Easton Area Joint Sewer Authority WPCF - Executive Summary |
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The Easton Area Joint Sewer Authority Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF) is owned by the City of Eason. The City leases the plant to the Easton Area Joint Sewer Authority. The Authority hires City of Easton employees to operate the plant. The City of Easton also contracts with U.S. Water to manage plant operations. Full time employees at the plant include 18 City employees and 5 U.S. Water employees. There is 1 part time Authority employee. The Authority also utilizes 3 Contract employees for lab services on site. The Easton WPCF treats wastewater flows from the regional municipalities of Easton, West Easton, Wilson, Forks Township and Palmer Township. The original plant was built in 1959. The capacity of the plant is 10 million gallons per day. The plant's one process that is covered by the RMP Regulation is their chlorine system which is used for effluent disinfection. The chlorine process is located in a separate chlorine building, constructed of concrete and masonry . The worst-case release scenario identified in the Hazard Assesment for the chlorine process is the release of the entire contents of a one ton container within 10 minutes, as required by EPA CFR 40 Part 68.25 regulations. According to Exhibit 4-4 in the EPA's RMP Guidance for Wastewater Treatment Plants, the down wind distance to the toxic endpoint (concentration of 3 ppm) for this scenario is 1.3 miles. For the alternative release scenario, a liquid chlorine release through a 0.344" diameter vessel hole (fusible plug failure) was selected. Accoding to Exhibit 4-12 in the EPA's RMP Guidance for Wastewater Treatment Plants, the down wind distance to the toxic endpoint (concentration of 3 ppm) for this scenario is 0.3 miles. The chlorine building enclosure should provide some temporary containment and mitigation of an indoor release, which should further reduce this estimated distance to the toxic endpoint. The chlorine building houses a maximum quantity of 12,000 pounds of chlor ine in steel one ton containers. The chlorine building contains all necessary safety equipment for overall safe operations: chlorine detectors and alarms, automatic ventilation system, repair kits, and personal protective equipment (PPE). The Authority's policy is to operate a safe, well maintained chlorine process. Operators are trained and experienced in operating the chlorine process. The policy of the Authority is to uitilize off-site emergency responders for an emergency response event, if necessary. Emergency response actions are coordinated with the local community response agencies. There have been no reportable accidental releases of chlorine at the Easton WPCF to date. |