Roundtop Water Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has an accidental release prevention programs that utilizes technologies, comprehensive training, articulate procedures, and management practices. This emergency response policy and response plan is written specifically for the Roundtop Plant, utilizing all emergency response resources available in the community. The Roundtop Water Treatment Plant is a surface water treatment plant that supplies potable water for the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The plant is located west of Cheyenne and is a conventional filtration plant. The chlorine room of the plant contains four one ton containers, two chlorinators a chlorine leak detector, and a vent fan. This equipment is used for safe disinfection of treated water before being sent to the population of Cheyenne. The plant is normally manned 24 hours a day 7 days a week with exception of a shut down period during winter months fo r maintenance. The offsite consequence analysis includes two chlorine release scenarios, identified as "worst case scenario" and "alternate scenario". The worst case scenario is defined by EPA, which states that "the owner or operator shall asume that the maximum quantity in the largest storage vessel is released as a gas over 10 minutes," due to an unspecifed failure. The alternative scenario is defined as " more likely to occur than the worst-case release scenario". Atmopheric dispersion modeling using RMP Comp has been done to determine the distance traveled by the chlorine gas until it reaches it's toxic endpoint selected by EPA of 0.0087 mg/L. The worst case scenario toxic endpoint reached a 2.2 mile radius from point of release, the alternate scenario toxic endpoint reached a .1 mile radius from point of release. The population within this 2.2 mile radius is approximately 318 people using GIS information and 1990 census data. The general accident al release prevention program and chlorine specific prevention steps have been outlined by the OSHA PSM rule. There is close attention paid to mechanical integrity or maintenance of equipment, operating procedures, management of change, and startup procedures after a change or a shutdown. All aspects of PSM are trained on at least annually with evaluation done by demonstration and observation. All procedures were written with the participation of the operators. A state of the art leak detection system is in place to notify personnel of a chlorine leak with an evacuation alarm if the leak reaches 10 ppm in the chlorine room. All contractors and frequent plant visitors are trained on emergency procedures. There is no five year accident history to be reported. The facility has an emergency response plan that has coordinated with the local emergency responders, Fire District #1, Fire District #2, F.E. Warren Air Force Base HazMat Team. In case of an emergency an operato r is to notify 911 where upon they will notify the emergency responders. In 1997 a Process Hazard Analysis was conducted and through this procedure several changes were made, to improve safety of operation. One possible change still to be made is the purchase and installation of a vaccuum chlorination system. The implementation of OSHA PSM and EPA RMP has lead the Roundtop operators and management to be more safety conscience and be safety proactive instead of reactive. |