Harpeth Valley Utilities District - Executive Summary |
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Harpeth Valley Utilities District (HVUD) water treatment facility is located by the Cumberland River and supplies water to 11,000 households in the Harpeth Valley area, and many other households in nearby areas. This water is obtained from the Cumberland River and is treated at the facility. The water treatment includes removing impurities from the river water and treating the water with chlorine to kill any remaining microorganisms and to prevent microbial growth in the water while the water is in storage. This water treatment plant can produce 24 million gallons of water per day. Our safety philosophy is oriented toward affirmative control and minimization of risk at the greatest extent possible. To this end, every reasonable effort will be made in achieving the goal of accident prevention and health preservation. We have had zero accidental releases of chlorine in the last five years. We completed and implemented a Process Safety Management Plan and Emergency Response Plan concerni ng chlorine storage and handling. These plans include, but are not limited to, employee training on safe handling of chlorine and reponse procedures to a chlorine leak, review of the chlorine system including a process hazard analysis, and testing of chlorine piping to determine corrosion rates and useful life of the piping. The chlorine system building includes the following safety equipment; chlorine detectors to notify personnel of chlorine concentrations in air above 1 part per million, self-contained breathing apparatus for personnel to respond to small chlorine leaks, and emergency kits to repair one ton chlorine containers. We used EPA guidance documentation to determine the distances to toxic endpoint for chlorine releases at our facility. The toxic endpoint is the chlorine concentration you could be exposed to for an hour without suffering irreversible health effects or other symptoms what would make it difficult for you to escape. The distance noted in the EPA guidance docum entation for a worst case release from a one ton chlorine container is 1.3 miles. The conditions necessary for a worst case scenario to occur are highly unlikely. An alternate scenario would be the failure of the valve or tubing attached to the one ton cylinder. This unlikely event could result in a distance to the toxic endpoint of 0.3 miles. The Metropolitan Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) will be notified of any chlorine release of 10 pounds or greater, or any chlorine leak that can not be contained utilizing tools and procedures immediately available to the employees on-site. HVUD will assist MEMA in notifying the public who may be affected by the release and in implementing the necessary measures to contain the release as appropriate. |