Vantico Inc - McIntosh Plant - Executive Summary |
Vantico Inc - McIntosh Plant Vantico Inc. is located on Ciba Road in McIntosh, Washington County, Alabama. Vanitico occupies the northeast quadrant of the manufacturing area that was formally Ciba Specialities Chemicals Corporation. This site was purchased from Ciba Specialty in June 1, 2000 and presently is operating with 223 employees. This site is part of the Polymer Specialties Division (Area 12/19) and produces specialty polymers and basic liquid epoxy resins. As the former Polymers Division of Ciba Specialty Chemicals Vantico participated in the OSHA Star program and will continue to strive towards safety excellence. In addition it is a worldwide member of the chemical industries Responsible Care program. We maintain a staff of EHS professionals who are trained/educated in their respective areas and provide professional training to our employees. Vantico strives to be an accepted part of the community by being a good citizen. We focus daily on all laws and regulati ons in order to protect the health and safety of our employees, our community, and the environment. Our current OSHA Recordable injury rate is 1.2 and the site has worked greater than 337,000 hours without a lost time injury. The Clean Air Act Amendments (Section 112 r) mandated by the EPA requires a Risk Management Plan (RMP) which requires covered sites to perform an Offsite Consequence Analysis by determining its Worst Case Scenario and Alternative Release Scenario. Epichlorohydrin is the only chemical that is covered by RMP with inventories of 3,400,000 lbs which exceeds the threshold amount of 20,000 lbs. The Worst Case was based on the highly unlikely scenario of complete failure of an Epichlorohydrin railcar without any mitigation. This consists of the release of 187,000 lbs of the chemical from the railcar in 10 minutes assuming the worst possible weather conditions. The toxic end point is 20 ppm and 5.8 miles. This scenario is used to help the EMA and LEPC in planning fo r Emergency Response. The Alternative Release Scenario is more realistic and is based on process knowledge and incident history. This scenario would be a release of Epichlorohydrin due to a ruptured pipe in the amount of 10,000 lbs for a duration of 60 minutes. The toxic end point is 0.5 miles. Prevention of these type releases are dependent on proper handling of the chemical. Vantico Identifies potential hazards or releases by: a) conducting Process Hazard Analysis on all processes b) reviewing all process Modifications to identify potential hazards c) conducting Pre-Startup Safety Reviews We control hazards by: a) developing detailed Operating Procedures b) thoroughly training each operator and certifying that they have the highest expertise c) inspecting and testing the Mechanical Integrity of equipment d) keeping accurate Safety Information on design, chemical hazards, and process technology e) using Contractors with safe work histories f) utilizing work permits to ensure safe maintenance work |