01299 823158

Water Pollution Prevention Risk Assessment - Spill Mapping

The first step in effectively addressing your water pollution challenges is to understand your precise risk.

Historically water pollution risk assessment has been conducted based on assumptions, relying on the intuitive ability of the assessor to predict what may happen during a pollution event. Sandfield Penstock Solutions have developed a more scientific approach to assessing your actual exposure to causing water pollution – Spill Mapping.

Water Pollution Risk Assessment – Spill Mapping

The first step in effectively addressing your water pollution challenges is to understand your precise risk.

In the past water pollution risk assessment has been conducted based on assumptions, relying on the intuitive ability of the assessor to accurately predict what may happen on your site during a pollution event. Sandfield Penstock Solutions have developed a more scientific approach to assessing your actual exposure to causing water pollution – Spill Mapping.

Spill Mapping empowers our customers to accurately evidence the outcomes of various disaster scenarios for their specific site. With this information a cost effective containment policy can be implemented, conforming to CIRIA c736, your ISO 14001 Certification and the requirements of The Environment Agency and local authorities. This approach has proven to deliver huge cost and disruption savings over both existing and proposed water pollution containment systems.

What is Spill Mapping?

Spill Mapping is a computer-generated modelling process that produces animations that demonstrate the flow of pollutant materials from your site in the event of a spill, fire or flood. Spill mapping is a valuable exercise for any business, from the most simple sites to companies managing complex spill containment and drainage systems. Spill Mapping delivers an evidence based animation of a pollution release, enabling businesses to develop an appropriate containment solution and invest in the right controls or methods to meet the actual risk precisely.

How does Spill Mapping work?

Sandfield Penstock Solutions start the Spill Mapping process by producing a detailed topographical and drainage model of your site to provide a highly accurate 3D plan. This 3D plan is then fed into a computer mapping system, which runs through the various disaster scenarios that could occur as specified in the CIRIA c736 Guidance. Penstock Solutions animate this 3d plan to accurately demonstrate the flow of spill, flood or firewater and any other pollutant materials from your site. The likelihood of your contaminated materials reaching water courses, agriculture or other high-risk environments is mapped against your sites existing drainage and containment systems. The Spill Map Animation shows the run off pathways, expected timelines and related break out points taking into consideration the effectiveness of your existing drainage and containment devices. 

This initial Spill Map Animation enables Penstock Solutions to identify which of your existing assets could be contributing to effective water pollution containment on your site. These assets could include your existing drainage system, kerbing, yard and parking areas, retaining walls, loading docks, balance ponds, table tops, embankments and sleeping policeman. Utilising these existing assets greatly reduces the cost in time, money and disruption typically associated with traditional water pollution prevention system implementations. This process has eliminated the requirement for costly and disruptive bunding around effluent treatment facilities at a number of our customers sites.

Once we have built a baseline model of your site Penstock Solution add in the proposed pollution containment devices and barriers. These devices are designed and strategically positioned to change the pathways and effectively contain pollutant materials. Spill Mapping enables Penstock Solutions to provide an evidence based assurance that the water pollution containment systems we propose will be effective and compliant before any physical work is carried out. 

The final Spill Map Animation is then presented to the customer and all relevant stakeholders so they can clearly see the actual risk for themselves, empowering them to make informed decisions about the investment required to mitigate that risk. Spill Mapping has typically saved our customers 50% of the costs and disruption when compared with proposals from other solution providers.

What are the benefits of Spill Mapping?

The most immediate benefit of Spill Mapping is that stakeholders, authorities, including The Environment Agency, and insurers can be assured that disaster containment has been modelled and a realistic risk assessment conducted.

This has benefited our customers in a number of ways including:

  • assessing the viability of a new site location
  • assessing the viability of a new site design
  • assessing the effectiveness and compliance of existing pollution containment processes and systems
  • assessing the effectiveness and compliance of proposed pollution containment processes and systems
  • reducing the time it takes to achieve successful Environment Permit applications
  • reducing the time it takes to achieve successful Environment Permit changes

When should you undertake Spill Mapping?

Our recommendation is that commercial sites looking at their water pollution containment and firewater containment plans and systems undertake Spill Mapping as early in the process as possible as this delivers the most significant savings to project costs, timescales and disruption.

You should also be considering Spill Mapping when:

  • you are assessing your water pollution containment and firewater containment systems and processes inline with CIRIA C736
  • you are designing new pollution containment and firewater containment systems and processes inline with CIRIA C736 
  • you are applying for new, or making changes to your existing, Environmental Permits
  • The Environment Agency, your Local Authority or other regulator is asking for evidence of water pollution containment design
  • you are planning to buy or move to a new site
  • you are submitting a planning application to build a new site

If spill containment and CIRIA c736 compliance is currently a consideration for you please do not hesitate to call us 01299 823158 or email us, we will be very happy to discuss our solutions with you.

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