SUZANNA'S KITCHEN INC. - Executive Summary |
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. ACCIDENTAL RELEASE PREVENTION AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE Suzanna's kitchens is a manufacturer of fully cooked and frozen foods. We have been in business for over 38 years and have held an excellent safety record. We are committed to safety in all aspecs of our operation. Our safety policies and procedures are in every phase of our operation, and every employee is trained at hire and retrained twice yearly on the OSHA regs, MSDS, Right to Know, Job hazards, as well as specific chemical handling for every chemical in the facility that they may be in contact with. Those employees that must come in contact with hazardous materials get further training to assure knowledge and skill in dealing with these hazards. This keeps our employees and our operation safe. We also have a local fire emergency department less than a 1/4 mile away that we have a great relationship with. We have had all shifts of their department in our facility to train and view not just the toxic subst ance, but also the natural gas lines or other potential hazards that could occur. This offers them knowledge of what hazards are close by and affords us a partner in our effort to keep our community safe. At Suzanna's we take raw cuts of meat, poultry or starches, season, marinade, batter,bread, these products and fully cook them. This is done in continuous ovens, fryers and batch ovens and kettles. We manufacture Barbecues, chicken wings, chicken breast grilled, Fried products, beef and pork patties , nuggets, corn dogs, just to name a few. The products are then Individually frozen in spiral freezers, or latticed and blast frozen over several hours. The product is then packed and placed in a holding freezer until shipment to consumers. We are a USDA inspected plant, everyday of operation. We are also inspected by OSHA. We have also contracted with Georgia Technical Institute for facility wide inspection on safety as well as health issues and to help us keep on top of new regulation s from all regulatory agencies. This is done simply to keep our neighbors and us safe. In the manufacturing of our products the freezing process is done with an ammonia refrigeration system. This in one large system that hold approximately 14,000. Pounds of liquid anhydrous ammonia. As stated earlier, we have been in business for over thirty-eight years, and we have leased facilities that had old and poorly maintained refrigeration systems. So, when we had the opportunity to build a brand new facility six years ago, we were well aware of the problems of the older systems. We chose to go with only the best local contractors that offered support, not just in the safe installation of the equipment, but in the training of our maintenance employees, regularly scheduled system checks and a computer link with their base to trouble shoot off sight if necessary. Our system is capable of being run completely by computer with limit set points for pressures and temperatures and automatic shut dow ns for any exceeded limits. All refrigeration and return lines have been run above the ceiling so they cannot be hit. All release valves are on the roof. Including the pop off valves for controlled release. The system can be run manually or in tandem with the computer system. The extra expense of having such a system has been well worth the money for the safety of such a system. The valve groupings at each and every unit are designed so that any release of pressure will automatically shut down the system. We also have an emergency stop that closes every solenoid valve in the system at once. WORSE CASE SCENARIO- Our worse case scenario would be for a tornado to come by and tear the cooling units from the top of the roof completely off. Using OCA Guidance as well as the system information, we were able to determine that a release of 6000 pounds would be the largest possible in that system. Since a tornado would be of wind velocity sufficient to remove cooling towers from the roof, we a scertained that all safety measures within the plant and the system would do little good except limiting the release from the rest of the system. This through the high limit alarms and procedures are in place to automatically shut down flow from compressors and receptacles. The worst case scenario we have depicted could actually happen, but the exposure area would be probably a few feet, not the 0.4 miles that the system calculated for reporting. The fact that it rains when tornadoes occur and the wind velocity is very high and vertical, not the 1.5 miles per hour that the program calculates. This would cause such a scenario to be almost no health hazard due to the dilution of the ammonia refrigerant. Actually the cooling tower itself landing would probably pose the larger threat. The material damage that would be an alternate scenario would probably in fact pose truly a larger hazard. ACCIDENTAL RELEASE- The accidental release is our alternate release scenario. This is documented and tested under the OHSA PMS regulations, and the IIAR OSHA specs, and regular inspection by the installation contractors to assure our day to day maintenance of the system is correct and safe. Due to the regulation changes we are no longer first responders in such a scenario. Our emergency response is to activate the system shut down, or in a case like this it would activate automatically, and evacuate the building. We do not have the size facility with enough trained people on each shift to effectively respond or be able to meet the OSHA requirements of an emergency response team. This is unfortunate due to the knowledge and training our people have of the system, and could aid in the reduction of risk to the public. The system itself has the only safeties that can or will be taken, so as not to be out of regulation with OSHA. There are many built in safeties. First the passive mitigation system. The compressor room is where all compressors and receptacles are located. All refrigerat ion lines are above the ceiling, so as to lower the risk of getting hit. The compressor room is closed off from the rest of the plant or outside. This would enable us to contain any spill and knock down most of the fumes before posing a threat outside the building. The compressor room is on the back of the building that is surrounded by large berms, and a drainage system. The active mitigation system includes a sprinkler system that would knock down the fumes. Once the sprinkler system is activated the air handling units in this room are shut down, automatically, encasing the spill to the interior of the compressor room. Thus reducing any exposure outside the immediate perimeter of this room. The reason we chose this scenario is with the rest of the lines being for the most part, out of harms way, the only true danger would be in the compressor room itself. By design all of the valve groupings are on the roof, so the release there would be controlled. Our computer back up system has tw o alarms also. The first is a set point exceeded limit. At this an alarm sounds and it is flashed on the screen and must be acknowledged before continuing. The second is a shutdown alarm. This second system gives the outside limits for pressures and temps. If these are exceeded, and id action is not taken immediately, the system begins pump back and shuts itself down. This causes a loss of refrigeration to that unit, but no safety threat. The system cannot be restarted until pressures or temperatures are back in range. ACCIDENTS- We have had no accidents in the last five years. This is due to expending the monies for a superior system, the training of our employees in its maintenance and having an outside auditor checking to assure all proper documenting, checking and mechanical preventive maintenance is being done regularly. EMERGENCY RESPONSE- Our emergency response as stated earlier is to simply call local authorities and evacuate the employees. Our personnel have gone through the emergency response training, but because we have such a small facility, we cannot respond meeting all OSHA requirements, so we do not respond. We have however contacted our local responders and had them though the facility on a yearly basis. PLANNED CHANGES TO IMPROVE SAFETY- Though our safety record is excellent, this is one area we strive to continually improve. We have the regular "check ups" with our contractors, and try to implement the changes and modifications for each of their recommendations. Since we are a growing company and have added to this system we have upgraded the computer systems and the computer, replaced all the release valves and added another compressor to our system. As our business has grown, the improvements and changes to the system have been to keep it constantly working in top condition. We continue to send our maintenance department employees to ammonia refrigeration training classes that teach not just theories and mechanics of the systems, but the safe operation and trouble shooting of it as well. Advanced planning in the installation, having had a poor system before, and doing it correctly this time, has been most istumental in having a safe working system. Suzanna's Kitchens is a food manufacturer that has not sat down through the changes in the industry, but has accepted the challenges and responsibility of operating a safe work place. Safe for our employees and to those in our community. |