United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Air and Energy Engineering
Research Laboratory
Research Triangle Park NC 27711
Research and Development
EPA/600/S8-88/074 Nov. 1988
SERA Project Summary
Prevention Reference Manual:
Overviews on Preventing and
Controlling Accidental
Releases of Selected Toxic
Chemicals
0. S. Davis, G. B. Oewolf, K. A. Ferland, J. D. Quass, and C O. Rueter
Section 305 (b) of the Superfund
Amendments and Reauthorization
Act of 1986 requires that the EPA
conduct a "review of emergency
systems for monitoring, detecting,
and preventing releases of extremely
hazardous substances at represen-
tative domestic facilities that
produce, use, or store extremely
hazardous substances." The EPA
must also prepare and present to
Congress a report with recom-
mendations for initiatives for the
development of technologies and
systems for monitoring, detecting,
and preventing the accidental
release of chemical substances, and
for public alert systems that warn of
imminent releases.
The purpose of this manual is to
orient personnel involved In
inspecting and otherwise evaluating
potential toxic chemical release
hazards to the fundamentals of
release hazard control for 13 of the
specific chemicals chosen for
evaluation under Section 305 (b). It
also guides the user to other
technical literature for additional
Information.
This Project Summary was
developed by EPA's Air and Energy
Engineering Research Laboratory,
Research Triangle Park, NC, to
announce key findings of the
research project that Is fully
documented In a separate report of
the same title (see Project Report
ordering information at back).
Introduction
Following the release of methyl
isocyanate in Bhopal, India, on December
3,1984, there has been a new urgency in
efforts to establish national programs to
address chemical emergencies. The
Chemical Emergency Preparedness
Program (CEPP) of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
designed to foster planning and
preparation within communities for
serious releases of extremely hazardous
substances from local chemical facilities,
was launched nationally in November
1985. Concurrently, the Chemical
Manufacturers Association (CMA)
initiated the Community Awareness and
Emergency Response Program (CAER)
to encourage communication between
industry and local communities about
chemical hazards. By October 1986, the
local planning encouraged on a voluntary
basis by CEPP was made mandatory by
Congressional enactment of Title III of
the Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA). Title
III of SARA is entitled the "Emergency
Planning and Community Right-to-
Know Act of 1986.
Emergency Planning/
Right-to-Know
The emergency planning provisions of
Title III require communities to prepare
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for the possibility of accidents at facilities
handling extremely hazardous
substances. The "community right-to-
know" provisions require industry to
share information with communities
about toxic chemicals present at local
facilities. To enable communities to
recognize the potential hazards
associated with local chemical production
or use, Congress included in (Title III)
requirements for facilities to report
regularly the presence of hazardous
chemicals on site, as well as emissions
of such chemicals to any environmental
medium: air, water, or land (soil).
The overall thrust of these activities is
to reduce the risk of harm to people,
while at the same time ensuring that the
people are aware of risks so that they
may take actions of their own, if
necessary, to reduce the risks.
The purpose of this manual is to orient
regulatory personnel and others involved
in inspecting and otherwise evaluating
potential toxic chemical release hazards
to the fundamentals of release hazard
control for 13 specific chemicals. It also
guides the user to other technical
literature for additional information. One
purpose is to assist EPA evaluation
teams in reviewing emergency systems
mandated under SARA.
Report to Congress
Section 305(b) of SARA requires that
the EPA conduct a "review of emergency
systems for monitoring, detecting, and
preventing releases of extremely
hazardous substances at representative
domestic facilities that produce, use, or
store extremely hazardous substances."
The EPA must also prepare and present
to Congress a report with recom-
mendations for initiatives for the
development of technologies and
systems for monitoring, detecting, and
preventing the accidental release of
chemical substances, and for public alert
systems that warn of imminent releases.
