# Anyone worked on SPCC plans?



## FusionWhite (Mar 7, 2007)

For the last couple months Ive been hammering out Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans for a very large electric utility company. Has anyone else here had any experience with SPCC plans? The way my company is doing it is so ass backwards. We are writing the plans now for the facility as is. This is to identify the deficiencies compared to the SPCC regs. We're then handing over the plans to the structural people who are designing berms, dam's, containment structures etc to comply with the regs. Then after that stuff is built (must be in compliance by June 2009) we have to rewrite the plan again to show everything is in compliance.

The hardest part is extracting information from the facility to write the plan. Ive always assumed that people who work at these facilities know whats going on. When I worked at the steel mill I knew I could go to any of the maintenance people and ask "which mold is set up for 55mm?" or "where the hell is the backup stopper rod PLC?". 90% of the time I would get an answer right away or if they didnt know they would know where to get the answer. At these powerplants I dont think anyone knows whats going on. I ask "whats in that storage tank (a 50,000 gallon monstrosity)?"; answer "I dont know, oil or something". OK, that tank is as big as my house and you cant tell me whats in it? It would probably be helpful if you knew that. Sigh.


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2007)

I have reviewed a number of SPCC plans at active facilities.

In my experience, most of the facilities are expanding spill containment areas and adding the dead-end sumps/collectors to systems that were already existing. The biggest problem is finding available 'space' to expand the system to account for the faciilty's capacity since space is often not a luxury at many facilities in highly urbanized areas.

As far as the power industry goes, I have done inspection/assessment work at several facilities coal-fired/natural gas-fire/nuclear here in the state. I was very impressed with thier knowledge and professionalism. I think the responses you receive are more strongly dependent on the company/facility rather than the industry.

:beerchug:

JR


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## FusionWhite (Mar 7, 2007)

jregieng said:


> As far as the power industry goes, I have done inspection/assessment work at several facilities coal-fired/natural gas-fire/nuclear here in the state. I was very impressed with thier knowledge and professionalism. I think the responses you receive are more strongly dependent on the company/facility rather than the industry.
> :beerchug:
> 
> JR


Im working on a natural gas compressor station right now and the engineer out there really knows his stuff. I ask him anything and he knows it. Plus hes a chemical engineer so he double rocks. However at transformer service center the engineer there didnt know jack. He didnt know the volume of tanks, the location of piping, or the contents of drums. Your right, I guess it varies from facility to facility.

The utility company has a very bad reputation for environmental concerns and is trying to turn it around. They have basically given many facilities blank checks to fix the problems. Plus most of them are in rural locations so the space isnt an issue either.


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2007)

FusionWhite said:


> Im working on a natural gas compressor station right now and the engineer out there really knows his stuff. I ask him anything and he knows it. Plus hes a chemical engineer so he double rocks. However at transformer service center the engineer there didnt know jack. He didnt know the volume of tanks, the location of piping, or the contents of drums. Your right, I guess it varies from facility to facility.
> The utility company has a very bad reputation for environmental concerns and is trying to turn it around. They have basically given many facilities blank checks to fix the problems. Plus most of them are in rural locations so the space isnt an issue either.


Very true, power utility companies in general have a black eye when it comes to environmental stewarship. In my experience (and opinion) they have really been working hard to turn it around.

Transformer stations are KNOWN culprits for contamination. My Department carved out a negotiated deal for one of the power utilities here in Florida to assess every known transformer location and then remediate, as necessary, on a prescribed schedule. My recollection was that there was something like 450 transformer stations and approximately 150 of those 450 locations had contamination that would require further action. That's my recollection - my tenure on that project was limited to the initial negotiations while the project was still in its' infancy. arty-smiley-048:

One final thought on this - many industries have been historically considered 'bad actors' in terms of environmental stewardship. Most, if not all, of these same industries have taken measures to improve their practices and PR. In many cases these facilities today usually fall into one of two categories - small fry, big fish. Small fry are those facilities that have a few problems here and there, but mainly have been spared huge cleanup costs either by better management or luck (or both). Big fish are those facilities that are paying for the sins of previous operations - they are basically stuck no matter what you do. As I tell many of my colleagues - it is what it is and you do what you can.

JR


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