Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994 TAG: 9403100162
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Jan. 25 incident has prompted Virginia Tech to re-examine procedures to deal with future chemical spills.
"A lot of things went wrong," said Bernadette Monday, senior safety engineer for Tech's Environmental Health and Safety Service.
It took officials about 76 hours to clean up the spill, which occurred when a machine in Tech's Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department in Randolph Hall malfunctioned.
An estimated 200 gallons of petroleum-based hydraulic fluid leaked from the machine.
Some of the fluid was contained in Tech's storm sewer system. However, a significant amount migrated through the system to the Duck Pond, according to a report presented this week to the Montgomery/Blacksburg Local Emergency Planning Committee.
Monday called the cost of the spill's cleanup "astronomical." The cost would have been much less if Tech had the proper equipment and expertise more readily available, she said.
As a result, Tech's Environmental Health Safety Services have requested $10,000 in additional funding to purchase equipment and a trailer to use as a storage facility.
Tech had to pay a contractor to remove 2,250 gallons of oil and contaminated water from the Duck Pond, the report said.
The fluid, which was not water-soluble, floated on the surface of the Duck Pond and was skimmed off before it caused a fish kill, Monday said.
The spill was contained before it reached any other wildlife, she said.
Bad weather, inadequate equipment and inexperience complicated efforts to clean up the spill, Monday said.
Rain that fell on the day the spill was discovered hastened the flow of the hydraulic fluid through the storm system to the Duck Pond.
Cold temperatures also froze pumps that were used to pump the oil from the pond.
Yet the most significant snafus involved Tech's lack of materials and supplies to deal with the spill, and the slow response of a contractor Tech hired to assist the cleanup, the report said.
The fluid was too thick to be removed from the storm system by Tech's pumps. Additionally, the university did not have the proper equipment to absorb the fluid once it began to reach the Duck Pond.
LCM, a Roanoke-based contractor, was "overextended" by handling other spills simultaneously. As a result, according to the Tech report, there were "many delays" while the university waited for LCM to provide personnel and equipment.
" . . . .In the mean time [the fluid] started to break through our holding areas into the upper pond," the report said.
by CNB