Northeast Wastewater Treatment Plant - Executive Summary |
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19928 LDEQ Facility ID Number. In this wastewater treatment plant facility (Bossier City Northeast Wastewater Treatment Plant), we handle chlorine which is considered hazardous by EPA, OSHA, etc. the same properties that makes chlorine valuable as a wastewater treatment chemical, also makes it necessary to observe certain safety precautions in handling chlorine. Overall, the prevention of unnessary human exposures, reducing the threat to our own personnal helath, as well as our co-workers, and reducing the threat to nearby members of the community is the main goal of incorporating this risk management plan into our daily operations. It is our policy to adhere to all applicable federal and state rules and regulations. Safety depends upon the manner in which we handle chlorine combined with the safety devices inherent in the design of this facility, with the safe handling procedures that we utilize, along with the training of our personnel. Our emergency response (action) program w as develope3d with the assistance of Environmental Data Services, Inc. The emergency response plan includes the procedures for notification of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Emergency Preparedness, which helps to notify any potentially affected neighbors. In the event of an emergency that cannot be mitigated solely by manual shutoff of the chlorine system, notification to the Caddo-Bossier Office of Emergency Preparedness will be made to aid in notification of the surrounding (affected) population (318-425-5351). The primary purpose of this facility is to treat the wastewater system utilizing chemicals such as chlorine. Chlorine is received in one ton cylinders and stored until needed. Chlrorine is fed into the wastewater system by automatic feeders. All cylinders operated on a vacuum system. This vacuum system will prevent the continual operation of the system if there us an increase or decrease in operating pressure on the cylinders of feed lines. Access to the site is restricte d to authorized facility employees, authorized management personnel, and authorized contractors. The regulated sustance handled at this facility is chlorine. The maximum amount of chlorine that can be handled at this site is 24,000 pounds. There are two sections at this plant that use chlorine, both for the process of wastewater treatment. The worst case scenario is the failure of the largest storage tank when filled to the greatest amount allowed, which would be a release of 2,000 pounds of chlorine as a vapor. The release would be caused by overpressurization resulting in the cylinder failure. Active mitigation has been considered for this scenario consisting of maunal shutoffs, as well as the vacuum feed system. Passive mitigation has also been considered for this release scenario, which would be the release into an enclosed space with direct contact with outside air. It is assumed that the entire contents of the cylinder are released as vapor. The distance to endpoint of 0 .078 mg/l for the worst case scenario is 3.5 miles. An alternate release scenario was determined for this facility; however, based on the type of prevention system in place, the alternate release should be minimal. The vacuum feed system has been determined to be effective in preventing small amounts of chlorine from escaping upon system failure. An estimation based on the line capacity for the feeder lines would be approximately 10 pounds released into the atmosphere. This amount of vapor chlorine would result in a distance to endpoint of approximately 0.08 miles. This wastewater treatment facility compiles with EPA's Accidental Release Prevention Rule, and with all applicable state codes and regulations. There have been no accidental releases of chlorine from this facility in the past five years. The automatic vacuum system limits the amount (if any) of chlorine that escapes during operational periods. Operators of the chlorination system are required to check instruments, cy linders, feed systems, etc. on a daily basis to aid in the rpevention of accidental releases. Our emergency response (action) plan was developed with the assistance of Environmental Data Services, Inc. We have discussed this program with the Caddo-Bossier Office of Emergency Preparedness and the Bossier City Fire Department. |