ABOVE ALL ELSE

The American Chemistry Council explains the background behind its Chemical Facility Safety Initiative SAFETY is an area close to the heart of any tank farm operator, but with multiple and changing assessment tools, standards, regulations, and guidelines, it can be a little perplexing. In 2019, following a series of high-profile chemical facility safety incidents in the Houston, Texas, region, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) convened an Ad Hoc Chemical Facility Safety Initiative Work Group in the US in an effort to offer clarity for chemical sites, including storage sites. Tara Henriksen is the managing director of the Responsible Care Initiative at the ACC and the Chemical Facility Safety Initiative work falls under her remit. Henriksen is a safety expert. After obtaining a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Utah, she has spent most of her career investigating process safety events, including working alongside the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB), before joining ACC. ‘I started in this role last year in May and in the first part of that year there were a number of incidents in Harris County. Those included the ITC incident [tank fires at Deer Park that...