Velda Farms Dairies - Executive Summary |
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Velda Farms Dairies 1000 6th Street S.W. Winter Haven, FL 33880 Risk Management Plan Executive Summary Velda Farms Dairies conducts its operations to prevent possible releases or harm to its products, employees and to the surrounding area and residents. This is done by on-going employee training, equipment operation and maintenance, preventative maintenance and by on-going interaction with the Fire Department. This plant produces milk and milk-related products, such as chocolate milk, for general consumption. As part of the process operations and milk storage, a refrigeration system using anhydrous ammonia is used. The capacity of the refrigeration system is 10,500 lbs. of ammonia. A Worst Case Release scenario was developed using the RMP requirements and the EPA Off-Site Consequence Analysis Guidance for ammonia. This is a very conservative estimate, and does not include mitigation equipment installed in the refrigeration system. In this scenario, the offsite impact are a is estimated to be up to 1.3 miles away from the plant. As a leak of this magnitude involves a complete release of all ammonia in the system despite automatic shutoff valves and interlocks, this worst case event is considered to be extremely unlikely. An alternative scenario was developed to address what could be a more plausible emergency situation, a 1/4 " pipe break or valve release, representative of a pump seal leak or gasket rupture in a high pressure line. Using the Model Risk Management Plan for Ammonia Refrigeration, this scenario resulted in an offsite impact area of 450 ft. This plant is currently expanding its ammonia refrigeration capacity up to 10,500 lbs., thus is presently reinspecting, modifying and upgrading its existing refrigeration system. As part of this expansion, all accident prevention practices, including preventative maintenance and operator training will also be upgraded. There have been no reportable ammonia releases in the last five years. Emergency response training in the plant includes training of maintenance personnel on emergency shutdown procedures, as well as on-going interaction and cross training with the local fire department. |