It is critical that you test your spill containment processes and systems regularly and here are two common faults that you should be looking out for.
We often get calls to carry out servicing of site generic pollution containment valves. One of the major issues we have to deal with are penstock valves that have either not been set to close fully or sites that have noticed that when they close a penstock valve they don’t stop the flow completely.
A global aerospace engineering company based in Wolverhampton asked our engineers to carry out an annual service of the pollution containment penstock sited at the final outfall into a balancing pond. The valve appeared yo operate open/close, however during the confined space inspection we found the valve stops were set at the wrong point. We couldn’t see any evidence of adjustment and could only conclude that the valve had never been set to close fully.
We carried out adjustment to allow the valve to fully close. This achieved valve close for our customer, but not containment as the original valve was originally specified incorrectly. This should serve as a warning to all sites that rely on a pollution containment valve to make sure that the system they have installed will actually contain a pollution release if a spill event were to occur.
Sandfield Penstock Solutions are currently servicing pollution control valves for a UK dairy. During our first service at any site we aim to understand the performance of the existing assets against operational requirements. An all to common fault is to utilise site mains power to operate site pollution containment valves.
Our client called us out as an emergency response following a failure of the system to operate. The fault occurred due to a simple short from a trailer charge point that had tripped out the sites valve controls. Often equipment overflow happens during a power outage, connecting containment valves to site mains power without emergency backup needs to be avoided, as a powerless containment system is clearly ineffective.
The whole purpose of a pollution containment system is it operates during an emergency. By the time you are experiencing an emergency, whether that is a spill event or a fire, it is too late to discover that your systems don’t operate. We recommend regular servicing and testing of your containment facilities and we would love to helping you with that.
If spill containment and CIRIA736 compliance is currently a consideration for you please do not hesitate to call 01299 823158 or email us, we will be very happy to discuss our solutions with you.
