Maple Leaf Farms, Wisconsin Division - Executive Summary |
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June 21, 1999 Re: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, RMP Maple Leaf Farms, Wisconsin Division. Element One- accidental release prevention and emergency response policies. Senior management (corporate office) has established an Crisis Management Team. This team monitors all of the facilities process safety management programs and has utilized employee awareness and the process hazard anelysis portion to prevent accidental releases. An example of this would be installing spring to close oil pot drain valves so that the valve can't be left open. The Crisis Management Team requires and monitors all the facilities emergency response plans. This has been the motivating force to get, keep, and improve our facility plans. Alarm systems are being updated for fire, weather, and evacuation due to chemical release. These alarms will be in english and spanish with warning strobes in noisy areas. Element Two- facility and regulated substances handled. Maple Leaf Farms, Wisconsin Division is a duckling pr ocessing plant. The plant processes approximately 120.000 ducks per week. The plant operates five days per week two shifts per day. Day shift is processing and evening shift is sanitation. The duck waste from the plant is used in pet food and the wastewater is treated in a conventional treatment plant and discharge to the West branch of the Root river per a WNPDES permit. The main chemical of concern is Ammonia. It is used in the cooling and freezing of duck and duck products. The refrigeration plant utilizes both low and high stage compression. The plant runs a chiller, liquid freeze, cooler, ice maker, freezer, and blast freezer. Other chemicals located at the plant but in small quantities are chlorine, soaps, and boiler and evaporator water treatment chemicals. Element Three- worst-case and alternative release scenarios. I used industry- specific guidance from the IIAR to do the modeling. RMP program guidance for ammonia refrigeration. For the worst-cast I used the liquid r eceiver located just outside and north of the Processing Plant. The receiver holds 4060 pounds of ammonia. The supervising operator told me that the controls will only let the vessel reach 75% of capacity. The release duration is 10.0 minutes, wind speed 1.5 meters per second, atmospheric stability class (F), and topography rural. The charts indicate distance to endpoint as 1.00 Miles. There are only homes or farms located in this area. I estimate 150 people could be influenced by this event No public receptors or environmental receptors. No passive mitigation exist. For an alternative release scenario I use an incident that occur, that did not release any ammonia but potentially could. After a heavy snow they were piling snow with a front end loader when the blade hit a three inch evaporator line. At the time very little damage occurred, but potentially a three inch flange could have opened. Quantity released 1,500 pounds, release rate 17,000 pounds per minute, release dura tion 1.0 minutes, wind speed 1.5 meters per second, atmospheric stability class (D), topography rural, and distance to endpoint 0.5 miles (from chart). I estimate 100 people influenced by this event. Again there are only homes and farms located in this area. No public or environmental receptors are affected. No passive mitigation exist. Existing active mitigation in use are a sprinkler system inside, excess flow valves, and emergency shutdown systems. Element four- general accident release prevention and chemical-specific prevention steps. We are in compliance with OSHA process safety management rule for Ammonia. Getting the operators, supervisors and managers all involved in process hazard analysis was important in finding and correcting potential problems. Checking safety systems and the mechanical integrity inspection and documenting these things raises the competency of the system and the operator's confidence and pride. And training, not only is this good for the operator , but supervisors and managers better understand the needs of the operators. Logs and perventive maintenance programs are required for all equipment and system monitoring. Element five- five year accident history. We have had some small releases of ammonia, (less than 100 pounds) in the last five years. No residences had to be evacuated. One release October 27, 1997 we had to evacuate the plant. There were no injuries. Element six-emergency response program. First response is too our employees whether it is fire, weather, or chemical release alarm. Next we call the local fire department (Don Wentland Union Grove Fire Dept.). If hazardous chemicals are involved then Mike Vinovich Division Chief, Racine Fire Department is called. He is the leader of the local Hazmat Team. Union Grove is very familiar with our plant and process. They have been receiving are tier two reports. I have talk to Mike Vinovich and he will be receiving blue prints of our facility and we are planning a p ractice drill in the near future. All personal receive ammonia awareness training as part of our process safety management program. Further training is given in-house by certified trainers to our operators supervisors and managers in ammonia refrigeration as per our psm program. Also three of us have had 24 hour Emergency Responder Training and will be getting our incident commander training soon. We have purchased all required safety equipment and have been train on same. Element seven- planned changes to improve safety. We plan to increase the number of employees trained as 24 hour Emergency Responders with the future goal of establishing our own Hazmat team. In the future we plan to include outside responders in our drills. Familiarity with equipment and facility are keys to any successful response. We have nine more 8 hour in-house training sessions scheduled going over standard operating procedures of our ammonia refrigeration plant. After this training a refresher traini ng program will be scheduled. The corporate crisis management team started last year have been big drivers for improving safety for personnel and food products company wide. Their support has given the plant managers the means to get the job done. Here in Wisconsin we will be installing a new alarm system for the plant personnel and a siren alarm for the farms and close neighbors. The plant alarm will have different sounds for fire, weather, and chemical release. It will include announcements in both English and Spanish and will have strobe lights in noisy areas. The siren will alert the employees working on the duck farms and residences nearby. Mechanical improvements to the ammonia refrigeration system will be made when equipment is replaced for age or wear, when processes are changed, or when required for plant safety. Sincerely, Robert M. Rosdil Corp. Mrg. Regulatory Compliance |