What are Spill Containment Solutions? (Transcript)

Hi, my name’s David Cole and I am technical director of Sandfield Penstock Solutions and I’m going to talk to you about spill containment solutions?

What are Spill Containment Solutions?

Well, what are spill containment solutions? There’s so many really. It’s an endless subject to ask about, but what you’re looking at is in the event of a spill incident you need to have control of that particular incident so you can contain it, keep it on site so there is no environmental impact event or a prosecution which can come from causing pollution.

What is the range of Spill Containment Solutions?

Okay, so it’s always a tricky subject because there is no one size fits all. So, what you have to understand is, what is the potential risk? If you understand the potential risk, what is the solution? The solution could be very simple. If it’s a small area and you’ve just got one particular risk that you can control. It could be something really really simple. It could be you just got a bucket that you could sit something in. Problem solved. Or it can be really complex where you need where you need to have a fully automated control system.

What is the Variation in Cost of Spill Containment Solutions?

So, I think the range in cost can be from just a few pounds up to tens of millions of pounds depending on the size of your business and what the risk element is. And I think also a really important area is, you also have to understand what the impact of a pollution event could be. So, if you’re quite a small business and you potentially have quite a low-level spillage event, potentially a spillage event if your factory did burn down, you’d have to look at the size of the business. If it’s a huge business with a global brand, you have to look at a pollution event which causes a load of fish to die or an impact on the environment or public health. A pollution event for a large company can damage your brand and your reputation for many many years.

Which Spill Containment Solution is right for me?

So, really, when we look at spill containment and what system is right for an individual customer, it’s not that easy. Because what you have to understand first of all is, what is the actual potential risk? You’ve got to carry out a risk assessment, you’ve got to understand what you are trying to achieve and what you intend to achieve. So, for one company it could be that there is very little risk but they’re a huge massive company. But it could be a small company with a particular chemical or something on site that really is harmful to the environment. So, every site is completely different and needs to be assessed in isolation.

How do we define an appropriate Spill Containment Solution?

So, when we start to look at appropriate solutions it again is you’ve got the look at the business, you’ve got to look at their risk, you’ve got to understand what they are trying to achieve. It all depends on what actually could be the consequences of a disaster. How much of a risk is that disaster? One of the things that we always look at is, which I obviously find interesting is, we’ve got sites that actually have deliveries. So, one of the first things to do with these sites is they go right, we’re going to have a delivery so every time we have a delivery, we’ll operate the containment system. It might be of some of our valves, it might be putting out some mats over the tops of some drain covers. What you then have to look at is if you’re considering that risk is so high, maybe the investment should be in moving that process away from those particular risk areas. So, I’m saying anything that you do has to be looked upon as is if you see the risk is very high, you should eliminate the risk. If you can’t eliminate the risk, then you can look at your spill containment measures because sometimes there’s too much focus on a spill containment system. It’s a nice fancy system. Whereas it would actually be cheaper and more long term affective to actually move the process to a safer zone.

What is Underkill VS. Overkill when it comes to Spill Containment Solutions?

So, I think when we look at pollution containment we do, as a deliverer of pollution containment systems, we do go to some sites that have got, definitely an overkill and some sites that are definitely underkill. In fact, what they’ve done is they’ve not really thought about it. They recognise they’ve got a massive pollution problem and their answer is we’ll just stick a spill kit in the corner, and somebody can go and operate that. Nobody thought about how that would be implemented, they’ve just done it. And it ticks a box, the regulator doesn’t turn up, nobody really asked the question, they just keep ticking it off as we’ve got a containment system in place. It’s all working. But then I know that on the other extreme there are sites where they’ve actually implemented full bunding around the whole facility which has actually increased their problem because they’ve turned an area that was previously an area you could get into, into now a confined space because it’s got a two-metre high wall all the way around it which is technically an overkill because the equipment inside it isn’t really going to fail. It could fail, but no difference to any other site where they’ve got bulk storage. So, there’s sometimes when you look at it you’ve got to look at the risk and the company has to decide what level they sit at. Because there can be an argument that spending no money at all will address the risk, I think that’s probably a very high-risk situation to be in. There are other sites where they’ll invest a huge amount of money in fully bunding a piece of equipment which can seem extreme, but if they’ve got a brand or they’ve got a reputation to protect then maybe that’s the right way to go.

What is your recommendation for Anyone Looking to Address These Issues?

Anybody wanting to look at this particular subject first thing is do is go through our six-point checklist. 1. Understand the regulation. 2. Understand how that regulation impacts your particular business. 3. Carry out a full risk assessment, don’t scrimp on anything. 4. design an appropriate spill containment system. 5. Deliver that appropriate system and install it. 5. Monitor, maintain and document the system that you’ve installed and be prepared to change it and improve it as guidance improves over the years.

So, if you’d like to know more please go to www.penstocksolutions.co.uk. Thank you.

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