Cooling Towers

1. Risk management plan

The principal and/or their delegate must ensure that the cooling tower risk management plan addresses the following risk factors:

• stagnant water, for example, lack of water circulation is likely to result in solids in the system settling as sludge encouraging the formation of microbial growth
• nutrient growth, including the presence of algae that can encourage more rapid bacterial growth
• poor water quality, for example, cleanliness, presence of corrosion products, scale and fouling
• deficiencies in the cooling tower(s), including issues with physical design (such as leaks and dead legs – pipes that are full of water and have little or no flow through them) condition and maintenance of the system
• the location of, and access to, a cooling tower system or cooling tower systems, including the potential for environmental contamination of the system and the potential for exposure of people to the aerosols of the system.

1.1 Assess the risks

The principal or their delegate, in consultation with relevant parties (including Health and Safety Representatives or HSR and contractors, where applicable) must ensure that:

• the risk of cooling tower related hazards are assessed using the Risk Management Plan Template or equivalent template
• the risk management methodology as outlined in the Risk Management Procedure is followed to assess the level of risk
• document the hazard in the ‘Hazard Description’ column of the OHS risk register (XLSX) (for example, biological hazard).