Promoting pride in protection

Through the Environmental Management System, TVA employees are preventing pollution

By JIM ANDREWS

	Roger Sims and Tonya Miller check absorbent pads placed into John Sevier Fossil Plant’s new intercept pond to help contain oil from a leaking circuit breaker.

Throughout TVA, protecting the environment is generally a matter of preventive actions. But it’s sometimes a matter of quick reaction.

Those actions range from environmental training for hundreds of employees and contractors at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant to the inventive thinking of a Transmission/Power Supply employee, in preventing problems at substations.

Then there are instances such as TVA employees’ and contractors’ rapid response that kept 1,200 gallons of oil from pouring into the Holston River at John Sevier Fossil Plant this summer.

“We had a significant failure of an oil circuit breaker,” says Tonya Miller, who along with Roger Sims serves as a Program Administrator-Environmental at John Sevier. “OCBs are rarely known to fail, but this one unexpectedly began to leak.”

The leaking oil was draining into the yard drainage system, which connects with the site storm-water drains that empty into the river.

“We had to work fast, and we had strong support,” Miller says. “Michelle Cagley, a TPS Environmental Engineer, came up from Knoxville’s Greenway office. And while one contractor brought in a vacuum truck to contain the initial spill, another put pads and booms in the storm drain.

“TPS Engineering quickly drew up plans for an intercept pond, and the Heavy Equipment Division dug the pond, with new pipe put in place to divert the oil to it. It was a real team effort — even the dry weather helped out.”

The successful diversion of leaking oil is part of a long list of John Sevier environmental accomplishments for 2001 and 2002 — a list ranging from replacing a couple of transformers containing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, to the strong emphasis placed by former Plant Manager Don Gaston and current Plant Manager Mike Wagner on environmental management.

Developing a culture of pride in protecting the environment
Warren Behlau, Manager of Performance Analysis & Reporting in River System Operations & Environment’s Environmental Policy & Planning, says there are many best practices such as John Sevier’s at other TVA plants and facilities around the Tennessee Valley.

	Among several of Danny Sapp’s ideas to contain pollution at TVA substations are these Valve Sacs, which are tied to transformer valves or spigots to catch oil leaks.

“Through the Environmental Management System, we are developing a culture within TVA in which all employees are proud to protect the environment and to help minimize TVA’s environmental footprint,” Behlau says. “That can range from something as simple as recycling aluminum cans to coming up with pollution-prevention ideas that can be replicated TVA-wide and even industrywide.”

Danny Sapp, a TPS Environmental Program Administrator, is responsible for three devices now being used to prevent pollution at TVA substations.

“Tennessee implemented a new regulation about eight months ago requiring containment of leakage from battery banks used as a backup power source at substations,” Sapp says.

“I started searching for a product that would do that but never could find one. So I came up with a design and talked with a company in Kansas about building it for us.”

That company, Andax Environmental Corp., now markets three of Sapp’s designs — for the Barrier Pac, a four-inch-high vinyl “wall” to contain leaking battery acid; the Valve Sac, a vinyl bag that can be tied onto a transformer valve or spigot leaking oil; and the Bushing Sac, which Sapp calls “a big Ziploc-type bag” used to contain a PCB-laden bushing that is being retired.

TVA training teaches environmental awareness to employees, contract partners
TVA provides environmental training to sensitize employees throughout the company as to how they individually and collectively can protect the environment.

	Diedre Nida and Bechtel’s Gene Jaska check silt fencing placed around construction site at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant.

“Not only do we train our employees every year, we have a system in place for our contractors to let us know when they have new employees coming onsite for a project,” says Diedre Nida, Environmental Supervisor at Sequoyah.

“We talk with their employees about what they’re going to do, whether any chemicals or waste issues are involved, and if they have the necessary training. We also have the state involved in this from the start, so projects are consistent with state requirements.”

Like other sites, Sequoyah has an award system for environmental consciousness.

“For instance, we gave an award to a security officer who had called the Shift Manager immediately to report that he had noticed some smoke coming from one of our cooling-tower lift pumps,” Nida says. “The pump was shut off, preventing larger problems.”

October 2002

River and the environment

what’s new in employee news

TVA-wide meeting for employees Oct. 30

A TVA-wide employee meeting with the theme “TVA’s Journey to Excellence” is scheduled Wednesday, Oct. 30, from 9:15-10:30 a.m. EST.

The meeting will originate from Knoxville’s West Tower Auditorium and be transmitted by satellite to all regular TVA simulcast sites.

The three Board members will participate in the program, which will feature a look back at TVA’s performance in fiscal year 2002 and the outlook for FY ’03.

Other scheduled speakers include Chief Financial Officer David Smith and Chief Operating Officer Ike Zeringue.

Videotapes of the meeting will be available to organizations and work locations afterward.