MPCEE
WHAT IS CONTINGENCY PLANNING?
Exactly! What is contingency planning?
Contingency planning is the way that a company will go about how
it will react, in any one or several situations, singularly or collectively,
should an incident happen that may render the company’s personnel, the public,
property or the environment at risk, if the incident was not responded to in a
manner best suited to deal with it.
Simple as it may sound, there are too numerous incidents that
happen, for which businesses are prosecuted, because there was no adequate or
no contingency plan in place, that could have prevented an incident from
contaminating the environment. While incidents can happen, through accidents,
faulty machinery, over sights of personnel etc, it is what you do to prevent an
incident, when it happens, from spreading further than it could be contained in,
if a contingency plan was in place to deal with it rapidly efficiently and
effectively.
A contingency plan will include all the relevant information
necessary for a business to be prepared for the day when, suddenly:
o
A damaged container in a vehicle arrives on
your premises: What do you do?
o
A leaking pipe starts to spray hazardous
liquid or steam: What do you do?
o
A forklift is accidentally driven into a
200/210 Litre drum filled with liquid: What do you do?
o
A worker accidentally knocks over a tin of
acid: What do you do?
o
A coupling on a storage tank, that is not
bunded, fractures a joint: What do you do?
These examples above show what can and does happen regularly, but
it is not just how you go about in dealing with them, when they happen, it is
what you have prepared yourself for prior to the possibility of an incident
happening.
Here are just a few items that must be taken into consideration,
when preparing your contingency plan:
o
What personnel, in the immediate area, have
been trained to deal with an incident that could happen in that particular
location of the facility?
o
Can a substance be identified quickly if it
has spilled or been released?
o
What spill clean-up material is there
located in the vicinity?
o
Is protective clothing, of the specific type
required, in the vicinity?
o
Where is the spill going to run to, or where
are you going to let it run?
o
Do your drains run into interceptor tanks?
o
Who will you call on, if you cannot deal
with it with the means available at your disposal?
o
What are you going to do with the waste,
when it is cleaned-up?
o
Do you know the legislation dealing with the
disposal of waste?
The relative scenarios for your particular business may include
some of these, but the list is endless. Therefore, by drawing upon all the
salient information about your business, the personnel, the products, the
industrial/manufacturing processes undertaken, the immediate and surrounding
environment, along with who is out there that can help you should you need it,
are all pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. That puzzle, when pieced together, can only
relate or give a picture of your company and what you need to be doing to
prevent or, in the event of an incident, what you have to do as rapidly as
possible to put the plan into action.
EMERGENCY RESPONSES
The extent and depth of a response to an emergency will depend
on what the emergency is. It is therefore necessary to ascertain what types of
spill or release incident can happen at your facility. It is from this
information that personnel can be trained to deal with all the eventualities in
any scenario possible. Suitably trained personnel are known as a First Responder.
First Responders will become involved in the control,
containment and confinement of an oil spill or a chemical release. However, how
the First Responder responds to the incident depends on three factors:
o
The size and nature of the incident;
o
The equipment available and;
o
The instructions given by supervising staff.
The equipment available to the First Responder, at his place of
work, or wherever, will vary, and will depend on how you perceive your
environmental management system with a view to environmental protection and
pollution control. It does not mean that because you are on this course, the
equipment that you are shown will be available at your place of work. In
essence, the first line of response will be to use whatever suitable material or
equipment is immediately available, but suffices to say that it makes sense to
invest in the appropriate equipment and products from the outset of
establishing your contingency plan.
Spills and releases can be in any form, from gasses, vapours and
solids, but the more common one’s are in liquid form. Liquids are the easiest
to control, contain and confine and therefore more emphasis will be placed on
these, as they can be hydrocarbons and chemicals.
It follows that general and structured preventative measures are
undertaken so those spills are avoided to the utmost extent possible. Reference
information on all hazardous materials held on site, should be kept for day to
day guidance on the precautions to be taken when handling them. All personnel
(management and staff) who have any involvement with the handling and storage
of these substances should be identified by name and trained. All employees and
management should be informed as to whom they are, via company information
boards, so that they can be contacted in the event of an incident.
A detailed drawing of the site should
be included in your plan, which will include its drainage system. The open
drains and soakaways should be clearly identified, as with the locations of the
spill clean-up material and associated equipment.
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