Reporting Ammonia Releases

IFCA members continue to get hammered with huge fines from Region 5 USEPA for failing to report ammonia releases of 100 lbs (18 gallons) or more.  In most cases the facility is reporting the incident, but not "immediately."  If you have any reason at all to believe a reportable release of ammonia has occurred at your facility or while in your possession during transportation or application you must contact the National Response Center at 800.424.8802 and the IL Emergency Mgmt Agency at 800.782.7860 as well as your LEPC.  If you are involved in handling the release and feel like you don't have time to make the call because you need to attend to the emergency itself, at least make the calls quickly, tell them briefly what is going on and tell them you will call back later with more details.  Believe us, they don't care how busy you are mitigating the scene, the call takes precedence with the government.  Some of the fines we are seeing for releases even with no injuries or evacuations are in the tens of thousands of dollars and come with a mountain of paperwork as an added bonus.  Calling in releases also applies to farmers, so please inform them of their responsibilities if they are applying or transporting the product. 

IFCA has emergency release instructional wallet cards available for your employee and customers free of charge.  Please call us and we'll send you however many you need, and also remind your customers to watch the 12 minute "Ammonia Safety for Farmers" video prior to hitching up the first nurse tank of the season.  The video is available at www.ifca.com.