Platte River By Products - Executive Summary

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The accidental release prevention and emergency response policies at the plant consist of all regulations that are regulated by OSHA and the PSM program at the facility.  All refrigeration employees and numerous supervisors are trained in the 40 HAZMAT course to respond to accidental releases.  All refrigeration maintenance personnel go through training on all the SOP's from the PSM program.  These procedures are reviewed yearly to help insure that all problems are corrected.  All refrigeration maintenance personnel are currently scheduled to go through ammonia refrigeration school to teach them the operations and safety.  The school is located in Greeley, Colorado and is part of the local community college.  The preventative maintenance program is periodically reviewed and updated as the monitoring and repair on equipment is performed.  This process has been of great benefit to the plant in finding problems in a timely manner. 
 
The Platte River By Products plant in Greeley, Colorado,  
is an animal by-products processing facility.  The plant is defined by the EPA as a "Animal By-Products" facility.  Final products produced include: meat by-products.  The regulated substance used at this facility that meets threshold quantities is anhydrous ammonia.  Ammonia is used as a manufacturing aid in the refrigeration process.  Refrigeration is used in processing and storing of the meat and meat products. 
 
The worse case scenario for this facility is a rupture in an accumulator vessel resulting in a loss of the entire contents of 10,062 pounds of ammonia.  This loss will occur within 10 minutes and the spilled liquid will vaporize at room temperature releasing gas to the building envelope and to the atmosphere.  The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) has determined that the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed that nearly all individuals can be exposed for up to one hour without experiencing or developing irreversible or other serious health ef 
fects or symptoms which could impair an individual's ability to take protective action for anhydrous ammonia is 200 parts per million (ppm).  Under the worse-case weather conditions with dispersion into an urban area, the toxic cloud formed by the evaporating ammonia would reach offisite endpoints and nearby puiblic receptors.  The result of a release of this type if very unlikely because of the PSM and safety measures in place at the facility. 
 
A more likely scenario is the loss of 200 pounds of ammonia within a 60 minute period of time resulting in a dispersion cloud reaching the facility property line but not affecting any public receptors.  The likelyhood of a release of this type is low because of the safety and PSM programs at the facility. 
 
The Platte River By Products facility is in compliance with all OSHA PSM rules and this RMP rule requirements.  The procedural and managerial steps that are in place are a preventative measure to accidental release prevention as well as maint 
enance and training programs that are in place. 
 
There have been no releases at this facility in the past five years that have resulted in death, injuries, or property damage on site or in death, injuries, evacuations, sheltering in place, property damage, or environmental damage offsite. 
 
The Platte River By Products facility has an emergency response plan on file with the local emergency planning committee (LEPC).  The facilities HAZMAT team conducts regular drills and training of specialized personnel and the local fire department personnel.  The policies for reporting spills and releases is documented in the "Policies and Procedures" manual updated by the Corporate Environmental Operations office. 
 
The facility will continue with HAZMAT training between plant personnel and the local fire department as a deterrent to toxic release danger.
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