Hydrite Chemical Co. - Wausau - Executive Summary |
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Hydrite Chemical Co. operates as an Chemical Distribution Warehouse for chemicals used in a variety of industries from food processing to waste water treatment. We at Hydrite Chemical are strongly committed to employee and public safety and environmental responsibility. It is our policy to control our processes to prevent the accidental release of harmful or noxious materials that could endanger or irritate our employees, plant visitors, or neighbors. This commitment is integrated into our design standards, equipment installation and maintenance practices, operating procedures and training programs. Hydrite Chemical has developed and trained written emergency response procedures in the event of an accidental release from any of our processes. These written plans have been provided to the local emergency response agencies including local emergency response personnel, hospitals, state and federal agencies. Hydrite uses or warehouses four chemicals regulated by the Occupational Safe ty and Health Administration (OSHA), Process Safety Management Program and the Environmental Protection Agency Risk Management Program. These chemicals are anhydrous forms of Sulfur Dioxide, Chlorine, Anhydrous Ammonia, and Aqueous Ammonia. The on-site storage capacity is 6,000 pounds of Sulfur Dioxide in the warehouse; 58,000 pounds of Chlorine in the warehouse, 130,000 pounds of Anhydrous Ammonia bulk, 187,000 pounds Aqueous Ammonia bulk. Anyhdrous ammonia in the warehouse is limited to 150 pound containers and Aqueous ammonia in the warehouse is packaged in a range of 5 gallon pails to tote containers. Sulfur Dioxide, Chlorine and Anhydrous Ammonia are stored as liquid under pressure. All storage containers are designed to comply with National Standards including the U.S. Department of Transportaion (DOT), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and OSHA, and the Chlorine Institute. Worst case scenario for each regulated substance is based on the total loss of the maximum quantity stored in each container. Release is assumed to occur over a 10 minute period with weather conditions as defined by EPA in the Offsite Consequence Analysis Guidance for compressed gases. Passive mitigation for enclosures is included on the warehoused material as this material is received and stored within a building. Worst case scenario for anhydrous ammonia bulk storage is also assumed to occur over a 10 minute period using weather parameters specified by EPA with the total contents of the largest tank lost. Hydrite has elected to use the ALOHA modeling package to keep our scenarios comparable with the local emergency response providers for all of the compressed gas scenarios. Due to ALOHA's inability to model aqueous solutions, Hydrite used RMP*Comp for modeling the Aqueous Ammonia scenarios. The worst case scenario for anhydrous ammonia in bulk storage has the greatest impact zone and does have off-site impacts. Alternate scenarios for sulfur dioxide and chlorine we re based on a fuseable plug failure on a ton container allowing the total quantity in the container to be released through the 3/8" opening. Weather conditions used were as specified in the EPA Offsite Consequence Analysis Guidance. Modeling was conducted using ALOHA. Both alternate scenarios have off-site impacts. Alternate scenario for bulk anhydrous ammonia was based on a hose failure from a delivery truck using ALOHA and also has off-site impact. The alternate scenario for aqueous ammonia is based on a hose failure from the storage tank modeled using RMP*Comp and has limited off-site impact. Anhydrous ammonia in cylinders stored within the warehouse is below the TQ and was not modeled. Hydrite Chemical has multiple release prevention programs integrated into all phases of operation from design through maintenance. Each chemical is reviewed for physical hazards, health hazards, environmental hazards and process hazards. Both processes are subject to the OSHA PSM program an d as such, undergo a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA). Written operating procedures have been developed and are reviewed on a regular basis. Employee training procedures have been developed and are implemented ensuring the employees understand the hazards of the chemicals, know how to operate the equipment, know how to shut down the process and how to respond to a release. Pre-start up safety reviews are performed prior to operation of new equipment or receipt of new chemicals. Equipment maintenance procedures have been developed and implemented, including routine inspections and scheduled maintenance. Hydrite Chemical believes that every incident has the potential for serious impact and practices Incident Investigations to determine root cause and corrective action for all releases whether they resulted in injury or impacted away from our plant or not. A review of the previous five year accident history indicated no releases with community impact. Hydrite Chemical has developed a nd maintained an Emergency Response Plan (contingency plan) for a number of years. This plan includes ? individual assignments in case of an emergency for on-scene control of the situation, ? response personnel, ? appropriate response actions, ? resources available at the plant for use in responding such as ? two way radios for communication, ? repair kits for leaking cylinders and tanks. Hydrite Chemical is strongly committed to employee and public safety and environmental responsibility and continually works to improve processes or procedure that advance our goal of zero releases. |