News

A tanker containing approximately 23,000 litres of hydrochloric acid has leaked at the Hopwood Park Services in Worcestershire, prompting an immediate spill control operation to get underway.

The incident occurred on Wednesday 8th December at around 6.10am at the services, which is located off Junction 2 on the M42 motorway.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (H&WFRS) were called as soon as the chemical leak was reported, but specialist spill control teams from the Environmental Protection Unit (EPU) soon had to be drafted in.

After setting up a safety cordon around the leaking tanker, spill containment measures were employed to prevent the hydrochloric acid spreading. It was estimated that 200 litres of acid leaked from the tanker during the incident. Summing up what happened, Redditch Fire Station Manager Phil Griffiths said:

“Firefighters in breathing apparatus initially helped to assess the situation and we then called a specialist environmental cleaning company on site working with us to help contain the leak and limit any environmental impact.”

The driver of the vehicle and three other people were checked by medical teams as a precautionary measure, but no injuries were reported.

Australian’s Olympic rowing team programme in Canberra has been seriously disrupted by a dangerous chemical spill in the lake it uses for training.

Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra has been temporarily closed, after it was discovered that the Queanbeyan Sewage Treatment Plant had leaked sewage waste into the Molongo River after sustaining damage from heavy rain at the start of December. This river feeds into the lake, so it is highly likely to have been contaminated.

As spill control teams attempt to combat the situation and make the lake safe again, the AIS National Rowing Centre of Excellence has had to close. This has put a serious spanner in the works for the Australian Olympic rowing programme, which hopes to run a National Talent Identification Camp at the lake in the coming weeks. This is addition to planning for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Nonetheless, health authorities have warned that the lake is too dangerous to use. Gary Rake from the National Capital Authority reports:

"The way ACT Health has put it to me, even the minor contact that might come from paddle splash, or carrying a wet boat back to the shed could be sufficient when we've got 15 to 50 times the safe levels and knowing it's of human source."

Safety signs in the workplace are not only a legal requirement; they are absolutely vital in providing the essential information needed to protect employees, visitors and property.

There are many different types of safety signs you may need to use in your business, particularly if you keep spill control equipment on site. You need to check which signs you are legally required to have in order to adhere to health and safety standards.

For example, you may need to have:

• Spill kit signage – This enables anyone, whether they work for you or not, to use the spill kit in the event of an emergency. Detailed instructions for specific types of leaks and spills ensure that the emergency spill kit is used properly to avert disaster or prevent damage.

• Wet floor signs – These signs are essential in most businesses, for the simple reason that they warn people of a spill and prevent injuries caused by slips and falls.

• Surface water drain signs – These identification signs make clear what type of drain it is and how it should be used; i.e. only rainwater should be poured down surface water drains.

A firm in Pendle, Lancashire, has been fined after diesel from their site spilled into a village watercourse.

The firm, Richard Wellock and Sons, who are fruit and vegetable merchants and are based at Whiteholme Mill on Skipton Road pleaded guilty to two offences at Reedley Magistrates Court and were fined £2,200.

The Environment Agency was first made aware of the problem after local residents noticed a smell of diesel near Trawden Beck. The Environment Agency traced back the leak to the fruit and vegetable firm and found that a driver had been filling up his truck, however the diesel pump was not connected properly so diesel flowed from the firm’s yard into the watercourse.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency stated:

“The ecology of the river was disrupted but there were no fish deaths.

“People need to contact us straight away when these incidents occur, which they clearly did not on this occasion.”

Upon investigation, the company were also found to be operating a cardboard reprocessing facility illegally and converting used cooking oil into bio-diesel without the necessary authorisation or permits.

The directors of the company pleaded guilty to all the charges and were fined accordingly.

A chemical spill at an aerospace factory in North Wales led to staff being evacuated and the local fire brigade being called.

The spill happened at the Gardner Aerospace facility in Flintshire at around 9.30am last Friday morning. No one was injured in the incident when two acids inadvertently mixed.

Firefighters from three local depots attended the scene and wore protective chemical suits to investigate the spill. Crews from Mold, Wrexham and Deeside quickly decided that the spill could be cleaned up by the factory workforce, who used chemical spill kits to eradicate the spill.

