City of Bowling Green Water Treatment - Executive Summary

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Executive Summary 
 
This facility uses chlorine as required by federal and state regulations to reduce the risk of  
diseases.  Chlorine is an effective destroyer of pathogens in water.  Our employees and  
their families live here and we are all dedicated to the safe operation of our facility. 
 
Policy:  Safety of employees and the public are of primary concern.  As a part of the  
public service sector, we are committed to protecting the public and the environment.  Our  
programs include an aggressive preventative maintenance program, extensive training and  
coordination with local emergency response personnel to efficiently react to an  
emergency. 
 
Description of the Facility:  We treat the drinking water for our area.  Part of the  
process requires insuring that disease-causing pathogens do not cause outbreaks of  
illnesses in the public.  Chlorine is used to kill bacteria and other pathogens in our process. 
 
Offsite Consequence Analysis of a Release:  In accordance with the EPA rules,  
an  
analysis of the impact distance in the case of a release of all chlorine connected to this  
system was performed.  This analysis was made using the EPA methods and guidance  
available April 14, 1999.  Stored chlorine not connected to the system and determined to  
not be at reasonable risk was not included.  This model includes a release of all chlorine  
connected, failure of all safety systems and unfavorable weather conditions.  The model  
predicts the area, which could be affected by as little as 1/10 of the concentration of gas,  
which is considered immediately dangerous to life and health.  A circle was generated  
which ignores wind direction.  This circle has a 1.3 mile in radius. 
 
An additional release scenario was modeled.  In this case the accident used was believed  
to be more likely and more realistic weather conditions were used.  We assumed that a  
valve on one of the chlorine tanks malfunctioned and the full tank emptied in 1 hour.   
This gave a potential impact radius 
of  0.1 mile. 
 
Our system includes automatic alarms and we have procedures in place to respond to  
emergency situations. 
 
There are strict licensing requirements to be a plant operator.  In addition to our on-site  
training and safety procedures, the EPA and OSHA rules regulate our activities. 
 
As part of the requirements of this EPA program, we carefully reviewed our accident  
history for the last 5 years and we found that we have operated without a reportable  
chlorine related incident.  We are dedicated to safety and our record proves it. 
 
In case of an emergency, our personnel will work with local fire department responders  
and the Local Emergency Planning Committee.  We have training every year for our  
people and we coordinate with the fire department on a regular basis.  Although we take  
extensive precautions to prevent a chlorine release, we firmly believe in having a plan in  
case of an emergency.  This is the same philosophy, which leads to fire drills and first aid  
train 
ing. 
 
We are constantly looking for methods to improve.  As part of this PSM/RMP program  
we performed an extensive self-evaluation with the assistance of a professional consultant.   
We did find some areas where we could do better such as providing a site map to the fire  
department so they could better respond.  This and other areas of possible improvement  
are being addressed.  To insure safety, we have instituted a new procedure to perform a  
safety review of all mechanical or procedural changes.
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