A2Z was contracted by Southern Maryland
Oil to clean up a spill of 319 gallons of home heating oil
in the basement of a home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The
bulk of the oil had already been pumped out of the basement.
An A2Z Environmental crew arrived to clean up the remaining
oil. Oil-dry was worked into the concrete floor to remove the
oil from the surface and the cracks and crevices. Because of
the odor, the home had to be ventilated. Two carpet dryers
were brought in to ventilate the house. Using a PID (photo
ionization detector) it was determined that oil had worked
it's way under the concrete.
During the night there was a rain storm
and the sump pump failed, resulting in a flooded basement with
oil floating on the top. A vacuum truck was brought in to reclaim
the 2,976 gallons of oily water. The product was taken to a
local oil recycler for disposal.
The floor was cleaned with detergent
and hot water. The PID still showed the presence of oil. A
five man crew was brought in to drill 30 pilot holes to check
under the concrete for oil. The PID measures TPH (total petroleum
hydrocarbons) in parts per million. Every hole was "hot",
meaning the reading was above 75 ppm per hole.
A concrete saw and jack hammer were
used to cut out six 3'x3' squares, as test holes,
to get a visual under the concrete. Two air movers were used
to remove the dust. There was free oil in each area. It was
determined that the complete floor and the contaminated soil
below had to be removed. The concrete floor was broken up with
jackhammers and the debris was carried out in buckets to be
loaded into roll-off containers. It took three containers to
complete the concrete removal. The concrete was taken to a
local recycler for disposal. Below the floor was a layer of
pea gravel. The pea gravel was saturated in oil; there was
no way to reclaim it. The gravel and soil were removed by hand
digging and using a wet/dry Vactor truck to vacuum the debris.
It was then loaded into 20 yd containers that were lined with
a poly liner. The soil was later taken to a local soil reclamation
facility for recycling. It took three weeks of digging to get
the oil level below Maryland Department of Environment's
limits. A total of 131 tons (11 loads) of contaminated soil
were removed and recycled.
The walls in the basement were oil-soaked
from the spill. To remove the oil, a heat gun was used to heat
the area in order to draw the oil out so the walls could be
scrubbed with a strong detergent and hot water. This was repeated
several times. When the oil was completely removed and the
walls washed clean, a coat of masonry paint was applied to
seal the interior walls of the basement. Ninety-nine cubic
yards of Flo-Ash were installed to replace the soil and gravel
that were removed.
