Western Alaska Fisheries, Inc. - Executive Summary |
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Western Alaska Fisheries, Kodiak, AK 99615 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Risk Management Plan (RMP) is submitted to the United States Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) to meet the requirements of Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, codified in the Code of Federal Regulation Title 40 Part 68. Stationary Source and Chemical of Concern Western Alaska Fisheries is located in St. Paul Harbor, in Kodiak, Alaska. The facility is staffed year-round and also employs a fairly large seasonal workforce of about 100 employees.Safety of our employees and the public is our utmost concern. The plant produces fresh and frozen seafood products using anhydrous ammonia in a closed system as a refrigerant. There are three separate ammonia systems for ice making, plate freezing and blast freezing used at the plant. These systems have ammonia capacities of 2,000 , 8,000 and 8,000 lbs. respectively. Ammonia is the safest refrigerant available and has excellent warning properties; it is ex tremely punget at levels far below dangerous concentrations. The maximum quantity of ammonia on site would be 18,000 lbs. In calculating worst-case and alternative scenarios, efforts were made in all cases to overestimate the effects of a release.A worst case scenario would involve failure of a HPR releasing 8000 lbs of ammonia over a 10 minute period. Modeling results indicate the distance to a toxic endpoint of 200ppm to be 1.1 miles. The plant has not had a significant release in the last five years and has been operating safely since 1968, a trend which we plan to continue.WAF has trained refrigeration operators which adhere to strict operating procedures.Our employees have attended ammonia release training in conjunction with the local fire department, Ammonia Safety Institute and local emergency services. Emergency Action plans are in place at our facility which outline specific procedures in the event of an accident. The plan identifies personnel designated to conduct the n ecessary duties during a response.Our plant has coordinated its emergency response plan with local authorities and responders through public meetings and workshops. |