FARMERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION OF HANOVER - Executive Summary |
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The owners, management, and employees of the Farmers Cooperative Association of Hanover, are dedicated to the prevention of any accidental releases of anhydrous ammonia. If an accidental release should occur, the facilty is prepared to work with the local fire company, or other authorities, to mitigate any release to people and the environment. The primary activity at the facility is the storage of fertilizer for sale to farmers. Anhydrous ammonia is recieved, stored, and distributed for crop production nutrients. The maximum quantity stored would be 263,000 pounds in our two 30,000 gallon storage tanks. The worst-case release scenario would be the release of the total contents of a storage tank released as a gas over 10 minutes. The maximum quanity released would 132,000 which represents the volume of the storage tank at 85 percent capacity as limited by design standards. The distance to the endpoint (point of dispersion to 200 ppm) is 2.5 miles. The alternative release scenari o based on the five-year accident history ( the most likely potential incident) is a release from a break in a transfer hose. The distance to the endpoint (point of dispersion to 200 ppm) is .83 miles. The facility has implemented the provisions of the Kansas Department of Agriculture Ammonia Regulations and the OSHA standards pertaning to anhydrous ammonia. There have been no accidental releases of anhydrous ammonia in the past five years that: have caused any deaths, injuries, or significant property damage at the facility; nor to our knowledge, have resulted in offsite deaths, injuries, evacuations, sheltering in place, property damage, or environmental damage. The facility is committed safety and emergency prepardness. For this reason we have an emergency response plan and we report to the state, LEPC, and the local fire department the chemicals we have at our faciities, the quanities and locations of these chemicals. Each year our firm trains our employees on the safe handling of this product. The management and Board of Directors will continue to strive to keep our excellent accident history and effectivly serve our farmer owners. |