A spokesperson from the North Wales fire and rescue service stated:

“500 litres of sulphuric acid and chromic acid came out of containers into a bunded, metal, treatment area. They were not supposed to be together. There was a standard mobilisation of the fire and rescue service.”

The Environment Agency was also called to the scene, after fears that the chemicals could have made their way into the water supply system. After checks it was found that there was no issue and the site was declared safe.

A chemical spill at a hotel in Bristol resulted in the evacuation of all the guests and the staff from the site. The spill happened at the Holiday Inn in Filton, when chemicals that were going to be used to chlorinate a swimming pool inadvertently mixed together.

The incident happened at around 8:30am in one of the hotel’s plant rooms last Saturday morning. The hotel alarm was sounded and the area cordoned off. Avon Fire and Rescue Service attended the scene and firefighters wore protective clothing to assess the chemical risk. One member of the hotel staff was taken to the local hospital as a precaution, he had been working in the plant room at the time of the spill. The guests were moved to a different part of the hotel until the firefighters had cleaned up the spillage.

The hotel manager stated:

"We had a chemical leak in a plant room. The alarm was raised immediately and our guests and staff were safely evacuated. We confined the affected area and guests were able to return to the hotel shortly afterwards through the back entrance."

The spill was fully eliminated and the fire brigade left the scene at 1:00pm

Working in freezing conditions can be extremely hazardous, especially when the ground is covered in a layer of snow and ice. Most industrial sites have external storage bays or goods inward bays where trucks or vans can enter the site through a roller shutter door so they can deliver high cost or sensitive items.

Working in and around these areas needs to be done safely, but if there is a hazard such as snow or ice just outside the loading bay, it can make moving vehicles between these areas extremely difficult.

Most industrial sites now have a stock of rock salt which can be used in icy conditions. Rock salt is easy to spread using push along rock salt spreaders, as the salt is just shovelled into a hopper and then spread evenly across the desired area by the hopper discharge, which can be adjusted by a quantity discharged regulator. If you use a rock salt hopper to spread the salt, you will also get an even coverage and no excess salt will be used, so there will be no wastage of this valuable winter commodity.

Rock salt spreaders are also useful to clear snow and ice from pavements, your car park and clear a route for your employees to enter their place of work safely.

There are two common types of booms used by spill control experts, containment booms and absorbent booms. Spill containment booms simply prevent a spilled substance further reaching an area where the spill has not yet affected and absorbent booms do the same, yet they also absorb the spilled substance so that it can be removed from the spill site.

Containment booms

Some types of containment booms include inflatable booms that can be positioned across a water course or larger area of water to stop a spill spreading. Because these booms are inflatable they can be stored really easily and connected together to form barriers of an unlimited length. The floating boom stops the oil or other spilled liquid, which is floating on the surface of the water, causing any more damage to an unaffected environment.

Absorbent booms

Absorbent booms actually repel water and soak up oil or other hazardous spilled substances. They are available in a number of different lengths and can be joined together in the same way as containment booms to form a long barrier. Absorbent booms can be purchased specifically for use on the land or in water. A great use for absorbent booms is in drain gulleys, when a spilled substance may have found its way into the general waste drainage system.

An oil company has been fined a total of $550,000 by the Philippine government after an oil spill caused serious groundwater pollution.

The case revolves around a leak in the West Tower Condominium in Makati City, which began in July 2010 and was finally tackled and plugged by a spill control team in November. However, the spill contaminated the water in the basement of the condominium, leading to the evacuation of nearly 80 families.

It has now been found that the levels of oil and grease at the site have still not returned to normal and safe levels. This has led to the company being fined $550,000 for breaching Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regulations, as DENR secretary Ramon J.P Paje explained:

"Under Section 27 of Republic Act No. 9275, otherwise known as the Clean Water Act, one of the prohibited acts is discharging, injecting or allowing to seep into the soil or sub-soil any substance in any form that would pollute the groundwater."

The company involved have accepted responsibility for the leak, but have not been able to explain why spill control measures did not take effect sooner.