November 19, 2024 • 41 mins
In this episode, we talk with Shannon Oelkers and Haley Hall from Integrity Environmental, diving into practical strategies for Alaska’s aging bulk fuel storage infrastructure. Shannon shares cost-effective tips, from managing water in tanks to maintaining connection points, all achievable for under $5,000 and with in-house labor. Learn how small changes like performing water draws, installing pressure-vac vents, and updating overfill prevention systems can mitigate spills and extend the life of your storage tanks.
Tune in to discover actionable solutions and expert advice for navigating challenges in Alaska's unique fuel storage landscape!
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Episode Transcript
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Haley Hall (00:10):
Thank for joining us.
You're listening to Tank Talkwith Integrity Environmental,
where we speak with founder,principal consultant and bulk
fuel storage expert ShannonOelkers, about regulations,
safety and useful tips forsmooth sailing through the bulk
fuel storage industry.
Come learn the unique joys ofworking life in Alaska with
industry experts, including ourteam, vendors we work with, and
companies we support.
(00:34):
Hi, welcome to Tank Talk Season2.
My name is Haley Hall and I'm apart of the Technical Writing
team here at IntegrityEnvironmental and I am here with
our host, Shannon Oelkers,principal consultant and bulk
fuel storage expert.
So today we're here to talkabout spill prevention and some
smart solutions.
So, Shannon, I hear a lot oftank farms in rural Alaska are
(00:56):
getting older.
Shannon Oelkers (00:57):
It is true, Haley, Alaska is a state of
aging infrastructure and thisincludes our bulk fuel storage
facilities, especially in ruralAlaska.
Now there's a lot of reallywell-maintained firms out there.
I don't want to give theimpression that everything's
fallen apart, but a lot of ourinfrastructure was built in the
1960s and 70s and it is still inplace and it is slowly aging,
(01:19):
especially like in smallercommunities where bulk fuel
storage is owned and operated byutilities or community
organizations.
There just hasn't been fundingavailable since maybe the late
90s to replace or upkeep some ofthese facilities.
Haley Hall (01:35):
So what does aging infrastructure mean for Alaska?
Shannon Oelkers (01:40):
Well, to put it bluntly, the risks of a spill
are much higher.
They're much higher than theyused to be, and the paradox here
is that a spill could force acommunity or entity to spend
money on the spill, remediation,responding to that spill,
cleaning up after the spilloccurs, and all of that money
could have been much betterspent on infrastructure
(02:01):
improvement.
Haley Hall (02:03):
Gotcha.
So I hear the costs of even asmall spill are often equal to
or more than the cost of a newtank.
Shannon Oelkers (02:11):
It's true.
I mean a larger tank, like a20,000 gallon double wall tank,
could be over $200,000.
And I don't have any analyticaldata.
So tank is about 200K.
We work with a lot of spillresponse.
You know we partner with theAlaska Chateau Network and we do
site characterization for a lotof our clients.
(02:32):
After a spill no-transcriptspill while we're waiting for,
(03:14):
you know, a way to upgrade thisinfrastructure appears for the
state of Alaska.
There's not really a wayforward that anyone's identified
that makes sense yet.
Haley Hall (03:23):
Right.
So is there anything ourlisteners, with very limited
resources, can do to lower therisk of spills?
Shannon Oelkers (03:31):
There really is .
There really is, which is whyI'm here today.
I want to talk about it becauseI think it's critical.
There are several steps in highrisk areas and these are things
that can be done for relativelylittle money I'm talking under
$5,000.
They can be done with locallabor, they don't require you to
spend weeks of time doing themand I'll go over them but, like
(03:54):
these are things that areachievable and doable on a
pretty tight budget and theyreally lower the risk of a spill
, so I think they're importantto talk about.
Haley Hall (04:02):
Well, don't hold out on this now.
What are these steps?
Shannon Oelkers (04:06):
There are four kind of the highest risk areas
for a spill in a tank system.
The first is water managementboth inside and outside of the
tank.
Overfill prevention systems,connection points, anything
that's bolted or screwed onto atank, and you know my personal
favorite secondary containment.
Those four areas are sort ofthe highest risk areas for spill
(04:29):
.
When something fails aroundthose areas, that's when we see
higher risks of spills.
Haley Hall (04:35):
Okay, well, let's start with water management.
What do you mean by watermanagement?
Shannon Oelkers (04:39):
So, like I mentioned, briefly when I
brought it in.
So, like I mentioned brieflywhen I brought it in, water
corrodes steel.
When it has a fuel source alongwith it, it eats the fuel,
corrodes the steel, and so youput water, fuel and steel
together and it's a corrosiveenvironment.
