Augusta Polymers Plant Participates in RMP "Worst Case" Presentation

From the Source, Fall 1997

At first glance, it looks like a plant manager's worst nightmare. Stand before a public forum in your community and carefully provide details about the worst possible chemical release from your plant site. And while you're at it, show a map with a computer simulation of the chemical plume which would spread out over surrounding neighborhoods - some more than 20 miles away.

Terri Harlan, plant manager at the Amoco Polymers plant in Augusta, Georgia, took on this very tall order recently along with a number of her employees and other companies who comprise the Augusta-Richmond County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Working with Pam Tucker, the emergency management director for the plant's region, as well as other industry and emergency response professionals, Amoco Polymers employees were challenged to adhere to EPA regulations requiring facilities to make information available about their Risk Management Plan (RMP).

Intended to improve emergency planning efforts within a community, RMP requires companies to share information about potential effects of chemical releases, a five-year history of accidents and releases, prevention plans, and emergency response plans. "As we prepared for this, the decision by the Augusta-Richmond County LEPC was to approach RMP positively, not defensively," says Harlan. "This upbeat approach included being one of the first meetings of this type in the country since the RMP rule was finalized."

Augusta's EH&S Manager Brandt Bonin was charged with making sure that Amoco's message was developed properly and in a uniform format with the other presenters. Then, he and other staffers at Augusta worked toward the culmination of the process, a public presentation in early October at Augusta's Bell Auditorium.

Amoco's information booth featured literature, photos, and hands-on depictions of what potentially dangerous chemicals Amoco has on its site and how the company makes sure its employees and the surrounding community are protected. "We had a worst case in which an entire railroad tank car of sulfur trioxide was released and a more likely case in which we have a smaller release due to a pipe failure," Bonin says. "Both of these scenarios were developed and analyzed using computer models and EPA guidelines. In the worst case, we assumed the highly unlikely prospect of a tank car failing and releasing its contents almost instantaneously without the benefit of prevention or emergency response systems."

Harlan says that the challenge of getting out in front early on RMP paid dividends. "We felt a little vulnerable, because there were not many examples of similar community presentations to pattern ourselves after," she says. "But by going after this early, we got positive support from the community and the press. We sat down with community representatives and discovered that we felt very good about our answers to tough questions. We believed in our prevention systems and in our ability to handle emergencies. Ultimately, our best response is to make it really clear that we live and work here too. We're part of the community, and when we say employee and community safety are one of our biggest concerns, we mean it."

If Augusta-area residents had similar concerns about community safety and RMP, one place to address them was at Amoco's booth. John Lynch, one of the Augusta employees who met the public, said that most of his conversations were with other industry people who will eventually be preparing their own RMP presentations. "It was gratifying to talk to these people, because they were complimentary of our approach and wanted to know how we put it all together," he says.

Lynch was also concerned about getting Amoco's message across to the people who live in the area. "I went into this project feeling a little nervous, because I didn't know what to expect. But most of the questions we got from concerned citizens were friendly and intelligent. They were just curious. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, and I think it helped a lot that we tried to anticipate the questions we might get asked."

According to Bonin, the successful conclusion of the RMP presentation in Augusta is only part of the process. Amoco Polymers in Augusta, as well as other Amoco facilities across America, will continue to keep communities informed about the risks their plants pose and how these risks are managed with state-of-the-art prevention and emergency response systems.

For more information, contact Mike Hopperton at Amoco Polymers at 706/790-3100.