ICMM - International Council on Mining & Metals

CASE STUDY

Co-ordination with local emergency services simulation and review

This plant is located in North Belgium, in the province of Antwerp. It comprises an electrolytic copper refinery, a cobalt plant, germanium production facilities and a unit reprocessing residues containing nickel and precious metals. The plant is located in a rural environment with a small concentration of houses very close to the plant, including a school 200 metres from the east fence with approximately 150 children between 4 and 12 years old. One kilometre to the northwest there is an amusement park, ‘Bobbejaanland’, with 10,000–15,000 visitors every day in summer, while 1 kilometre to the west lies the town of Herentals, with a population of 25,000.

Umicore has recently prepared a written corporate policy for emergency preparedness and response. The Olen plant falls under the European Seveso II legislation, and their Seveso Safety Report includes an inventory of potential major incidents (see below), an analysis of mitigating actions and the processes involved.

Potential Major Incidents at Olen

• Leak of toxic chlorine gas
• Hydrogen gas leak and explosion
• Natural gas leak and fire or explosion
• Iso-propanol leak and fire
• Leak of toxic sulphur dioxide
• Leak of toxic hydrogen fluoride

The inventory was prepared in co-operation with the public fire brigade in Herentals and the relevant government departments. The company also employed an external consultant to establish the worst-case impact of these incidents. Emergency communication with the community has been done via brochures and handouts that are distributed to every household mailbox as well as being given out during a special event at the local annual market. The company has set up a free phone number that is answered 24 hours a day. Three sirens have been installed at the plant that can also be used to give an audible warning.

As required under the Seveso II legislation, the Olen management holds annual external simulation programmes to test the emergency response plans. These programmes are designed in co-operation with and involve the public fire brigade, public medical emergency team, civil protection units and the local police. A debriefing always follows all exercises, and possible improvements are discussed. The following are examples of these simulations.

Chlorine tank leak and gas cloud spread to local school

The first intervention team immediately telephones the company fire service and an alert is sent out to the public fire brigade in Herentals. The brigade commanding officer advises the mayor of Olen for police and operational support in order to close all the roads and to warn the population in the threatened area. The school director is advised to bring all students inside and to close the doors and windows until the rescue team arrives.

As a result of this exercise, it was found that time was very important. The plant must call the school immediately and sirens must be used to alert the local community. In addition, closing roads was found to be time-consuming. To reduce the time involved, the mayor decided that road closure barricades should be kept permanently loaded on their trailer.

Iso-propanol is unloading

During unloading, the flexible hose between the delivery tanker and the on-site tank is hit by a forklift truck, injuring the tanker driver and damaging the hose. The spilt iso-propanol is a fire risk and threatens the safety of the two men as well as the truck and the tank. The company fire service, the public fire brigade and the medical emergency team are all called to the scene of the incident.

During the simulation, good co-operation with the external services occurred. But it was found necessary to improve the water supply system so that a complete foam blanket could be spread over the spill and the tanks. In addition, it was shown that the delivery system should include a pressure relief valve so that flow between tanker and tank could be stopped in the event of incident. Finally, because of the potential for many people contacting the mayoral office during an incident, information, transport and access should be provided to the mayor in emergency events.

Natural gas leak

The natural gas pipeline entering the plant began to leak, giving rise to a large, potentially explosive cloud. The local fire brigade and the police warned the community to close doors and windows and to stay inside and traffic was stopped on the south side of the plant, closest to the leak.

Following the exercise, it was concluded that a cut-off valve needed to be installed to stop the flow of gas into the plant in the event of a leak. It was also concluded that the drift of a natural gas cloud in different weather conditions should be calculated and that sirens needed to be installed to give an audible warning of an emergency to both the plant and the community.

Hydrogen fluoride pipe leak

A fire causes the leak. Dealing with it requires a large quantity of water used by an emergency team equipped with self-contained breathing apparatus. The Herentals fire brigade attends the incident, with the Geel city fire brigade providing additional water supply from the canal. The ‘civil protection team’ (Ministry of Internal Affairs) also attends. On arrival in the plant, the commanding officer of the public fire brigade is informed by Umicore’s fire marshal and takes the command of the operations.

A review of the simulation demonstrated again that cut-off valves should be provided on the outside of buildings for all supply pipes and that a further exercise was required that used breathing apparatus and protective clothing.

Overall

A review of all the simulations concluded that;

• Co-ordination and co-operation with the local emergency services is efficient and effective;
• Generally the public do not read the brochures and handouts and make only limited use of the free phone line; and
• The public appear to prefer to put their faith in the company and the emergency services and not become involved.