Red Oak Creek Regional Wastewater 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 revnues or revenue sharing and is compensated for services rendered. Perhaps our greatest impact to the general public is our ownership and operation of several large water and wastewater treatment facilities. We provide essential service to a significant portion of the pulic 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. TRA's Red Oak Creek Regional Wastewater System (ROCRWS) serves Ovilla, Glenn Heights, Red Oak, and portions of DeSoto, Cedar Hill, and Lancaster. The facility is capable of serving a population of 35,000 and the system consists of a 3.5-MGD treatment plant located in a rural setting of Ellis County on a forty-two acre trac t of land. The ROCRWS was completed in February of 1991 and features a state-of-the-art automated data system, which provides instant access to flow data. This system provides secondary treatment of wastewater, enabling the treated water to meet one of the most stringent treatment limits in the Metroplex. As a result of new federal guidelines, 40 CFR Part 68, Accidental Release Prevention Program (ARPP), the ROCRWS is required to develop and implement a Risk Management Program (RMP) due to the amounts of chlorine that it uses in its treatment process. In developing its RMP, ROCRWS 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 ROCRWS has an outstanding safety record and there have been no accidents related to covered processes in th e 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 promptly with written documentation of all findings. These accident investigations are reviewed by management and Certified Safety Professionals to determine cause and prevention. *Monthly safety audits are conducted of all plant process areas including covered process areas. Written documentation of these monthly audits, including actions takent to correct problems, is maintained for a minimum of five years. *Preven tative maintenance programs for covered processes are in place and a computerized records management system is in place to automatically generater 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 actual 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 general public. |