Tates Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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College Hill Water Treatment Plant Richmond Utilities Risk Management Plan Executive Summary Planning Factors Emergency conditions can occur in a treatment system resulting from natural disasters, equipment failures, and human error. During the evaluation phase consideration was given to the following items while completing the Risk Management Program: Safety of personnel both inside and outside of the facility. Safety of the equipment within the facility. Continuation of the plant functioning to assure proper treatment of the water. Program Purpose The purpose of this program was to aid the operating personnel in developing a program designed to: Eliminate or minimize adverse effects from emergency situations affecting normal operations. Develop procedures for properly responding to emergencies. Provide instruction for system personnel to insure they understand their responsibilities during emergency situations. Provide inventories of available emergency equipment and outline existing mutual aid agreements and contracts with outside organizations for specialized assistance. Vulnerability Analysis As a part of the planning process, a variety of potential natural and manmade emergencies were reviewed, including: Power Failure Flood Fire Windstorm Explosion Equipment Breakdowns Discharge or Intake of Hazardous Chemicals Personnel injury and others. In developing contingency plans, it is necessary to attempt to foresee as many different types of emergencies as possible, but to narrow the list to the ones that are most probable and will have the greatest effect on those in and near the facility. To that end, it was the belief of those that were tasked with the development of the Risk Management Program, that an accidental release of the chemicals used in the treatment process would pose the greatest potential and threat. Accidental releases were placed in two categories, minor, which would likely occur during changeover and major, which would be as a result of severe damage to the vessel. Conditions, equipment, and established procedures are such that minor releases can be handled by in-plant personnel and major releases would require the assistance of off site emergency response to assist in containment, evacuation, and cleanup. To limit potential minor releases, which is considered to be the most common of the emergencies, it was decided to continue to use large storage containers thus limiting changeover, evaluate changeover procedures and make recommendations to improve those procedures, and to evaluate current safety equipment and controls and make recommendations for the improvement of that equipment. As a final activity, the team evaluated the capabilities and response time of off site emergency response. While capable, concern was expressed of the ability to control a major release. With inherent limitations, it was believed that in the event of a potential major release, only limited offensive actions could be completed and that prompt notification of the emergency response agencies would be essential to limit potential injury or environmental damage. Quick and proper action by in-plant personnel would limit potential harm. |