The City Of Westerville Water Plant - Executive Summary |
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The Westerville Water Plant disinfection process utilizes chlorine gas which is a regulated, extremely toxic substance. The goal of this document is to minimize the risk to the public and employees from an accidential release of chlorine to the atmosphere. This document was developed by our employees based on the OSHA Process Safety Management and EPA Risk Management Program regulations. Westerville Water Plant has utilized chlorine for over seventy years with an excellent safety record. No releases are reported in the Risk Management Program's five year accident history. The RMP worst case scenario model for a release defined a 0.9 mile radius around the source that would be affected. A leak in a feed pipe, which is a more likely event, was modeled as an alternative release scenario, which defined the area affected as a 0.2 mile radius. The chlorine facilities are located in seperate, isolated rooms to provide some containment and are equiped with a scrubber. If a chlorine leak were to occur, an alarm would alert the operator. The operator's response would depend on the severity of the release. Major releases would be responded to by the Fire Department, with minor leaks corrected following plant procedures. The water plant operating staff have performed a process hazard analysis and been trained in safety and plant procedures for handling chlorine. As a result of this review process, the following changes are planned: installation of smoke detectors, additional written procedures and the installation of process monitoring equipment. |