Environmental Stewardship – Jasper Generating Station
Equipment training key to effective facility response plan
Jasper Generating Station
South Carolina Electric and Gas Co910-MW, gas-fired, 3 × 1 combined cycle located in Hardeeville, SC
Plant manager: Steve Palmer
Key project participants: Pete Pye, Environmental & safety specialist Rusty Mezel, maintenance superintendent Tim Glover, operations superintendent Mark Ferguson, SCANA
Challenge.
With the potential to store 3.6-million gallons in its three fuel-oil tanks, the plant was required by EPA, citing the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, to develop a facility response plan (FRP) and meet certain response criteria. The plant is adjacent to a major river, with a National Wildlife Refuge downstream, and the intake to a public drinking water source, as well as myriad wetland areas.The plant was required to mount a credible response to any size oil spill until the contracted oil spill response organization (OSRO) could arrive on scene. This included a requirement to commence boom deployment in the river within one hour of a major spill.
Solution.
The containment area (berm) around the fuel-oil tanks was designed to hold the entire contents of the three tanks in the event of catastrophic failure. An FRP was developed, critical response equipment was procured, and training conducted.Equipment includes:
- Two outboard motorboats to deploy boom in the river and scout for oil (Fig 14).
- Two large, enclosed spill trailers to hold hard (1000 ft) and soft oil spill boom, personal protective equipment, an oil skimmer, air compressor, and other critical first-responder items (Figs 15-17).
- Two pickup trucks to pull the boats and spill trailers. These are used for other plant duty when not deploying spill equipment.
Annual refresher training is conducted, as well as a tabletop exercise and semi-annual boom- deployment simulations on the river. The contracted OSRO is involved in all of the deployment exercises to cement the relationship and test the plan.
Results.
An EPA FRP audit conducted onsite resulted in no significant findings. Auditors stated that the site was a “model” for preparedness and should be used to train other organizations. They were particularly impressed with the spill trailers and our training regimen. Plant personnel are able to deploy boom on the river within 45 minutes of a spill scenario. The OSRO is able to deploy resources to the plant within two hours.
