Icon Water Case Study - Safety Solutions

Introduction

Who is Icon Water?

Icon Water is the Australian Capital Territories water and wastewater service provider. With over 100 years of operation experience and $2.7 billion in assets, Icon Water provides high quality water services to the region.

Who is Safety Solutions?

Safety Solutions Ltd (SSL) is an independent process safety consulting and training organisation. Our main consulting services include:
● Process Safety workshop facilitation
● Process Safety audits
● Safety Management system development
● Safety Case development for High Hazard Assets
● Functional Safety – assessment, design, management
● Hazard and Risk Studies.
● Hazardous area classification
● Alarm Management
● SCE verification

We have an established training portfolio which includes technical and management courses. These can be viewed here.

Timeline

March 2019

Process Safety Audit

Safety Solutions began work with Icon Water in March 2019. A safety audit was conducted with a focus on the chlorine and sulfur dioxide liquid evaporation systems at ICON Waters Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre (LMWQCC). Numerous observations and recommendations were made, leading to Icon Water contacting Safety Solutions regarding a HAZOP in August later that year.

August 2019

HAZOP

Following the Process Safety Audit, Safety Solutions facilitated and scribed a 4-day HAZOP on the chlorination and dechlorination process at the LMWQCC. This 7-node HAZOP generated a large number of actions which was representative of the history of the plant and the uncertainty around its operation.

September 2021

Process Safety Management Program

Following the Process Safety Audit and HAZOP, Icon Water came to an agreement with Safety Solutions to create and implement a 3-year process safety management (PSM) program. This consisted of Safety Assessments for their hazardous processes, Process Safety Management Support and Training.

Safety Assessments

One stream of work from the Process Safety Management Program was full safety assessments of Icon Waters sites at;
● Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre
● Stromlo Water Treatment Plant
● Googong Water Treatment Plant

Four packages were created and a combination of them were performed at each site;
1. Site HAZOP and HAZID workshops
2. Cl & SO2
3. Natural Gas / Fuel Oil / Furnace
4. CO2 & Pressurized equipment

The structure shown below was followed for these package safety assessments:

Safety Management Support

Another stream of work for the program was overall Safety Management System support with focus on some specific areas, as follows:
1. Critical Control Management Philosophy
2. Critical Control Verification Plan
3. Management Of Change Framework Development
4. Process Safety Management Manual
5. Safety Management System Consulting Development
6. SCE Verification
7. Development of in-house facilitation and process safety management competence to rely less on third party support

Each section was investigated by Safety Solutions for improvement and implementation.

Training

The aim of the training stream was to develop process safety competence from the front line through to the executives of the company. This was delivered through 2 main mechanisms.

Embedding SSL E-Learning into Icon Waters internal learning management system.
This enabled Icon Water management to drive competence development using Safety Solutions tools and included:
1. Introduction to Process Safety (for front line, engineering, management and support functions).
2. HAZOP Participants (for those attending HAZOPs)
3. Introduction to Bowties (for those involved in risk assessment workshops)
4. Critical Risk Management for Directors and Executives (for those involved with executive responsibilities)

Delivering advanced courses in a face to face format.
This enabled key Icon Water staff to become skilled in relevant areas and included:
1. HAZOP Leader
2. Hazardous Area Classification
3. Bowtie Training
4. Critical Risk Management for Directors and Executives

Program Benefits

Some of the key benefits of the process safety management program were;
● Liquid chlorine was removed and replaced with a less hazardous substance.
● Staff, management and executive competence in process safety management was raised to support the program and deliver value over the long term.
● All significant Hazards were assessed and critical control management was implemented.

What Made It Work?

Multiple factors led to the successful outcome we had with Icon Water.

Collaboration

The collaboration and communication between Icon Water and Safety Solutions staff was very effective and efficient.

Key Staff

Both Safety Solutions and Icon Water had key staff driving the program and encouraging productive collaboration between the companies.

Personal Development

Over the 3 year program, internal competence was developed by numerous Icon Water staff, leading to more autonomy and less need for future interaction with Safety Solutions.

Velocity EHS

The use of Safety Solutions license for Velocity EHS Risk Management Platform allowed hazard assessments, risk assessments, bowties, and verification standards to be performed seamlessly.