Aurora Cooperative - Geneva - Executive Summary |
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The Aurora Cooperative Elevator Company's accidental release prevention policy involves a unified approach that integrates technologies, procedures, and management practices. The Aurora Cooperative emergency response plan involves the response services available in the community. Aurora Cooperative bulk Anhydrous Ammonia facilities have been strategically located to provide a local retail facility for this form of affordable nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture. This facility located in Geneva is made up of one (1) 30,000 gallon, one (1) 18,000 gallon, and one (1) 12,000 gallon pressurized storage vessel and two loadout risers. It serves the Fillmore County area. This facility is normally unmanned except during fertilizer season, although the grain elevator and office located two blocks north are normally manned during business hours. The offsite consequence analysis includes the consideration of two anhydrous ammonia release scenarios, identified as "worst case release" and "alte rnative scenario". The first scenario is defined by EPA, which states that the "owner or operator shall assume...maximum quantity of the largest vessel...is released as a gas over a 10 minute period", due to and unspecified failure. The alternative release scenario is difined as "more likely to occur than 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 decreases to a "non-toxic" level. For this purpose, Aurora Cooperative has chosed to use RMP-Comp Version 1.05 to determine the distance to the toxic endpoint (.14 mg/l or 200 ppm) and to determine the population affected by a potential release using maps extracted from Landview 3 software. The worst case release scenario for Aurora Cooperative - Geneva facility involves the failure of the 30,000 gallon pressurized storage vessel while it contains 85% (maximum allowed capacity) of it's capacity. The alternati ve release scenario is based on the failure of a three inch transfer hose, assuming the complete failure of the in-line check valve and that the excess flow valve in the storage vessel takes two minutes to close and stop the flow. |