Trinity County Regional Water Supply System - Executive Summary |
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The Trinity River Authority of Texas (TRA) is a political subdivision charged by legislative mandate with three functions. These include the maintenance of a Master Plan for basin-wide development, serve as a local sponsor for federal water projects and providing services authorized by the Texas Legislature within TRA's defined territory that include all or part of seventeen counties encompassing approximately 17,500 square miles. Public services currently provided and/or being developed by the Authority include wastewater treatment, water treatment, water supply, flood control, recreation and reservoir facilities. The Authority also serves as a conduit for tax exempt financing for municipal water and wastewater facilities and industrial air and water pollution control facilities. Each operation and/or financing endeavor is an independent financial entity. On a functional basis, the Authority operates as a governmental utility, receives no direct tax revenues or revenue sharing and is compensated for services rendered. Perhaps our greatest impact to lthe general public is our ownership and operation of several large water and wastewater treatment facilities. We provide essential services to a significant portion of the public in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area and to several cities around lake Livingston. As the operator of these facilities, it is our duty to inform the public about efforts to prevent and, if necessary respond if a hazardous substance were inadvertently released from one of our treatment facilities. There are other operators of water utilities in these regions who have an interest in the same risk management issues. The Trinity River Authority of Texas (TRA) Trinity County Regional Water Supply System (TCRWSS) began operation in September of 1983 to provide treated water to the City of Trinity, City of Groveton, Westwood Shores Municipal Utility District, Trinity Rural Water Supply Corporation, Glendale Water Supply Corporation and Riverside Water Supply Corporation. This innovative project withdraws raw water from Lake Livingston via a series of shallow wells placed in existing sand and gravel deposits on the Trinity County shoreline of the lake. The deposits act as filters to reduce treatment costs. The facility is located outside the City of Trinity in a rural area. The facility currently has the capacity to treat one million gallons per day and the quality of the treated water meets or exceeds all state and federal regulatory standards. As a result of new federal guidelines, 40 CFR Part 68, Accidental Release Prevention Program (ARPP), the TCRWSS is required to develop and implement a Risk Management Program (RMP) due to the amounts of chlorine and sulfur dioxide that it uses in its treatment process. In developing its RMP, TCRWSS has conducted an analysis of potential off-site consequences of an accidental release including a "worst case" and "alternative case" release scenario. In addition, the facility has compiled a five year accidental release history, a release prevention program and an emergency response program. The TCRWSS has an outstanding safety record and there have been no accidents related to covered processes in the past five years. With respect to accident prevention programs: * Annual training is required by all operations and maintenance employees who work in and around hazardous chemical storage and loading areas. * Visual inspections of these covered processes are conducted by operations personnel on each shift. * Sensors and alarms are in place around all process areas to detect any leakage of the hazardous chemicals. * Written operating procedures are continuously updated and maintained for operations personnel to use during their work routines. * All accidents are investigated promply with written documentation of all findings. These accident investigations are reviewed by management and Certified Safety Professionals to determine cause and preventi on. * Monthly safety audits are conducted of all plant process areas including covered process areas. Written documentation of these monthly audits, including actions taken to correct problems, is maintained for a minimum of five years. * Preventative maintenance programs for covered processes are in place and a computerized records management system is in place to automatically generate reports regarding preventative maintenance needs and/or histories on all covered process equipment. * Project personnel on various safety issues that are pertinent to covered processes conduct monthly safety meetings. * Emergency Response Plans are in place to outline actions to take should an accidental release occur. The plans have been reviewed by the local Fire Departments and Local Emergency Planning Committees. * These above procedures have resulted in a greater awareness of operation limits and emergencies and have resulted in a much safer work place thereby benefiting employees and the gener al public. |