Miller Brewing Company (Irwindale, CA) - Executive Summary |
|
The Miller Brewing Company is committed to promoting a safe working environment and has developed and implemented several programs to enhance chemical safety. The facility operates an ammonia refrigeration process and water chlorination process and has several methods for ensuring employee and public safety associated with these processes. The facility has developed procedures, plans and policies for the operation of these processes and for dealing with unexpected accidental releases. The Miller Brewing Company has implemented a process safety management program for the ammonia refrigeration process that enhances safety by regular maintenance and inspections, hazard analysis, compliance audits, employee and contractor training, employee participation, ammonia monitoring/detection, and other activities. Additionally, the facility has implemented an accident prevention program relative to the chlorine process which includes process safety information, hazard analysis, operating proced ures, employee training, maintenance procedures, compliance auditing, and incident investigation. The Miller facility has an Emergency Response Team that is trained for hazardous material response and additional training to include incipient fire response and confined space rescue. The facility also has emergency response procedures and plans to promote chemical safety in the event of an emergency situation. The Miller Brewing Company is engaged in the beer production business. Due to the quantity of ammonia and chlorine maintained on-site, the facility is subject to the California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Program regulations and the Risk Management Program regulations which are meant to promote safety at the facility and general public level. A worst-case release scenario was modeled to determine the greatest impact a release of the regulated substances from the facility could reasonably cause. Worst-case scenarios were modeled for both ammonia and chlorine and i t was determined that the worst-case release at the facility involved ammonia. The worst-case scenario is based on a complete and total release of 16,100 pounds of ammonia from the largest ammonia vessel located at the facility. The modeling indicates that impacts from the worst case release would impact public receptors beyond the property boundaries. An alternative release scenario was evaluated for both ammonia and chlorine. The alternative release scenario for ammonia is based on a leak from an ammonia vessel or pipeline at the facility. The alternative release scenario is a scenario that is more likely to occur than the worst-case scenario. The alternative release scenario for chlorine is based on a release from one of the chlorine cylinders on-site. Modeling for both ammonia and chlorine indicates that impacts from the alternative case releases would impact public receptors beyond the property boundaries. In the previous five years, the Miller facility has not had any accidental releases that resulted in any deaths, injuries, or significant property damage on-site, or known off-site deaths, injuries, evacuations, sheltering-in-place, property damage, or environmental damage from the ammonia or chlorine processes. The ammonia process at the Miller facility is subject to the Process Safety Management regulations under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As a result of these regulations, the Miller facility has implemented a program to further enhance process safety which involves operating procedures, training, mechanical integrity (maintenance related issues), pre-start-up-review, management of change, compliance audits, incident investigation, employee participation, hot work (welding) permits, and contractor safety. The facility's Hazardous Materials Business Plan contains information regarding mitigation, prevention and abatement of hazards, notification and evacuation of the facility, employee training, earthquake prepare dness, emergency responder guidelines for ammonia and chlorine releases, and procedures for reporting incidents to local, state and federal agencies. As previously mentioned, the brewery maintains an Emergency Response Team that receives extensive annual training to deal with an accidental release at the facility. The Hazardous Materials Business Plan has been coordinated with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. |