Shelbyville Wastewater Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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The Shelbyville Municipal Water and Sewer Commission is owned by the City of Shelbyville, and is operated through a 5 member Board of Commissioners, with the Mayor as Chairman. Daily operations are conducted by a full time Manager. The Commission has always provided for safety considerations for its employees as well as the community. The goal of the Risk Management Program is to reduce the risk to employees and the public of injury or death from accidental release of chemicals. The Commission's management is committed to achieving that goal. The Commission uses chlorine for disinfection purposes at both the water treatment plant, and the wastewater treatment plant, and considers chlorine disinfection as vital to the community health and safety. The Commission has always been aware that the release of chlorine constitutes a public risk to the community, and through close cooperation with the local LERC, Fire Departments, and DES personnell, has treated this matter with concern. In the late 1980's a local emergeny response plan was implemented for both plants, in conjunction with the local response agencies. Drills are conducted on an annual basis at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and have been conducted at the Water Treatment Plant. However, major drills with LERC personnel at the Water Treatment Plant have been non-existant for at least 5 years, for various reasons, including employee turnover, and recent plant expansions, although an Emergency Response Plan is in effect . With staff now in place, and the impkementation of the RMProgram, ER drills will become routine per the Prevention/Training Plan and ER portion of the RMPlan. Through extensive work in developing the RMPlan, the Commission has determined that increased emphasis must be placed on Risk Management of these processes, and has been in the process of reorganizing staff in order to become more effective in this area. The staff, after completion of the Process Hazards Analysis is now reviewing p rocedures, personnel and materials, to improve and comply with the new RMPlan. The Commission has normally relied upon consultants to provide materials/equipment, and through this review, we have realized that there are deficiencies within this system, and will now rely upon in-house training, outside training, and the Prevention Plan to insure that the consultants use BAT to minimize the event of a release. The Commission used OCA Guidance to develop the worst case scenario, and the release are similar to the plan that was in place. We feel the new plan will make control of an event even more effective through better Administrative controls such as planning, prevention, hot work permitting, and contractor safety plan. The Commission is in the proces of purchasing a new and upgraded chlorine detector/alarm system witha 24 hour chlorine gas generator that will provide verification of reliability by performing self-checks every 24 hours of the alarm system itself. PHA's have generate d other ideas that will need to be reviewed and quantified prior to implementation. The Commission is proud of not having any releases within the last 5 years (actually much more than 5 years), and hopes with the implementation of the new RMPlan that that record will be extended for many more years. |