalytic polymerization processes (Spheripol and Catalloy), and polypropylene is formed (plastics). These hydrocarbons (olefins) are present at our site in excess of 10,000 pounds each at any one time. Polymer is produced (a hard solid material) in the shape of flake or pellets, and is the raw material for other companies manufacturing activities such as: Vehicle bumper s, Home sidings, Medical syringes that administer life-saving medication, Shatter-proof packaging that's safe for children, Bicycle helmets, Food platic wrap & containers, Baby pampers, Yarn for clothes & carpets, in addition to Tools. WORST-CASE AND ALTERNATIVE-CASE RELEASE SCENARIOS (both cases DID not assume any of the active or passive safety prevention systems to be working, which is unrealistic). Our WORST-CASE scenario is failure of one of the three propylene storage tanks and release of its entire contents (390,000 pounds), resulting in a vapor cloud explosion. The maximum distance to endpoint is less than 1 mile (0.59 mile). Since our facility is located in an industrial area, not occupied by housing-schools-or shopping centers, this scenario will not impact the community and will not have any mentionable affect on industrial receptors. Our ALTERNATIVE-CASE scenario is failure of a propylene feed tank & release of its entire contents, 47,000 pounds. resulting in a vapo r cloud explosion. The maximum distance to endpoint is less than 0.17 mile. This scenario will not impact the community and will not have any mentionable affect on industrial receptors. GENERAL ACCIDENTAL RELEASE PREVENTION PROGRAM Processes at Montell are covered by OSHA PSM rule and the EPA RMP rule. Montell has written procedures to verify, manage, & audit ongoing compliance. This prevention program contains; unit description and affected chemicals; process safety information; process hazard analysis; standard operating procedures; employee training programs; maintenance, equipment inspection & mechanical integrity; management of changes; prestartup safety reviews; self compliance audits; incident investigations; employee participation; safety work permits; contractor's safety & evaluations. Additionally, Montell has developed and impements a Safety Design Criteria (based on good engineering practices) which is utilized into the design, construction, production, & preventive maintenance of our processes & safe operations. 5-YEAR ACCIDENT HISTORY There have been no accidental release of a covered chemical from a covered process that occurred within the last five years and that resulted in deaths, injuries, or significant property damage on site, or offsite deaths, injuries, evacuations, sheltering in place, property damage, or environmental damage. EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM Montell has an established Emergency Response Plan which details the responsibilities of Montell's response team and management during emergency situations, as to how to respond/protect the employees' and communities' health/welfare, the environment, and plant property. The team consists of volunteers for firebrigade & incident command, medical attendants, rescue, and hurricane crew, along with a medical emergency van, fire truck, & a command van. Our team receives continuous annual training at LaPorte fire dept, Texas A&M university-fire school, San Jacinto college, Memorial hospit al systems, and in-house training (i.e., HAZMAT) and drills. As a member of Channel Industries Mutual Aid (CIMA) for Harris County ship-channel industries, we actively partcipate in CIMA drills and actual emergency response for other plants. In addition to our voice alarm emergency system, we have a dedicated CAER phone line for recording messages for communtiy Awareness & Emergency Response during plant emergency situtations. COMMUNITY OUTREACH We are an active member of LaPorte-Shoreacres Local Emergency Planning Committee, LaPorte Citizen's Advisory Council, A partner in eduaction with LaPorte independent school district, participate in clean up activities such as household hazardous material collection day, Bay Area risk communication committee,Trash Bash Day, and a member of Clean Texas 2000. We at Montell, are always in search of and implementing positive change, new design, standards, & methods that will add to our safety, accident prevention, & emergency response principl es & procedures. |