A2Z was called to clean up a fuel spill
at the Constellation substation known as the Philadelphia Road
Substation, located on Haven Street in Baltimore, Maryland.
More than 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel had leaked from an
AST (Above Ground Storage Tank) at the Philadelphia Road Substation.
The fuel had followed the path of the storm drains and most
of it was in the Baltimore Harbor
Under the direction of the United States
Coast Guard and the Maryland Department of the Environment,
an A2Z crew of ten took to the task of recovering the fuel.
Recovering the fuel from the water required the use of boom
to corral the fuel, and a skimmer to separate the fuel from
the water. The skimmer is a floating device that is operated
with air to turn the drums under the cover, separating the
fuel from the surface water. The fuel is then vacuumed off,
via a vacuum truck.
Ten thousand gallons of fuel were recovered
and sent to a local recycler for recycling. Sweep, a floating
absorbent, was used to help get minute amounts of fuel off
the surface of the water. The call was taken during the mid-morning
hours and by midnight the bulk of the fuel was reclaimed, including
all of the fuel that wound up in the water. The next day, the
storm drains were cleaned and additional fuel was recovered.
The storm drains had to be opened and an A2Z team entered to
remove all signs of the presence of fuel. Absorbent boom was
applied and changed at regular intervals. The spill originated
in a sub station where the fuel contaminated the gravel and
soil it contacted. Several 20 yard containers of gravel and
soil had to be disposed of in a landfill that is regulated
to take low content oily soil and debris.