And so a lot of what we do, alot of these tank systems are
engineered and designed to keepwater from interacting with
(05:02):
steel in the fuel environment,and that's things like coatings
and design, and those are biggerprojects.
But for what I'm talking abouttoday, water management is
removing water from where itcomes into contact with the
steel tank and piping to preventthat corrosion from occurring.
So, like I said earlier, it canbe inside the tank, but it can
(05:23):
also be outside.
So right now I just want totalk about inside the tank, and
water can get inside of a tank anumber of ways.
The first is that it condenseson the inside of a tank,
especially if there's lowervolumes in the tank, just like a
cold glass of water on a hotday.
You'll see water forming on theinside of the tank and running
down the inside, forming on theinside of the tank and running
(05:45):
down the inside, and then you'llend up with water on the bottom
, sandwiched between the fueland the steel, which is an ideal
climate for microbially inducedcorrosion, which I have a hard
time saying but is commonlycalled MIC M-I-C.
Other ways water can get insideof the tank is weather, and
people who are not from Alaskalistening to this conversation
may maybe like Shannon, Weather?
(06:05):
Yes, absolutely weather.
If you have ever been to ruralAlaska, the storms we see are as
strong as any tropical storm orhurricane, but much colder,
higher winds.
And if you've got a tank andit's situated or oriented to
where the vent can be blown into, you can have water come into
that tank all year long.
There's also introduced water.
(06:28):
The most common example of thisis you're receiving fuel from a
barge and there's maybe alittle bit of water from the
bottom of the barge tank thatcomes into your system.
Barges work really hard tofilter and keep that out, but it
does occur sometimes.
But the other way water can beintroduced in the system is if
you're moving fuel from tank totank to try to like I don't know
(06:48):
, if you've got four tanks andyou want to consolidate all of
your fuel into one, you're goingto be collecting the water from
each of the tanks as you'redecanting one into the other and
you'll have water from theother three tanks plus the
initial tank all in one.
And so, as you're strippingtanks down, the water builds up
plus the initial tank all in one.
And so, as you're strippingtanks down, the water builds up
into whichever tank is yourfeeder tank for a system like
(07:12):
that.
So keeping that water out canbe important, but also removing
the water on a periodic basis,and this is where we talk
frequently about water draws.
Everybody knows what a waterdraw is in the fuels industry,
but I'll go over it again justin case somebody out there
listening doesn't.
A water draw is a routinemaintenance procedure in which
you find and remove water fromthe bottom of the tank.
(07:32):
For horizontal tanks, which ismostly what I'm talking about
here, it's either anappurtenance from the top and
there's a drop tube that goesall the way to the lowest part
of the tank so that you can suckthe fuel out, or it's an access
through the bottom of the tankand it'll go through the double
wall, or just be directly fromthe shell of a primary single
wall tank and it's a valve youcan open to let fuel and water
(07:53):
out of the bottom of the tank.
Water draws are part ofeverybody's maintenance program.
I have yet to meet a facilitythat doesn't have routine water
draws as part of its operationsand maintenance plan.
But water draws don't happen,and there's a very specific
reason for that, and this iswhat this whole conversation is
(08:15):
leading up to is water draws arereally hard to do, especially
if you don't have equipmentinstalled that makes it easier,
and you don't have equipment todeal with the water and fuel
that you pull out of the tank.
And so if you don't havepermanently installed equipment
to make it easier, you are up ona tank busting nuts in the cold
, in the rain.
You're using a hand pump tosuck out a tank.
It's very difficult, it's noteasy, and so what I would like
(08:38):
to recommend this is somethingvery easy to do for well under
$5,000 is just permanentlyinstall things that make water
draw access easier.
There are systems that can goin.
You know remember I mentionedsome of these horizontals have
top access for water draw Right.
There are systems you can screwin that will allow you to use
(08:59):
the hand pump at eye level orstanding level next to the tank
instead of being on top of thetank and for tanks that have
water drawers on the bottom,there are systems that you can
install that have hoses that arepart of the system and you can
turn the valve, install the hoseinto your bucket and sort of
eliminate the spray and themanagement and trying to jam
(09:19):
something in under the nozzle.
And so my first recommendationis to get something permanently
installed that makes wateraccess easier and that will
increase your staff'swillingness and ability to do
water draws Once they do a waterdraw.
Every water draw is a mix offuel and water.
It's not like you open up thevalve and water comes out and
(09:39):
the tank's good.
There's a little bit of fuel inthe piping because when they
fill the tank up, their fuelenters that system.
