Star of the West Mill Co. - Executive Summary |
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This document is the Executive Summary of the Star of the West Milling Co. - Risk Management Program - for the Quincy Flour Mill. The flour mill has chlorine gas in the form of one ton containers on site. We work together with our chlorine supplier and local Police and Fire department to establish effective procedures for an accidental release of chlorine gas. We have a chlorine monitoring system that monitors both the point of use and the point of application. We have written procedures for the handling of chlorine and conduct annual employee training on the hazards of chlorine and the safe handling of chlorine, we are committed to the safety of our employees and our community. The flour mill provides quality flour to a number of food companies in the midwest, chlorine gasis used to bleach and adjust the ph of certain grades of flour. We typically store four one ton containers of chlorine on site in a cement block room locate in the boiler room of the flour mill, two of the contain ers are connected and availiable for use at any time. We have included two chlorine gas accidental release scenarios which we have computer modeled with EPA software. These scenarios are called "alternative" and "worst case." The "alternative" scenario assumes that the ton container has released its entire contents over a 40 minute period through a small hole in the fusible plug on the tank. This release would spread to a radius of 528 feet away from the tank, almost entirely contained on the plant grounds. The "worst case" scenario assumes that all safety measures we have in place are not available, and that the one ton container has released it's entire contents in ten minutes. This release would possibly affect the community up to 1.3 miles away from the Star of the West Co. flour mill, with the direction depending upon the wind direction and velocity at the time. We prevent accidents from happening in many ways. Our employees are trained in the safe handling of chlorine ton co ntainers. We have two SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) tanks and associated equipment on site. Manual shut-offs are available on each tank. The facility is manned by a minimum of two people 24 hours per day when operating. Our piping system is designed for separate inspection on a quarterly basis. Our reports require listing the five-year accident history of our mill. We have had no reportable accidents in the last five years. The Quincy Fire Department has been introduced to the physical and chemical characteristics of chlorine. Our compnay is undergoing outreach training at all three sites with local fire departments, County LEPC's, and school officials. We are also supplying "Shelter-In-Place" guidelines and materials to follow in the event of an accidental release. We continually strive to improve the safety of our chlorine program, the latest improvement to our program was the installation of a chlorine detection system. We have also scheduled a hazmat training session with our local Fire & Police departments, local LEPC, local School Personell and Corporate safety department for 8-10-99. |