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When Skimming is a Good Thing

OK, so when someone says they’ve been skimming, it’s not usually a good thing. However, when it’s skimming fuel from a monitoring well on petrol station, that’s definitely beneficial.

We identified the fuel during a site audit, carried out in response to complaints about petrol odours in off-site (BT and Thames Water) service ducts. Contaminants often track/migrate through ducting and service trenches, leading away from the original source. In this case, our detective work was able to trace the source of the odours back to a fuel leak from the nearby filling station.

Our UKAS accreditted laboratory carried out forensic analysis of the recovered fuel in order to determine it’s age and composition, allowing us to further focus future infrastructure and ground investigation efforts on possible sources of the leak from the filling station.

Being able to seemlessly integrate both site investigation and laboratory testing in this way resulted in significant time and cost savings for our client.

If you’d like to know more about our unique approach to assesment of contaminated land, please contact James Edley.

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Check Before You Buy

We recently completed a desk-top study for a site with no indication of it’s former use. A thorough, detailed data review uncovered the site’s past use as a petrol filling station. Our subsequent investigations uncovered several abandoned tanks and lots of nasty contamination.

Our report was compiled on behalf of a client looking to lease the site. As a result of our work, they were able to negotiate an indemnity against historical contamination and a contribution to the costs of dealing with future development costs associated with removing the soil contamination. A bullet dodged for our client.

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A ‘Hole’ Lot of Problems

You never quite know what is lurking beneath the surface. We recently removed this underground fuel storage tank from a disused filling station site. When we inspected the tank we found this large corrosion hole which could have been a major source of contamination. A persuasive argument for replacing legacy single skin tanks with modern double skin tanks!

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Leaks and Spills

Tank with Corrosion Hole

We’ve recently started the first phase of our latest remediation project: the redevelopment of a former petrol station site located in a highly environmentally sensitive location.
Stage one of our work comprised identifying and removing the source of the contamination. As you can see, we are pretty confident that we found the root-cause , although we have to wonder how the former site operator didn’t know something was wrong with this tank.
We’re currently working to design and integrate our groundwater treatment system with the construction work to ensure that there are no delays to the redevelopment.

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‘Sump’thing in the Ground

 

Excavation with Services Exposed and Sump Installed

Remediation is always challenging, but it’s made much harder when we are asked to do it at a busy filling station which needed to remain open throughout our works. Having previously determined that the contamination was confined to a relatively thin layer of gravel but was migrating offsite, we decided to install some small diameter sumps across the site in preparation for a programme of ISCO (treatment using in situ chemical oxidation).

Fitting the sumps between buried services was always going to be tricky, so we pre-excavated each location using vacuum drilling techniques. As you can see from the photographs, it was a good job that we did, with numerous pipes and ducts exposed (and duly avoided).

The excavation has now been backfilled and the pavement reinstated, leaving us with a  small manhole cover to provide access to our sump when we return to start treating the ground. The filling station remained open throughout our works.

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What TLC Can Achieve

Terrier Drill Rig

Our Terrier drill rig, Tinky, recently celebrated its sixteenth birthday. In that time it has had 2 new head gaskets, 15 calibrations, 22 oil changes and services, 2 new tyres, 2 new tracks, 1 rebuilt mast frame, 1 new radiator , 1 new weight guard and a new fan. We know that good maintenance is the key to keeping any machine working and we like to think we’ve done our Terrier proud. It has certainly paid us back.

It may be sixteen years old but last week it still managed to dynamically sample 25m of weathered sandstone to 5m depth with SPT tests every metre plus completing an additional four dynamic probes to competent bedrock at 9.5m and installing four gas monitoring wells to 1.5m. All this in two days including a round trip mobilidsation of over 300 miles. Hats off to Tinky.

We are looking for dynamic sampling operatives. If you think you fit the bill then give Angus Gale a call on 01296 739400 or email your CV to Angus Gale.

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Emergency Response – Filling Station

We were recently contacted following a spillage of several hundred litres of diesel by a customer at a filling station in Northamptonshire. The diesel had entered the site’s drainage system, which ultimately discharged into a nearby area of wetlands.

We were on-site and our spill-response trailer within two hours of receiving the first call. We liaised with site staff, the Fire Brigade, tanker service contractors and the Environment Agency and co-ordinated thesubsequent clean-up, preventing any of the fuel reaching the wetland.

We subsequently collected soil and groundwater samples which were analysed by our in-house UKAS and MCerts accreditted laboratory, with results reported back to our client within 24 hours.

For more information about the emergency response services we offer, please contact James Edley – Tel: 01296 739412

 

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Tesco Fined £8 million for Leak from Filling Station

Langwood Brook

The latest prosecution by the Environment Agency of a filling station operator has resulted in a record fine of £8 million. The Environment Agency’s investigation found the leak resulted from the operator’s failure to address a known issue with the fuel delivery system and an inadequate alarm system. It was compounded by “poor” emergency procedures. The leak affected local residents and local watercourses, with leaked fuel entering the Langwood Brook resulting in fish kill. County councillor Albert Atkinson, deputy leader of Lancashire County Council, said: “The fact the leak was allowed to continue for more than 24 hours undoubtedly contributed to a risk of harm to people living and working nearby, as well as emergency services attending the incident.”

We believe that this case marks a change in approach from the Environment Agency, with a focus on prosecution under health and safety legislation rather than the available environmental regulations. The resulting fine of £8 million was significantly higher than fines levied for similar incidents prosecuted for polluting controlled waters.

Further details can be found here.

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What House 2015 Awards

Q Developments, Teddington
Q Developments, Teddington

As the rest of the world turns it attention to Hollywood and the Oscars, we’ve been focused on the only marginally less high-profile What House Awards. One of our clients, Q Developments, picked up two awards, one of which was for their development of a former filling station site in Teddington. We’re very proud to be able to say that we played our part in this project for Q Developments, having undertaken the decommissioning and removing the former petroleum installation and the treatment of hydrocarbon and asbestos-related soil contamination prior to the site’s residential redevelopment. Our congratulations to Q Developments on their award.

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A Week in the Life…..

Canopy Lift in Progress
Canopy Lift in Progress

No-one can say that our workload isn’t varied. Last week one of our drilling crews completed the following schedule:
Monday – Geotechnical investigation including U100 sampling and SPT testing with our Terrier drill rig;
Tuesday – Water well installation using rotary rock roller with our Commachio 205;
Wednesday – Environmental investigation at a filling station using hollow stem augering, again with our Comacchio 205, while a new canopy was being installed;
Thursday and Friday – Deep water well installation using down the hole hammer to penetrate into a limestone aquifer.
We love a bit of variety in life and this week has proved it so. Time for a rest…….next week looks busy………