Farmers Co-op Oil Belle Creek Division - Executive Summary |
|
The accidental release prevention and emergency response policies at our facility. This facility complies with the MN Dept. of Ag safety requierments for the storage and handling of Anhydrous Ammonia. In addition our policy is to adhere to all federal, state, and local laws. The goal of the Farmers Co-op Oil is to provide for the safety of their employees, their customers and the general public. In order to fulfill this goal Farmers Co-op Oil has hired a company named Regulatory Consultants, Inc. (RCI) to maintain and administer comprehensive safety programs and procedures. RCI safety services supervisors audit and monitor facility compliance with the safety standards of the company. All locations are required to conduct their own internal audit utilizing checklist survey forms that are reviewedregularly and updated as necessary to ensure all applicable federal state and local regulations are covered. Each location has a 'site safety coordinator' as a leader of our RMP's. These c oordinators are given training to monitor the day to day safe work activities, mantain the required regulatory recordkeeping, conduct reguler safety meetings, conduct employee training and act as the location's contact with RCI. The site safety coordinators are also the location emergency contact. A description af our facility and the regulated substances handled. This facility is a wholesale farm supply distribution center as such we store and distribute a wide variety of pesticides and fertilizers including Anhydrous Ammonia. Anhydrous Ammonia is received by truck is handled and stored on-site and is a regulated substance by the EPA requiring us to comply with the Risk Management Program. We sell anhydrous ammonia to grower customers in either 1,000 gallon or 1,500 gallon nurse tanks. The customer applies the ammonia into the soil as a source of nitrogen fertilizer for growing agricultural crops. This facility maintains approximately 20 1,000-gallon nurse tanks and no 1,500-gallo n nurse tanks for customer delivery. Our combined storage capacity in nurse tanks is 94,000 pounds. Anhydrous ammonia is stored in 1 stationary storage tank, (1 @ 30,000 gals) on site. 140,000 pounds of anhydrous ammoina is the maximum storage capacity of stationary storage tanks. Therefore, the total facility anhydrous ammonia storage capacity for our facility is 234,000 pounds. The largest single storage vessel at our facility contains 140,000 pounds. The worst case scenario. Our worst case scenario is the loss of the total contents of the 30,000 gallon stotage tank, when filled to the greatest amount allowed (85% of full capacity), released as a gas over ten minutes, resulting in total vaporization. The maximum quantity released would be 140,000 pounds. According to DEGADIS modeling, this release (distance to point of dispersion to 200 PPM ) would have an off-site impact. It should be noted that Farmers Co-op Oil Belle Creek Div. has never had a release of an entire stationary s torage tank. Alternative Release scenario THE MOST COMMON ALTERNATIVE RELEASE SCENARIO FROM OUR FACILITY WOULD NOT REACH AN END-POINT OFF-SITE. The alternative release scenario modeled for the purpose of this plan is a 2-minute release from a stationary storage tank representing a valve and hose failure requiring a manunal shut down. The release scenario ( distance to point of dispersion to 200 PPM ) would have off-site impact. It should be noted that Farmers Co-op Oil Belle Creek Div. has not had a release of this type of release from this facility. The general accidental prevention program and chemical-specific prevention steps. The ammonia system is designed, installed and is maintained in accorsance with ASTM standards ans the ASME codes. The facility complies with the MN Dept. of Ag standards (1998), OSHA (29 CFR 1910.11), EPA's Accidental Release Prevention Rule as well as all applicable federal, state and local codes and regulations. Our ammonia system is proteced from ma jor releases by internal excess flow valves, check valves, relief valves, manual shutoffs and emergency shutoff valves. The load-out risers used for the purpose of filling the nurse tanks are protected by excess flow valves and fill line breakaways to immediately stop the flow of ammonia if a line or a hose fails. All of the main storage tank valves and the riser load valves are locked when not in use. Our ammonia system is inspected on a regular basis with maintenance and preventive maintenance scheduled and documented. Liquid and vapor valves, hoses, excess flow valves, gauges, and relief valves are replaced when necessary and/or according to the guidelines in the ANSI standards. Training is provided to all employees at least once every six months, whenever there is a change in the process or whenever there competency with the regulations is questioned. The training consists of classroom lecture, current videos, testing and certification and on the job traning. Five-year accident history. There has been no accidents involving anhydrous ammonia that caused deathes, injuries, property or environmental damage including evacuations on or off-site. The emergency response program. In the event of an emergency involving our ammonia system, it is our policy to notify the local community fire department and request that they respond to the emergency. In preparation for this, we have coordinated with all of the local response agencies by providing information and facility tours to ensure that they are familiar with and properly prepared for an incident at our facility. This will help to ensure that our community has the strategy for responding to and mitigating the threat posed by an ammonia release. This complies with the requirement for our facility to be included in the community emergency response plan prepared under EPCRA and coordinated with our Emergency Respone Coordinator. In addition, Farmers Coop Oil Company has an Emergency Response and Contingency Pl an for each facility that complies with the requirements fo OSHA (29 CFR 1910.38 and 1910.1200). The plan includes public notification, provisions for initial medical care, evacuations and our sites Emergency Response Coorinator. Planned changes to improve safety. We do not plan to make any changes to the physical site. We will continue to provide our employees with ongoing bi-annual training to ensure that they are current with all of the safe ammonia transfer and handling procedures, and provide regular inspection and maintenance on all of the ammonia equipment. |