Fresh water supply is critical to refinery operations and the centralized design makes it a potential single point source of failure. Water serves multiple needs in the refinery including process requirements, evaporative cooling circuits and steam generators. Consequently, contamination or loss of the water supply will result in production losses and could damage equipment. This paper discusses two incidents that compromised the influent water supply to a major Gulf Coast Refinery. This Gulf Coast refinery receives fresh water from two rivers via a canal system managed by the regional water authority and stores over 460MM gallons (20 days' supply) in a holding pond that serves the refinery influent water treatment facility located approximately two miles away. The first incident occurred in February 2001. A wastewater pipe failed, releasing measureable concentrations of partially-treated refinery wastewater into the influent water supply via the holding pond. The contamination compromised the clarifier and filter operations and fouled the cation and anion units, risking off-spec water for the 850 psig boiler systems. The second incident occurred in September 2008 during Hurricane Ike when the category-5-equivalent storm surge flooded the coastal areas of East Texas. The refinery, residing inside a levee system, was not damaged. Seawater inundated the influent fresh water supply canal and storage pond outside the levee system. The authors present the challenges of resolving critical water supply and water quality issues, including the brainstorming of alternative actions, an assessment of the risks of various strategies and the tactics of successfully mitigating risk and implementing a successful solution. Most importantly, management exhibited true leadership by successfully fostering a change in culture with respect to the value of scenario planning and crisis management methods.
展开▼
