CK WITCO CORPORATION - MAPLETON PLANT - Executive Summary |
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INTRODUCTION: On August 31, 1999, the WITCO CORPORATION'S Metal Alkyl portion of the business at the Mapleton facility and the Oleochemicals portions of the Mapleton Plant were divided into separate ownership. The Metal Organic portion is now owned and operated by CK Witco Corporation. The Oleochemicals portion of the Mapleton Plant site is now owned and operated by Goldschmidt SKW Oleochemicals, LLC. This RMP document covers that portion of the Mapleton Plant owned and operated by CK Witco Corporation. The previously submitted RMP Document, I.D.# [1000 0014 7405] under the Witco Corporation ownership covered both of these operations. CK Witco Corporation is committed to providing the processes, facilities, standards, resources, training, discipline, and work culture to ensure 1) A safe environment for all employees and for the communities in which we operate, 2) Safe, effective products for our customers, 3) Conservation of energy and natural resources, 4) Responsible Waste Mana gement, and 5) Protection of shareholder assets. At CK Witco Corporation, we are committed to operating and maintaining all of our processes in a safe and responsible manner. Our Mapleton facility property consists of 7.5 acres of land that was a part of the original Witco Corporation Plant site. Approximately 20 employees operate this 24 hours per day, 5 days a week facility operation that manufactures a product line of Metal Organic materials that are used in the manufacture of plastics. The main products manufactured in the Metal Organics Plant are aluminum alkyls. These products are pyrophoric in nature and require specialized equipment and procedures for safe handling. DISCUSSION: On May 20, 1999, our plant as a part of Witco Corporation joined with our neighboring facilities al group lonza to present all Risk Management Plans to the Mapleton Community. There were about 20 members from the plants present, 10 Community Action Program (CAP) Committee members present, and a bout 10 members from the Mapleton Community. The plan was received well. All questions were answered. The event was covered by the news media with a small article that appeared in the local paper the next day. In our opinion, this event meets the Public Meeting requirement set forth in the new "Site Security and Fuels Regulatory Relief Act", Public Meetings and other Notifications Law, PL 106-40 [August 5, 1999]. This document provides a brief overview of our manufacturing processes that utilize those chemicals that fall under the EPA's RMP regulations. The Mapleton production facilities fall under the Level 3 Processes. The CK Witco Facility uses two flammable chemicals that fall under this program. The Flammable materials are Ethylene and Ethyl Chloride. The values shown in the following scenarios were obtained using computer based modeling with EPA's RMP-Comp,Ver.1.06. The community population numbers were obtained using Landview III, from the Census Bureau. There are man y more complicated programs available that should be used for emergency planning but RMP-Comp can be used for the planning for this document. Worst Case Scenario / FLAMMABLE: The first Worst Case Scenario for Flammable involves Ethylene. The Ethylene storage tank ruptures allowing the release of 49,000 pounds of ethylene over a 10 minute time period. The 1-PSI Blast radius is 1,571 feet or 0.3 Mile. Worst Case Scenario / FLAMMABLE: The second Worst Case Scenario for Flammable involves Ethyl Chloride. The Ethyl Chloride storage tank ruptures allowing the release of 135,000 pounds of Ethyl Chloride over a 10 minute time period. The 1-PSI Blast radius is 1,571 feet or 0.3 Mile. Alternate Release Scenarios / FLAMMABLE: The Alternate Release Scenario for Ethylene involves the release of 88 pounds of Ethylene for 30 minutes from a broken section of 3/8-inch stainless tubing. The 1-PSI distance is 528 feet or 0.1 Mile. The Alternate Release Scenario for Ethyl Chloride involves releas e of 88 pounds of Ethyl Chloride for 30 minutes from a broken section of 3/8-inch stainless tubing. The 1-PSI distance is 528 feet or 0.1 Mile. Both of these flammable gases are piped to an in plant flare system so an escape from normal and customary piping systems should be vented into the flare and burned. General Accidental Release Prevention Program and Chemical Specific Prevention Steps: CK Witco Corporation complies with OSHA's PSM rule and EPA's RMP rule. We also participate in CMA's Responsible Care program. We take a systematic, proactive approach to preventing accidental releases of flammable chemicals. Our management system address each of the key features of successful prevention programs including: -7 Process Safety Information -7 Process Hazard Analysis -7 Training -7 Mechanical Integrity -7 Management of Change -7 Pre-Startup Reviews -7 Compliance Audits -7 Incident Investigations -7 Employee Participation -7 Hot Work Permits -7 Contractor Safety CK Witco Corporat ion has "Layers of Protection" to help ensure that an emergency situation with off-site implications will not arise and have put several layers of safety and environmental protection into place. This includes the following elements: 7 Employees are well trained and are our most important resource in operating our facility and in protecting our community. 7 Mechanical Integrity testing for major pieces of process equipment like metal fatigue and thickness testing. 7 Comprehensive Technical Hazard Reviews conducted at least every 5 years on processes using these RMP regulated chemicals and on design changes for production units before the changes are made. An excellent record keeping software program allows similar situations to be compared. 7 Distributed Control Systems are used throughout the plant. They are interconnected which allows control to be shifted to another control station in the event of a computer system failure until full capability is restored. 7 We have highly sensit ive monitoring instrumentation available that will detect very low concentrations of these materials. 7 The key to minimizing the effect of an accidental release is to get the right people and equipment to the location quickly. This includes both on-site and off-site emergency responders. All well trained and experienced with our materials. 7 We have in-plant notification systems that can be used to summon our in-plant emergency responders. Working through the Peoria County LEPC and the County Sheriff's Department, we are able to summon necessary responders from the Timber-Hollis Volunteer Fire Department and the Pekin Area Fire Departments. The Emergency Notification system can also be used to notify local residents of the need to "Shelter-in-Place" when conditions warrant it. 7 We have an extensive Community Emergency Exercise history involving the above mentioned agencies. We just conducted another Emergency Community Exercise on October 15, 1999. Five Year Accident History: We keep accurate records for all accidental releases involving all chemicals from our facility. CK Witco Corporation Mapleton Plant believes there have been NO accidents or incidents according to the RMP Rule definition for releases or incidents involving covered chemicals during the past five years that has resulted in injuries, evacuations, sheltering-in-place, property damage, or environmental damage off site. We are using this information to help us ensure that our emergency response plan and the community emergency response plan addresses all reasonable contingency cases. |