A Report On The West Carrollton Es Technical Solutions Facility
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Shortly after midnight on the morning of May 4, 2009, a tetrahydrafuran leak in the dirty solvent tanks at the Veolia ES Technical Solutions facility in West Carrollton, Ohio ignited causing an explosion that rocked the local community. The blast severely injured two employees, injured two more, and damaged numerous structures on site and in the community. The location of the personnel with respect to the operating plant is credited to the injuries the workers sustained while insufficient controls in the operating room and a lack of ability to reroute vapors prevented the operators from identifying and mitigating the release. Although the root cause of this event could not be determined, two probable causes surfaced. Either THF reacted to…show more content… During the time of the accident, the site employed over 70 workers; although, only six were on site during the night of the incident.
The facility had four services it could offer: fuel blending, solvent recovery, waste consolidation, and waste material transfer. All four of these could contain hazardous waste, and therefore the site is classified as a treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDF). This means the West Carrollton site must follow regulations set forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Just after midnight on May 4, 2009, flammable vapor from the process leaked and ignited causing an explosion that severely injured two employees. Subsequent explosions damaged the site and nearby residences and businesses. It took over ten hours to subdue the flames.
Process Description
The West Carrollton site processed hazardous and non-hazardous waste products. The site received “dirty” solvent in tanker trunks and drums from local waste producers. Figure 1: Plant Layout (CSB Case Study)
Figure 1 is a layout plan of the processing building and lab/operations building. As the figure shows, there are 23 dirty solvent tanks, 16 clean storage tanks, 3 distillation units, and a molecular sieve. The waste delivered to the site was unloaded into the “dirty” storage tanks. It would be processed in one of the distillation units and through the molecular sieve if necessary. Once processed, the clean