City of Piqua Water Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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Exective Summary for The City of Piqua Water Treatment Plant The Piqua Water Treatment Plant operates as a department under the jusisdiction of the City of Piqua. As a city department, the Water Treatment Plant is part of the city's Emergecy Preparedness Plan. This plan which was written in 1985 and upgraded in 1988 is a comprehensive document which outlines the City's role and procedures for handling all levels of emergencies that might impact residence of the City or surrounding communities. Presently this Emergency Preparedeness Plan is in the process of being updated. Section 15 of the city's Emergency Response Plan contains the individual unit plans for the departments within the City of Piqua. Specifically, Section 15.05B deals with Emergency Operation Plan for the Water Plant which operates as a subunit of the Department of Public Works. As stated in the City's Emergency Preparedness Plan, up to 5 one ton cylnders of chlorine may be stored on site at any given time but only one cylinder is actually in use at any given time. The physical state of the chorine can best be described as chlorine gas liquefied by pressure. TOXIC WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO In the development of the worst possible scenario accident it is assumed that a 2000 pound tank of chlorine would rupture and discharge the total contents to atmosphere. Although the likelihood of this occuring would be unlikely, it is possible that a structural failure of the tank itself could possibly cause and event like this to occur. Of course, there is even the more remote possibility that a natural disaster such as a tornado could cause all of the tanks of chlorine that are in storage to be destroyed thus the potential for a release of up to 10000 pounds could be possible. However, the worst possible scenario for the purposes of this document is to be calculated on a release of the largest container of the hazardous material on site, thus a release of only 2000 pounds was used. TOXIC ALTERNAT E SCENARIO In the development of an alternate scenario it is assumed that the most likely event that would occur would involve an operator error in which case the discharge of chlorine gas would occur through a 5/16 inch line located at the top of the tank. The calculaions for the Toxic Alternate Release Scenario was based on this type of failure. RMP Comp was used to calculate the endpoints for both this and the Toxic Worst Case. The Piqua Water Treatment Facility is located in an Urban Area in the City of Piqua, Ohio. Many Trees, residences and businesses fall well with a 1/2 mile radius of the facility. During the normal operation hours of 7am to 3pm monday thru friday the facillity is fully staffed. However, during the following hours only one empoyee is on duty: 3pm to 11pm seven days a week, 11pm to 7 am seven days per week, 7am to 3pm on Sunday. One operators is on duty on Saturday 7am to 3pm. The Emergency Perparedness Plan for the City of Piqua outlines the procedure to be used in the event of a chlorine leak at the Piqua Wastewater Treatment Plant. This procedure cn be found in Sectin 15.05c-13 of the plan and reads as follows: CHLORINE LEAK CONTINGENCY PLAN All operators are instructed not to change chlorine cylinders alone. They are trained in detecting small leaks that may occur during a routine cylinder change. In the event of a major leak (ruptured feed line, cylincder, or broken valve) or a chlorine dectector alarm the following steps are to be taken: 1. Evactuate Chlorine Building area immediately. Stay upwind. Do not use the evacution fan until the Fire Department has the area secure. 2. Contact the Fire Department. (911) 3. Four Scott air maks* (Self-contained Air Masks) are availlable to assist the Fire Department if needed. Do not attempt to repair the leak alone. Only personnel passing mask fist tests are authorized to use air masks. 4. A "Chlorine Emergency Kit B" for ton cylinders is located the Chlorine Building Cont rol Room. 5. Depending on the wind velocity and directions, certain areas around the plant may need to be evacuated. This should be done before the evacuation fan is turned on. *The location of the Scott air masks are as follows: Two masks are in the control room of the Chlorine Building. Both masks are size small. Two masks are inside the front door of the Water Plant. One mask is small. The other is large In addition to the above procedures it is understood that the OHIO EPA would be notified in the event of a major release of contaminants to the air, land, or water. |