Odo J. Riedel Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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Cibolo Creek Municipal Authority owns, operates and maintains a 6,200,000 Gallon Per Day (6.2 MGD) Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant located on the Bexar/Guadalupe County line of Cibolo Creek In Schertz, Texas. The Authority presently owns approx. 150 acres that surrounds the plant. There is no residence within 900 feet of present chlorine storage and operation area. We operate under a Wastewater Discharge Permit issued by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Permit # 0011269-001. The plant is located in a sparsly populated area along the South Bank of the Cibolo Creek. It is chlorine usage and storage in one ton containers for effluent disinfection that qualifies for this submittal. The wastewater plant utilizes 2 - one ton containers of chlorine gas on line for disinfection of our effluent as per our permit requirements. There are also 2- one ton containers in the stand-by mode for automated switch over when first set of cylinders is empty. We feed chlorine in a gas form under vacuum to injectors for mixing with our effluent flow in our chlorine contact basins. The chlorine storage and operation area is protected by an air pump alarm system. This system produces both audio (horn) and visual alarms. Self contained breathing apparatuses are on site and in stand-by mode of operation. They are available at all times. When one set of chlorine cylinders are emptied, the order for 2 replacement cylinders is placed. Cylinders are unloaded from trucks and handled according to a specific written proceedure. Operators are trained by supervisory personnel on those proceedures. There are never more than four cylinders on site at our present operating flow of 2.7 MGD. Plant operation and maintenance is performed by an eight member staff under the direction of the Systems Manager for the Authority. The Systems Manager is under the direction of the General Manager. Management is governed by a five member elected board of directors. The operations team trains regularly (scheduled quarterly) on chlorine emergency response. They are trained on the proper use of a breathing apparatus as well as repair to 1 ton chlorine cylinders. There are two type - B, 1 ton emergency repair kits on site as issued by the Chlorine Institute. Operators follow written proceedures for all above training. They also train in simulated situations to correctly don emergency equipment and make a repair in actual time to a leaking cylinder. Fortunately, we have never experienced an accident. We have experienced leaking gaskets on cylinder connections from time to time. These have been repaired with no problems incurred. Our worst case senario would be a ruptured pipe in the manifold or broken valve on the cylinder or manifold. Should this occur, our proceedure calls for immediate shut down of the chlorine cylinders themselves if possible. Should it not be possible to secure a cylinder valve, repair kits contain items needed to isolate valve and stop leakage. This would be performed by operations personnel. Leakage elsewhere would make the problem easier to correct due to entire system being under vacuum. The vacuum feed systems would pull any remaining chlorine in system into the contact chamber and would mix with effluent water. Proceedures also call for informing all 3 fire departments within our service district. The City of Schertz and the City of Cibolo jurisdictions are within patterned areas of release. We would also contact the Universal City Fire Department for they are the core of the Randolph Area Haz-Mat Team. The predominant winds are from the south at the plant location. There are no residence or buildings within 2,000+ feet in that direction. There are an estimated 650 residences within the 1.3 miles the RMP model program gives us. There is also a bank, restaurant, furniture store and several small business located within this area. Should we experience this worst case senario, proceedures called for evacuation of a one mile area in the direction of the prevailing wing (generally South). With this model, that distance is being expended to required 1.3 mile distance. This evacuation would be accomplished with the help of the fire and police department of the City's of Schertz and Cibolo The Cibolo Creek Municipal Authority Wastewater Treatment Systems have never had a chlorine release "incident" in the 26+ years of operation since it's inception in 1973. We regularly undergo inspections from the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission and have had no discrepancys. |