Aurora Cooperative - Cairo - Executive Summary |
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The Aurora Cooperative Elevator Company's accidental release prevention policy involves a unified approach that integrates technologies, procedures, and management practices. The Aurora Cooperative emergency response plan involves the response services available in the community. Aurora Cooperative bulk anhydrous ammonia facilities have been strategically located to provide a local retail facility for this form of affordable nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture. This location east of Cairo, Ne. is made up of one (1) 30,000 gallon pressurized storage vessel and one loadout riser. It serves the Hall County area. This facility is normally unmanned, except during fertilizer season. The offsite consequence analysis includes consideration of two anhydrous ammonia release scenarios, identified as "worst case release" and "alternative scenario". The first scenario is defined by EPA, which states that the "owner or operator shall assume that the...maximum quantity of the largest vessel.. .is released as a gas over a 10 minute period, due to an unspecified failure". The alternative release scenario is defined as "more likely to occur than the worst case scenario". Atmospheric dispersion modeling has to be performed to determine the distance traveled by the anhydrous ammonia released before it's concentration decreases to a "non-toxic" level. For this purpose, Aurora Cooperative has chosen to use RMP-Comp Version 1.05 to determine the distance to the toxic endpoint (.14 mg/l or 200 ppm) and to determine the population affected by a potential release using maps extracted from Landview 3 software. The worst case release scenario for the Aurora Cooperative, Cairo anhydrous ammonia facility involves the failure of the 30,000 gallon pressurized storage vessel while it contains 85% (maximum allowed capacity) of it's capacity. The alternative release scenario is based on failure of a three inch transfer hose, assuming that the check valve fails completely and the excess fl ow valve in the storage vessel takes two minutes to close. |