A large food manufacturer has received one of the largest, if not the largest, settlement agreement with EPA regarding their Risk Management Plans at 23 facilties in four (4) states. The total fines in the agreement consist of $3.9 million in civil and over $300,000 in supplemental environmental projects (SEP) that involves buying emergency response equipment for eight (8) fire departments local to several of the facilities. This agreement came about because of a number of significant reportable releases of anhydrous ammonia, which included one fatality and several injuries across all of these facilities. Here is a break down of the incidents that led up to this agreement…
- On October 31, 2006, an NH3 release occurred at a facility resulting in one fatality and one injury. An OSHA investigation revealed that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) requiring personal protective equipment was inadequate and that the safety relief valve that failed was installed incorrectly, and was corroded and worn.
- On November 8, 2006, an NH3 release occurred at a facility resulting in three onsite injuries and $125,000 in property damage. EPA conducted an inspection on November 18, 2009, and found that the February 17-20, 2009, Process Hazard Analysis noted numerous deficiencies which had not been corrected, including Management of Change Review related to valve motors and multiple nuisance leaks occurring during the manual operation of the valves (similar to what occurred on the November 8, 2006, ammonia release).
- On December 9, 2006, an anhydrous ammonia release occurred at a facility resulting in ten injuries and 43.71 pounds migrating off-site. An OSHA inspection revealed that the vibration on the filter housing caused threads to deteriorate, allowing the filter oil seal to fail.
- On December 26, 2006, an anhydrous ammonia release occurred at a facility resulting in 5 on-site injuries and the evacuation of 475 employees. Both OSHA and EPA conducted inspections which revealed that the facility’s mechanical integrity program relative to the change out of the failed valve was not implemented and there was no documentation of the inspection, testing or 5-year change-out of the safety relief valve.
- On October 4, 2007, and November 5, 2009, there were anhydrous ammonia releases at a facility that injured an employee. The facility blamed the October 4, 2007, incident on operator error alleging that the employee failed to lock out the ammonia line when initiating a line break and failure to follow SOPs for proper personal protective equipment. However, it was also noted in incident investigation that there was a 3 way safety relief valve failure.
- On October 30, 2007, there was an anhydrous ammonia release at a facility that resulted in one injury and the release of 3,867 lbs. of ammonia.
- On November 5, 2009, an employee was exposed to anhydrous ammonia, burned over 25% of his body and spent 45 days in the hospital. The facility blamed the operator and cited four (4) operator errors in the incident investigation report: failure to pump out/lock out; failure to utilize a line breaking permit; lack of use of PPE; and failure to follow proper hand valve opening and closing SOP guidelines. However, OSHA found that there was a broken and/or defective reducer in the safety relief valve that should not have been there and that lead to the valve failure.
- On December 13, 2010, an anhydrous ammonia release occurred at a facility resulting in 3 injuries and a release of 309 lbs. of ammonia. The facility states in its May 23, 2011, response to EPA’s Information Request that given the date of the incident; the incident investigation is still open. The point of discharge was from a pressure relief valve header on the roof.
CLICK HERE to see the agreement that includes an Audit Protocol for 27 facilities, a Pipe Inspection Protocol for the facilities, and the Quarterly reporting requirements.