Introduction.

The storage of hazardous chemical substances represents a potential scenario where the chemical risk becomes an environmental risk.

Objectives

. To analyze and evaluate the environmental risk that might be present in a storage and trading SME of chemical products.

Materials and methods.

Concepts of environmental assessment and risk management, adapted to a study case, to describe and represent relations between pollutants and receivers that might be affected, liberation ways of chemical substances and effects upon environmental factors are applied. For the assessment of environmental risk regulation UNE 150008:2008 is applied.

Results.

The environmental assessment points as a highly relevant impact, the chemical risk due to the presence of hazardous chemical substances, and middle relevance impact of soil contamination due to leaks and spillages. In the assessment and valuation of environmental risks, the following were classified in a high risk level: the liberation of acid vapors caused by accidental spills of nitric acid and the liberation of formaldehyde volatile vapors. The treatment of risks is oriented towards the control of changes in technology and in the management of production process.

Conclusions.

When approaching the environmental risk with this methodology, the danger of inflicting damage to the environment, people or assets, as a consequence of deterioration suffered by environmental factors, is valuated. A true and effective risk management shall include two stages: to plan the response to risks, to monitor and control risks.