You have to strip whatever's inthat water draw line of fuel
and then you get the water andthen you have to have a place to
let it sit so you can pull thewater off the bottom and then
return fuel either to the tank,depending on how clean it is, or
maybe to like a waste oilburner.
(10:01):
So, in addition to doing apermanently installed water draw
access, we recommend having adecanting container and it's
like a drum Haley, it's just a55-gallon drum and there's a top
with a funnel that you can pouryour oily water mixture into.
But there's some kind of fauceton the bottom and you let it
sit and let the water and theoil separate and then you can
pull the water off the bottom.
(10:22):
But here's the kicker, becausein the old days in the old days
which we are not in anymore thatwater would just get stripped
to the ground, but that waterhas been inside a fuel tank.
It's contaminated, right, right.
And so this also createsproblems for people doing water
(10:42):
draws, because they end up withdrums with a bunch of oil and
water in them, but they knowthey're not supposed to get rid
of the water.
And so I also suggest pairingsome kind of water treatment
system.
And there's a couple that arereally mobile and they're easy
to use in rural Alaska andthey're not that expensive.
And the one I recommend themost is called a granular
activated carbon system, or GAC,g-a-c.
You know, rain for Rent sellsthese at like 1500 bucks.
(11:05):
Again, it's a drum, it's loadedwith granular activated carbon
and you put oily water in thetop and it filters through that
carbon, just like a Brita filterdoes.
I think Brita actually is a GACsystem but you can put it
through and out.
The bottom comes clean water.
And the nice thing about GACdrums is they start slowing down
and working slower and sloweras you use up the carbon.
(11:28):
So it kind of tells you aheadof time that it's about to be
exhausted and you can orderrefills once you buy that
initial drum and the refills arelike half the cost of the
initial drum and they're a loteasier to ship.
You can get a bag of activatedcarbon to come out, pull the old
one out and it can be disposedof at the local landfill and you
can put a new one in.
I like that system a lotbecause it tells you when it's
(11:49):
starting to not work good andyou can bring in replacements.
And it's generally pretty easyto use and if you keep it inside
when you're not using it a shop, they can last years and years
and years.
They don't do as well ifthey're left outside to rust.
There is another water treatmentsystem that I think is pretty
easy to use.
It's called the AbsorbW system.
It's a blue plastic drum.
(12:10):
It has sorbent pillows insideof it.
You can run oily water throughit.
It will connect and absorb theoil and let the water flow
through.
The only thing about theAbsorbW that I don't like is
that if it stops working, youwon't know the water will still
go through at about the samerate.
That one's very light, it'seasy to ship, it's easy to store
(12:31):
.
A lot of people have them aspart of their spill response
kits because they're so easy touse.
If you don't have a lot of waterat your facility, if you're not
generating a lot of water inyour tanks, that might be a
better choice for you.
But if you've got hundreds ofgallons a year that you need to
treat, the GAC might be a betterchoice for you.
So all of those things together, if you bought all of the
(12:52):
infrastructure, the piping andthe hand pump to improve water,
draw access, and you buy adecanting container that will
allow you to separate fuel fromwater, and you buy a water
treatment system like the GakDrum or the Absorb W, all of
that together is under $5,000.
And those are three things youcan do right now.
And then pulling water fromyour tank system is going to
(13:16):
immediately lower the amount ofcorrosion that's going on, not
just on the tank shell, buteverywhere water pools.
You know low spots, you know,behind flanges, against the
gaskets.
Getting the water out is prettyimportant.
So one last thought on watermanagement before we move on to
overflow prevention.
Water entering the tank can alsobe prevented, and one of the
(13:39):
easiest ways to do this andcost-effective ways is
installing something called apressure vac vent on the tank
and it utilizes pressure andvacuum to vent the tank.
So when you're filling the tank,the pressure increases, a flap
opens and lets any kind of airor vapor inside out, and when
you stop filling the tank itfalls down and it closes off and
(14:01):
it keeps vapors from escapingthe tank.
Right, they're not required fordiesel or jet A, but they are
really good at keeping water outof the tank, especially if
you're in one of thosecommunities where the weather's
intense and water is gettinginto the tank.
As an auditor, I can tell youI've been to a lot of facilities
where I show up and everysingle tank has a garbage bag
(14:23):
taped or tied around the ventand I immediately know that
they've got a water managementproblem and it's probably from
water coming in the vents insome way.
And pressure vac vents they'renot that expensive, especially
for horizontal tanks.
They can be under $1,000.
Wow, and so that's somethingthat maybe put all of that
together for your facility andyou may be making a job or
(14:45):
something that was reallydifficult for your people to
handle much more easy, and it'sa system that works really well.
