Hazardous Material Spill Procedures and guidelines

[ncfirefighter1]

Just wanted other opinions on how your department handles spills and such. For example...10 gallon gas leak from a vehicle....or 100 gallon diesel leaks...containment procedures...minimum gallon requirements before fire marshall is notified...etc. Any comments would be appreciated.

[ff7134]

Usually for gas spills under 200gals we just handle it ourselves with diking and other ways. Anything more than that and we have to roll out the full team.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Under Massachusetts Department of Environmental Guidelines, a reportable spill is anything over 10 gallons. Billing for cleanup is the responsibility of thoee who caused the incident. If the spill is on concrete and/or asphalt, we just cover the spill with speedy dry..most of the time the spill has pretty much evaporated by the time we are called out. Anything leaking into the soil, storm drain river, brook, lake, pond etc. or haz the potential for contaminating any groundwater has to be removed by an authorized hazmat cleanup company.

[Dalmatian90]

Notification: Technically, in our state, *any* quantity is reportable to DEP Haz-Mat.

That said, they really don't care about your typical anti-freeze & oil mix from an auto accident as long as it's not going into a waterway. But you can feel free to tell them, anyway.

10 gallons of Gasoline or 100 gallons of Diesel is more unusual, so I'd at least call them. Give 'em a good size-up so the Supervisor can decide whether to roll-over or not. "Approximately 10 gallons gasoline, being absorbed by dirt & sand on road side. No waterway involved." I know my state is a bit hyper-concerned about MTBE, so the 10 gallons of Gas probably will get their attention. And 100 gallons of Diesel is a lot of diesel!

Containment:
Depends on situation. We have a State Haz-Mat cache trailer and operate at a "Operation Plus" level. We can do the standard Operations stuff of dam, dike, and divert and the "Plus" means under the guidance of a Haz-Mat Tech we can also do basic plugging & patching.

Thinly spread out, kind of your "sheen on the road" stuff, speedi dry, sand, or dirt is OK to spread and for smaller quantities DEP will just have it left in the roadway instead of being collected.

Puddles or flowing then dam & dike it and deploy pigs & pads to absorb it. We'll usually pick them up, put them in a drum, and DEP arranges for a contractor to remove the drum.

[ncfirefighter1]

Thanks for all the replies! Trying to see how we fall in the grand scheme of things in this area.

Thanks again.