Davidson Water, Inc., Water Plant - Executive Summary |
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Davidson Water, Inc. Welcome, NC Executive Summary Davidson Water, Inc., has implemented a comprehensive program to safely manage chlorine at its Water Treatment Plant. It is located 388 Koontz Road in Davidson County, North Carolina. The chlorine safety record at the Water Treatment plant site has been excellent. There have been no chlorine incidents or accidents in the past Five-Year history period. In 1995, a Process Safety Management (PSM) was completed for the Water Plant with the assistance of Operations Excellence Consulting, Inc., a consulting firm. A PSM Implementation Manual was edited to be site specific and issued to the Water Plant. With this step, approximately 50% of PSM requirements were met. Key items included in the manual are: - Written site specific procedures for the Employee Involvement, Management of Change, Incident Investigation, Pre-Startup Reviews and Self Audits. - Chlorine safety information as required by the regulations Next, these additional steps were implemented to complete the PSM program. -Training on PSM and its key components including Management of Change, Mechanical Integrity and Incident Investigation. -Conducting a Process Hazards Analysis -Developing Standard Operating Procedures for Chlorine Management -Developing an Emergency Response Plant -Training and certification of operators The supervisor and plant operators meet several times per year to review and update procedures and to maintain compliance with all aspects of the PSM regulation. In addition to PSM compliance, the plant has implemented a number of programs to improve the safe handling of chlorine. -The chlorine delivery system at the plant was upgraded to a vacuum process in 1985. This process has proven to greatly reduced chlorine leaks by reducing the amount of equipment that is exposed to pressurized chlorine. - The chlorine storage area and hoist were also upgraded in 1985. The department's Emergency Response Plan has been s ignificantly upgraded. In 1995, the ERP was revised to include offsite response and communication. A&D Environmental Services was contracted to provide qualified hazardous materials emergency response services for the plant. Chlorine Response Drills are being routinely conducted. To further understand chlorine risks, Operations Excellence Consulting, Inc., a consulting firm, was contracted to conduct "Offsite Consequence" Modeling Analysis, as required by EPA's Risk Management Program. Both a "Worst Case" and an "Alternative Case" release scenarios were studied. The "Worst Case" results showed that a chlorine release would have an endpoint of 0.90 miles using the EPA "RMP*Comp" modeling program. This area includes land on both sides of the Yadkin River but no specific communities. A total of 254 people in 108 households are in this impact zone. In addition, the analysis of local topography indicates that there is very little risk of chlorine exposure to any household due to the plan t's location on the east bank of the Yadkin Riven. Chlorine is a heavier-than-air gas. Any release will fall to the river and follow the river bed. The "Alternative Case" results showed an endpoint of 0.10 miles. A release of this nature will be primarily contained on site due to the buffer zone around the plant and the plant's location as noted above. In addition to Process Safety Management, the organization has an active safety program. For the past three years, Davidson Water, Inc., has had an active safety committee. The committee meets monthly with Mr. Ron Farnsworth as the chairman. The committee's duties include reviewing new safety procedures, accident investigations, safety surveys and safety communications. Within the water plant organization, there are monthly safety meetings to review an OSHA subject or discuss a safety issue. Routine training is conducted for topics such as: - Hazard Communications - Personal Protective Equipment - Lockout/Tagout - Confined Space As a result of our programs, the plant has had an excellent safety record with no lost time accident over the past five years. We plan to continue our emphasis on safety to maintain and improve our safety performance. Submitted by: Ron Farnsworth Water Plant Superintendent |