Chemical Security: Case study of Detroit Wastewater Plant Including Plume Model

The wastewater treatment facility in Detroit, Michigan is part of the third largest water and sewerage utility in the United States, processing close to 700 million gallons of waste water per day. Risks posed to the Detroit-area population (pop 917,000) include the potential release of rail-tank cars full of chlorine and sulfur dioxide used in the wastewater treatment process, and which the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) stores on site. Railcars of chlorine and sulfur dioxide must be shipped to the facility on a frequent basis. Plume mapping, as plotted by software from the US EPA (ALOHA, MARPLOT and CAMEO), indicates that large populations, including those across the international border in Windsor, Canada, are at risk of chlorine or sulfur dioxide poisoning should any of the chemical rail-cars lose their contents in an accidental or intentional release.

The United Auto Workers union represents 100 chemists at the Detroit wastewater facility. As part of an effort to increase safety and security at the facility UAW, in the past, has provided training and technical assistance to facility chemists and wastewater treatment operators and technicians represented by the AFSCME union. These efforts raised chemical hazard awareness of those workers, their management counterparts, and those in upper management charged with assembling and outfitting an on-site Emergency Response Team. It was eventually decided to maintain a small contingent of City of Detroit Firefighters on site, to respond immediately to releases of chlorine or sulfur dioxide.