Auditing in Contra Costa County

Contra Costa County is home to many different industrial facilities, including four petroleum refineries and several small to medium chemical and power generation facilities. Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) has been performing the required California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Program audits of these facilities since 1999 and has been auditing facilities that fall under the County's Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO) since 2001. This paper will focus on how the audits are performed, including the make up of audit teams, CCHS's screening process for those facilities that have been audited three or more times, the results of these audits, and following up on the required actions and recommendations. The focus of this paper will be on the CalARP program elements with a few ISO elements highlighted. Some of the additional ISO requirements include a human factors program and inherently safer processes. The paper will conclude by discussing the future direction of CCHS's audits including the auditing of safety culture assessments.