ABINGDON WATER TREATMENT PLANT - Executive Summary |
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Harford County Government's Department of Public Works operates the Abingdon Water Treatment Plant located at 3340 Abingdon Road in Abingdon, MD. The County utilizes Chlorine gas which is transported to the facility in, stored and fed from one ton containers. Chlorine is used for disinfection of drinking water to assure public safety. A maximum of eight, one ton containers are onsite at any time. This facility is desinged to provide up to 10 million gallons of drinking water per day to residents of Harford County produced from surface water taken from either the Susquehanna River or the Loch Raven Resevoir. An accidental release prevention and emergency response policy designed to prevent the release of toxic substances and respond in a rapid manner to mitigate any and all releases of toxic materials has been in place for many years. Harford County trains all operators in safe handling procedures tailored to the specific chemcials and equipment used at each location. Minimum Per sonal Protective Equipment standards have been established and are enforced by all levels of management. The County's aggressive training and strict adherance to established safety procedures have allowed all facilities operated by Harford County DPW's Water and Sewer Operations Section to have no federally or state reportable incidents. The County is currently evaluating the retention of a hazardous materials Contractor to provide additional remediation services. EPA has established specific criteria for Worst Case and Alternate Relase Scenarios to be submitted under this plan. The criteria for Worst case release documents a release of the contents of the largest single vessel containing the regulated substance over a ten-minute period with specific wind speed and atmospheric stability. Based on this direction the WORST CASE SCENARIO is the release of 2,000 pounds of chlorine over a ten minute period resulting in a distance to endpoint (point where substance is no longer a hazard t o the public) is 1.3 miles from the point of release. The ALTERNATE RELEASE SCENARIO presented involves a release of Chlorine gas resulting from an incident or equipment failure which could conceivably happen. For the purpose of this document, Harford County chose a flexible connector failure which is used to connect the one-tone container to the chemcial feed piping and equipment. A flexible connector failure resulting in the release of Chlorine gas at a rate of fifteen pounds per minute with a ten minute duration would have a distance to endpoint of 0.62 miles from the point of release. No facility owned or operated By Harford County Department of Public Works has had any incident which involved any release of toxic substances which resulted in impact to any neighboring or adjoining property or resulted in injury or hazard to the general public. Harford County has worked closely with the Harford County HAZMAT team, the equipment suppliers and private contractors to assure policie s, planning and training meet or exceed regulatory mandates. Harford County's commitment to employee and public safety is a continuous endeavor. The County is contantly seeking ways to limit employee and public exposure to toxic substances from their facilites and will continue to evaluate any and all recommendations as well as innovations in safety and technology which will further enhance this already highly successful safety program. |