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WASTE DISCHARGE REQUIREMENTS -2- <br />CALIFORNIA AMMONIA COMPANY <br />CALAMCO - STOCKTON TERMINAL <br />SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY <br />Approximately 250,000 tons of ammonia are transferred through the facility each year. <br />Water used in this system should not come into direct contact with ammonia unless there <br />is a failure in some portion of the processing system. <br />This facility has experienced discharges of ammonia in the past due to equipment failures <br />in the processing system. In January of 1996 an ammonia discharge occurred as a result <br />of a river water pump failure which resulted in a lower flow of water through the heat <br />exchanger. As the volume of water flowing through the exchanger was not sufficient to <br />adequately warm the ammonia, the exchanger froze causing the pipes to crack which <br />resulted in ammonia entering the water that was being discharged back into the river. <br />Ammonia discharges have resulted in fish kills in the channel. <br />The Discharger has installed a new heat exchanger unit and control systems that include <br />monitoring of temperature and water flow into the unit as well as upgrading the pH <br />monitoring throughout the system with additional pH check points and automatic <br />shutdown equipment. <br />Failure of the inlet pump station now activates automatic shutoff of ammonia into the heat <br />exchanger system. <br />Temperature of inlet and outlet water is monitored within the exchanger system. The <br />ammonia inlet system is automatically shut down if the water temperature is too low. <br />The facility is equipped with pH monitoring stations throughout the piping system. There <br />are five redundant pH controllers downstream of the heat exchanger. The system is <br />arranged such that if pH levels are above 8.5 (indicating a possible ammonia leak) at one <br />of the stations downstream of the heat exchanger, the ammonia supply into the system and <br />water discharge back into the Wine Slip will be terminated immediately by automatic <br />shutoff valves. Water remaining in the piping system will then be automatically diverted to <br />three holding tanks. Two of the tanks will reserve their total combined volume of 80,000 <br />gallons for emergency discharges. The third tank has a capacity of 40,000 gallons, but is <br />utilized in daily operations at the facility, consequently the amount of storage available in <br />the tank will vary. Therefore, the maximum emergency storage available at the facility will <br />be 120,000 gallons and the minimum will be 80,000. Water diverted into these tanks will <br />be used as make-up water for dilute ammonia products.