The Natural Refrigeration

By Kem Russell

Is it helpful, sometimes even really important to know how things are going? The answer is yes! If you don’t audit, check, measure, and/or observe what’s happening you may end up with results you didn’t expect or want. A correction might take a significant effort depending on what is happening and how much time passes between your observations.

Here is a recent personal example where I should have done a better job of auditing my progress. I planned to do a day hike on a loop canyon trail. Starting elevation was about 5,690 feet; high point was about 7,831 feet; total trail distance of the loop was about 7 miles.

From the trailhead parking area, I walked up a forest road for about half a mile to the actual trail, which then snaked its way up the forested canyon to the ridge. The hike was somewhat steep, but I finally broke out of the deciduous trees and fir trees to large, flowered meadows with aspen tree groves. It was beautiful!

I had been verifying my location and progress using a mapping app and my phone’s GPS. The map showed that once I reached the ridge the trail would intersect a jeep road.

When the path intersected the jeep road, I turned left to follow the road to the next intersection with the trail for the downhill portion of the loop. I walked for about 15 minutes, and the road came to a dead-end.

“Hmmm?” I didn’t remember the road coming to a dead-end on the map. Looking at my GPS position, I saw that I was well off course and should have gone to the right when the trail intersected the jeep road. I should have verified which direction I was supposed to go on the road. Now I had to backtrack. Well, lesson learned, I needed to verify my position more often.

I hiked back to where I had first intersected the road and then correctly followed it to an intersection with another jeep road. I turned left at the intersection and continued on for about 10 minutes then verified I was going the right way. The intersection with the last half of the loop trail was further along the road.

It was a beautiful day; the scenery was breathtaking. I was confident I would see the trail intersection, so I didn’t check my GPS location. I walked maybe three fourths of a mile and had a gut feeling I should have gotten to the trail intersection by then. I got a present GPS location; I was way beyond the trail intersection! “Grrrr!”

I turned around, mentally kicking myself for not monitoring my position more often and not really learning a lesson from my first mistake. As it was this seven-mile hike turned into a nine-plus mile hike. If I had just monitored my progress more often, I would have saved about two miles of extra hiking.

It is important to verify whatever you are doing, observing and auditing is what is supposed to be happening. This applies personally or when working as a team, and/ or as a company. You should do this often enough that you don’t end up off track from what you want or expect.

You can likely think of many examples of the need to verify things to make sure they are going correctly. I want to briefly focus on areas of ammonia refrigeration systems where this can be beneficial.

For any refrigeration system that contains 10,000 lbs. or more anhydrous ammonia the owners and operators of that system have to adhere to both OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) and EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP). One of the sections in these two federal programs where we are seeing that the programs are working as they should is “Compliance Audit.”

The audit verifies that all elements currently in place for a “specific” system meet the requirements for the PSM Standard and RMP Rule. The audit results are to be documented. The PSM Standard and RMP Rule both state that an audit must be done every three years.

If deficiencies are found by the auditors then corrections are to be made to bring the element(s) into compliance. How long corrections take to be completed will vary depending on the particular deficiencies found. It would be best to make corrections as soon as reasonable, not to take the full three years until the next audit. You should always try to have an active, fully functioning PSM/RMP. This could mean that in some cases elements may need to be audited more frequently until you feel comfortable that requirements are being met for the PSM Standard and RMP rule.

It is not a good idea to wait as something might go further off course. I have many times been asked by companies to review the status of their programs. What I first do is an audit of all of the elements. That audit helps both the company and I have a much better idea of how much effort may be needed to bring various elements up to a condition where they meet the requirements.

IIAR has a guideline to help companies meet the standards and rules for the PSM/RMP.