Midwest Cooperative Grainfield - Executive Summary |
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The owners, management, and employees of Midwest Cooperative are committed to the prevention of any accidental releases of anhydrous ammonia. If an accidental release should occur, the faciltity is prepared to work with local emergency personnel to mitiagate any release and minimize the impact of the release to people and the environment. The primary activity at the facility is the storage and transfer of anhydrous ammonia for sale to farmers. Anhydrous ammonia is recieved by truck, stored and transfered into ammonia nurse tanks. The maximum quantity stored would be 66,000 pounds in our 15,000 gallon storage tank. A worst-case release scenario would be the release of the total contents of a storage tank released as a gas over 10 minutes. The maximum quanity released would be 66,000 pounds, which represents the volume of the storage tank at 85 percent capacity as limited by design standards. The distance to the endpoint is 1.76 miles. The altenative release scenario based ont the f ive year accident history and industry experts is a release from a break in a transfer hose. The distance to the endpoint is 1.3 miles. Our company has had no accidents in the last five years at this location that has caused any deaths injuries, significant property damage at the facility or off site. We are proud of our outstanding safety record in hadling this vital ag-input and we will continue to strive for a "no accident" history. We do this in several ways. The use and handling of anhydrous ammonia is very heavily regulated both by the Federal Goverment and the State of Kansas. OSHA, DOT, EPA and the Kansas Department of Agriculture all have authority over the handling of this product. In addition we have developed strict policies and procedures for our employees and management to follow whenever we work with anhydrous ammonia. The facility at Grainfield has a written emergency action plan which meets OSHA requirements and we report to the state and Fire Department and the LE PC of Gove Country all required hazardous materials on site through tier II reporting has requied by the Federal Goverment. We conduct training in house and send our personnel to industry specific schools to teach them the technical aspects has well has the basics of working with anhydrous ammonia In closing the farmer owners, management and employees of Midwest Cooperative will continue to work with the communities in which we operate and we will continue to do whatever it takes to prevent and plan for accidents. |