Campbellsville Wastewater Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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It is the goal of the Campbellsville wastewater Treatment Plant to operate in a safe and efficient manner. Chemical safety is just one of our safety issues addressed continuously. Safety is stressed not only in departmental meetings but company wide safety meetings as well. The Wastewater Plant has written chemical handling safety manuals as well as written notification procedures in case of an emergency. These policies and procedures are reviewed with all personnel in a timely manner. In this process, chlorine, an extremely hazardous chemical is used for disinfection purposes. Chlorine is stored indoors in a separate room form all other chemicals in 2000 pound cylinders. The largest quantity stores at any one time on site is 8,000 pounds. The worst-case release of chlorine would involve the rupture of all four cylinders store on site from a fire melting the pressure plugs on each tank. A release of this magnitude could affect an area in a 4.2 mile radius from th e plant depending on wind direction and speed. It should be pointed out that chlorine gas is heavier than air and tends to flow into the lowest places possible. A chlorine release would probably travel down the Pitman Creek through a relatively unpopulated area. This scenario is highly unlikely to happen due to the storage area consisting primarily of concrete floors, concrete block walls and concrete ceilings. Another possible release would be of 2000 pounds from one cylinder through tank rupture, valve stem breakage or transfer hosing rupture. This could effect an area 2.2 miles from the plant. Procedures in place make this likely not to happen. These procedures include inspection off all tanks on arrival from the manufacturer, keeping covers on the tank valves when not in use, No more than one tank on standby for the chlorinators to switch to as the in process tank empties and daily monitoring of the feed equipment and chlorine usage. There is an alarm system installed t o detect minute quantities of chlorine so repairs can be made before any major problems occur. All valves and feeder systems are maintained and inspected under a yearly service contract. This includes cleaning, inspecting and replacing worn parts. These procedures ar outlined in our operations manuals and process safety manuals. We have had no accidental releases of chlorine in the past five years. The Campbellsville wastewater Treatment Plant has coordinated with the Taylor County Emergency Planning Committee and the Campbellsville Fire Department available through an enhanced 911 communications system. Facility TAB-Q-7 plans and Tier II infromation has been filed with these agencies. These plans include facility maps and chemical storage floor plans, quantities stored and detailed instructions on responsible charge personnel, possible affected areas and evacuation plans |