Aurora Cooperative - Hardy - Executive Summary |
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The Aurora Cooperative Elevator Company's accidental release prevention policy involves a unified approach that integrates technologies, prodecures, and management practices. The Aurora Cooperative emergency response plan involves the response services available in the community. Aurora Cooperative bulk Anhydrous Ammonia faciliites have been strategically located to provide a local retail facility for this form of affordable nitrogen fertilizer for agricultue. This location, on West Railroad Street in Hardy, Nebraska is made up of one 30,000 gallon pressurized storage vessel, related piping and storage of up to forty (40) 1,500 gallon nurse tanks. It serves the areas of Southern Nuckolls County in Nebraska and Northern Republic and Jewell Counties in Kansas. This facility is normally unmanned, except during fertilizer season, although the nearby office is normally manned during business hours. The offsite consequence analysis includes consideration of two anhydrous ammonia relea se scenarios, identified as "worst case release" and "alternative scenario". The first scenario is defined by EPA, which states the "owner or operator shall assume that the...maximum quantity of the largest vessel...is released as a gas over a 10 minute period, due to an unspecified failure". The alternative release scenario is defines as "more likely to occur that the worst case scenario". Atmospheric dispersion modeling has to be performed to determine the distance traveled by the anhydrous ammonia released before it's concentration is decreased to a "non-toxic" level. For this purpose, Aurora Cooperative has chosen to use RMP-Comp Version 1.05 to determine the distance to the toxic endpoint (.14 mg/l or 200 ppm). To determine the population affected by a potential release, we used maps extracted from Landview 3 software. The worst case release for Aurora Cooperative - Hardy involves a failure of the 30,000 gallon pressurized storage vessel while it contains 85% (maximum allowe d capacity) of it's capacity. The alternative release scenario is based on the failure of a three inch transfer hose, assuming complete failure of the in-line check valve and that the excess flow valve takes two minutes to close. |