To prepare the report to Congress, the
EPA is surveying a sample of domestic
facilities which handle one or more of 20
chemicals selected from the SARA
Section 302(a) list of "extremely
hazardous substances." The 20
chemicals were selected from the list of
extremely hazardous substances by the
following procedure. First, EPA identified
seven chemicals distinguished by their
large production volumes, widely
recognized hazards, involvement in past
plant and transportation accidents, and
generally recognized special handling
procedures and controls. These chem-
icals — ammonia, chlorine, hydro-
cyanic acid (hydrogen cyanide),
hydrogen fluoride, methyl isocyanate,
sulfur dioxide, and sulfur trioxide —
represent a wide range of toxicity,
reactivity, flammability, and corrosivity
hazards.
Of the remaining chemicals from the
list of 20, the 13 discussed in this
manual, were randomly selected by
EPA's Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response from subgroups of
certain specified criteria (e.g., vapor
pressure, ambient physical state) with
the same proportion of chemicals in each
physical state as the full list of extremely
hazardous substances. Accordingly, two
gases, seven liquids, and four solids
were chosen. The seven liquids were
selected to represent a range of vapor
pressures (< 1 to > 100 mm Hg) at
25°C.
A questionnaire has been sent to a
sample of domestic facilities which
produce, use, or store one or more of the
20 extremely hazardous substances. The
questionnaire has two purposes: (1) to
gather additional data on available
technologies, and procedures and
practices for monitoring, detecting,
preventing and mitigating accidental
releases; and (2) to determine which
technologies, operating procedures, and
management practices are being used,
and why. Trained inspectors will visit a
limited number of the surveyed facilities
to obtain in-depth information, as well
as to corroborate the survey responses.
The Manual
This manual provides information
useful to EPA inspection or evaluation
teams for release hazards of some of the
specific chemicals at facilities they will
be visiting and for reviewing survey
questionnaires from an even greater
number of facilities. In addition to
descriptive text, tables on chemical and
process specific hazards are provided to
provide easy reference for the user. This
manual is to be used in conjunction with
other manuals whose overall purpose is
to summarize the major concepts of
release hazard identification and control
so that the probability and consequences
(risk = probability x consequences) of
accidental toxic chemical releases can
be reduced.
The PRM-Chemical Specific manual
consists of a number of volumes, each
for a specific chemical, while this manual
provides an overview of hazard control
for 13 toxic chemicals: acrylonitrile,
benzenearsonic acid, benzotrichloride,
chloroacetic acid, furan, hydrazine
hydrogen sulfide, mechlorethamine
methiocarb, methyl bromide, sodiun
azide, tetraethyl tin, and trichloroacety
chloride.
Since the purpose of the PRM series ii
to summarize the major concepts o
release hazard control, the reader i;
referred to other information sources fo
more detailed discussions. Other source;
include manufactures and distributors o
the various chemicals and technica
literature on loss prevention in facilities
handling toxic chemicals. Examples o:
technical literature include the Americar
Institute of Chemical Engineering (AlChE]
Loss Prevention Series and AlChE's
Center for Chemical Process Safety
publications.
This manual contains four sections
Section 1 gives a short introduction and
background to the manual. Section 2
discusses release hazard control which
begins with hazard identification and is
the application of specific measures for
pre-release prevention and protection,
and post-release mitigation. In general,
many of the technological, operational,
and managerial aspects of hazard control
are applicable to toxic chemicals in
general. Section 3 presents an overview
of chemical specific hazards that can
contribute to a release. Topics discussed
are: physical, chemical, and toxicological
properties; information on the
manufacture and use , including facility
descriptions where appropriate; hazards
associated with the various processes;
and hazard prevention and control
information specific to the chemical.
Section 4 lists references cited in the
report. Appendix A is a glossary of key
technical terms that might not be familiar
to all users of the manual. Appendix B
presents selected conversion factors
between metric (SI) and English
measurement units.
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D. Davis, G. DeWolf, K. Ferland, J. Quass, and C. Rueter are with Radian Corp.,
Austin, TX 78720-1088.
Jane C. Bare is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "Prevention Reference Manual: Overviews on
Preventing and Controlling Accidental Releases of Selected Toxic Chemicals,"
(Order No. PS 88-2/3 1941 AS; Cost: $25.95, subject to change) will be
available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
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