Hershey Creamery Company - Executive Summary |
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Hershey Creamery Company Company, Inc. - Risk Management Plan It has been and will continue to be the policy of the Hershey Creamery Company, Inc. to strive to provide the safest and most efficient place to work. The operations of the Hershey Creamery Company shall be conducted with the highest regard for the safety and health of its employees. It is therefore reasonable to expect every employee to accept the responsibility of being a conscious safe worker and to commonly practice safe work habits while on the job and work place. Thus to accomplish this mission, and a successful safety program, the active cooperation of every person/employee is absolutely essential. To clearly convey the company's commitment to safety a Policies and Procedures Manual has be developed. The Hershey Creamery Company manufactures ice cream and other frozen desserts. The manufacturing process utilizes a typical ammonia refrigeration system to cool, freeze, preserve and store its raw materals and pro ducts. The main manufacturing facility is located at 301 South Cameron Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The company also owns and operates a refrigerated warehouse at 1200 Airport Industrial Drive, Middletown, Pennsylvania. The refrigeration system at the main plant in Harrisburg typicaly contains 22 tons of ammonia gas that has been liquified under pressure. The facility operates two 8-hour shifts with most of the manufacturing taking place during the first shift and batch preparation and clean-up taking place the second shift. The facility employees 150 people full time with additional help needed during the summer months. As required by the EPA the "Worst Case Release Scenario" was modeled as a catastrophic rupture of the main receiver with complete loss of contents (44,054 lbs.). For the "Alternative Release Scenario" a small tank puncture was chosen yealding a release of 22,360 lbs. of ammonia over a 20-minute period. The EPA's RMP*Comp computer model was used to estimat e the distance travled by the plume to reach the toxic endpoint for ammonia (200 ppm). The RMP*Comp program gives a distance of 2.30 miles for the "Worst Case Release Scenario" and 0.20 miles for the "Alternative Release Scenario". No accidental releases of ammonia have occurred at this facility in the past five years. The facility has an Hazardous Materials Off-Site Emergency Response Plan that has been coordinated (reviewed) by the City of Harrisburg Fire Department and with the Dauphin County Emergancy Management Acency. |