Containment of Contaminated Water
In many industries, as well as in some handicraft companies, spills and contaminated water can be generated that cannot be discharged to the environment or to the public sanitation network, due to their ecotoxicity.
Containment and storage of waters not suitable for disposal must meet a series of requirements, to avoid accidental spills and contamination of surrounding land or nearby aquifers as a result of runoff currents, as well as damage to public or third-party goods.
The options for containing contaminated effluents derived from industrial activity with the presence of hazardous chemicals are shown below.
Reduction of the Impact of Accidental Spills
The term “accidental spills” refers to:
Speaking of waste water, those due to a dump or breakage of a container or pipe, the water resulting from emergency measures for the extinction of a fire in the plant and the currents derived from an eventual flood. In any case, we are talking about containment of contaminated water with products used in the industry or by-products of it, and not about the spills of oil or its derivatives due to maritime accidents or the breakage of pipelines.
Accidental spills can also occur by breaking of large or small containers in which chemical is stored, accidents when loading or unloading tank trucks, etc.
According to the APQ regulation, any company that produces, handles or stores products that can generate a spill of polluting liquids into the environment, must have a containment system whose retention capacity is greater than or equal to the following values:
- 10% of the total capacity stored.
- 100% of the capacity of the largest container.
On top of that, containment must be ensured of both chemical products and contaminated water resulting from the extinction of a fire.
Tandem HSE designs and supplies liquid containment system installations, suitable to meet the requirements of the APQ regulation.
Installations:
- Pipe shutters.
- Containment barriers for doors and loading docks.
Storage of Chemical Products
The storage of chemical products (APQ) must be carried out in compliance with the legislation in force in each country. These laws seek to minimize the possibility of accidents at the storage site or on the way to the production chain, accidents that can affect people, facilities or have a negative environmental impact.
On the one hand, there is prevention equipment and, on the other, there are warehouses. There are modular containers designed for the storage of chemical products that comply with the APQ regulation. These containers are equipped with accidental spill containment systems that may occur inside.
Tandem HSE distributes modular containers for the storage of all kinds of chemical products.
Equipment:
- Prefabricated warehouses for chemical products without fire protection.
- Prefabricated warehouses for flammable chemicals and organic peroxides.
Please note that even within prefabricated warehouses for a certain type of waste, the indications of prevention of occupational hazards, which indicate the conditions of temperature, ventilation and ordering of products, taking into account the type of reactivity of each substance must be considered. For example, strong acids and bases cannot be stored with fuels and oxidizers, but there must be some kind of physical separation between those.
In summary, the legislation requires those responsible for an industrial plant or a pilot plant to contain the effluents generated in the normal activity of the installation, but also those produced during emergencies or accidents.
This makes it necessary for the installation to have different equipment and facilities, to cover any possible accident and, in turn, to do it in a manner adapted to the type of discharge in question and its flow.
Also mandatory are some equipment designed to ensure the safety of the workers at the plant and at the chemical products storage location.
