Counteracting the Spills Phenomenon

Preventing Spills With Countermeasures Every manufacturing facility that is dealing with potentially hazardous or toxic materials should, in all good faith, have a Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) plan. There are several key components of such a plan, including dedicated phone numbers for emergency and specific personnel responsible for answering them. (EPA, 2002). Having such a plan should be considered just another operating expense for the manufacturing entity, much like any other cost associated with maintaining such a plant.

In fact, the pros of such a plan drastically outweigh the cons. Disadvantages of such a plan are primarily centered around its cost. That cost both pertains to the initial construction of the plan and the updates to it that are necessary to account for every process change. Moreover, that cost factors both into monetary factors as well as those pertaining to time, energy, and human labor to revise the plan and keep it up-to-date.

Nevertheless, many of these disadvantages can be nullified if they are simply considered as ongoing operating expenses and are allotted in the initial business plan for a manufacturing facility as such. The EPA has played a role in helping to ensure that various areas have an SPCC plan (EPA, 2015).

Adopting this perspective would allow any such facility to reap the benefits of the following advantages, the most eminent of which is the fact that were any sort of disaster to occur, its effects could be suitably minimized merely by actuating the germane factors of the SPCC.

Quite simply, the level of catastrophe that could occur in the event of such a disaster could mitigate almost any advantages that such a manufacturing plan could engender -- both in terms of revenues as well as products or services that contribute to society. Contaminating surrounding populations, seriously injuring and killing people, and negatively impacting the drinking water, food production, and other natural elements around the plant and people is too steep a price for any plant to pay.

Simply by having an updated SPCC plan, a manufacturing plant could avoid these worst case scenarios, minimize any damage in the event of disaster, and still produce more good than ill via its operation. These factors are all of the advantages of having such a plan.

In the scenario in this assignment in which an evening shift manager left the gasoline spill to be cleaned up the next day by the day shift manager, it is quite clear that any sort of contamination disaster that occurred would be the fault of the former manager. Had that former manager chosen to address the spill immediately, it is quite possible that it would not have affected the nearby creek and contaminated the water supply of the people in the surrounding neighborhood.

Therefore, it largely appears as though the manufacturing facility environmental & safety manager is at fault for not having a SPCC plan. Such a plan would have prevented the tarrying of action until the next day, and would have had a number of contingencies that could have been implemented immediately to rectify this situation. Additionally, some of the blame assigned for the neglect.