So that's all I got to sayabout water management inside
the tank, and I'd like to talkabout overfill prevention next,
because that's also important.
Haley Hall (15:00):
Great, so let's talk about overfill prevention.
The state of Alaska isreporting that 13% of spills in
the last three years were fromoverfills.
Shannon Oelkers (15:10):
Yeah, 13% statewide in Alaska and it's a
big problem for rural Alaska.
And there's a couple of veryspecific reasons why following
best management practices in theinventory taking a stick to the
tank or gauging it, finding outhow much fuel is in the tank
before the barge comes, afterthe barge comes, and then also,
as you use the fuel and draw itdown, understanding how much
(15:33):
fuel you have along the way.
Overfills are also problematic,sometimes because of water.
If you're not managing water inyour tank and we have run into
this multiple times You'll talkto somebody and you say how much
fuel is in the tank and theysay oh, let's pretend it's a
10,000 gallon tank for ease ofconversation here.
How much fuel is in the tank?
8,000 gallons?
(15:54):
Oh, okay, 8,000 gallons.
You would think that there's2,000 gallons of freeboard of
space in that tank, but whatthey're saying is there's 8,000
usable gallons floating on topof a layer of maybe six to eight
inches of water, which is yourwater that has not been managed
or removed right.
And so sometimes having to doinventory math where you stick
(16:17):
the tank and it says there's 13feet of product in the tank or
whatever, or 11, but some of itsproduct and some of its water.
That introduces enough matherrors into the calculations
that you can get overfills.
The other reason overfillsbecome a big problem is a lot of
their pumping systems andreturn line systems have been
damaged or have stoppedfunctioning the way they were
(16:39):
originally engineered to be orset up to be, and they have made
workarounds.
But that means some of thebackup systems have failed, and
that includes overfill valves.
Like overfill prevention valvesare not meant to last 70 years
or 50 years or even 20.
And some of the oldest overfillprevention valves I've seen
(17:01):
when you pull them out of thetank they're stiff, they're
crusted with gunk, they havelittle thin, you know activator
arms that get bent, and so whatwe recommend is, if you have a
overfill prevention valve onyour tank and there's a couple
different kinds, there's floatsand there's whistle vents and
there's some other things pullit out and maintain it.
(17:21):
Make sure the float still works, make sure all the mechanical
pieces still move, make surethere's not gunk blocking
certain things so that you can'tuse the valve the way it's
supposed to be, and maintain it.
I mean, a brand new overfillvalve for most horizontal tanks
is under $1,500.
And so we're not talking aboutan incredible amount of money
for this.
(17:42):
And then, lastly, overfillprevention can be significantly
reduced just by improving visualgauging.
So everyone listening to this,if they have a tank farm, I bet
you somewhere right now at yourfacility there is a clock gauge
on a tank and you know itcompletely is broken.
It doesn't tell you anythinglike what reality is, because
(18:03):
clock gauges, again, are notdesigned to work forever.
Clock gauges, again, are notdesigned to work forever.
They need to be calibrated andtuned up and adjusted all the
time, and so if you have a gaugeon a tank and it's not working,
that is also money well spent.
Spend the $750 to get a newclock gauge, keep it tuned.
(18:24):
You're going to have to buyanother one in five years.
Yes, that's absolutely true.
But that will help you preventoverfills because when someone
looks at the tank they can seehow much is in it, even if
they're not super knowledgeable.
We all know that, like,actually gauging the tank is the
gold standard.
There's a lot of peopleinteracting with a tank looking
to see how much fuel to put inthe day tank for a transfer that
(18:46):
maybe you're not going to beinvested in that gauging.
So, for overfill prevention,follow your inventory, best
management practices, install,maintain and replace your
overfill prevention valves andthen improve visual gauging
whatever that looks like foryour system.
Make sure that if you do have agauge it's working.
Consider installing a gauge ifyou don't have one.
You don't need electricity forall gauge types.
(19:09):
There are plenty of gauges thatare manual and they don't
require electricity, but if youare fortunate enough to have
electricity at the top of yourtank, you have many more options
for gauging that are fairlyreasonable.
I think they would still beunder $5,000.
Haley Hall (19:22):
Great Earlier Shannon, you mentioned
connection points.
What are those?
Shannon Oelkers (19:29):
Connection points.
Is this where I make a bad jokeabout tank dating?
Connection points are any placeon a tank where piping and
appurtenances are bolted orthreaded to the tank and a lot
can be done here for very lowcost to reduce the risk of a
spill and in integrity'sexperience I'll say it is our
(19:50):
number one cause for physical ormechanical failure.
If a tank has a spill it'salmost always at one of these
connection points.
So connection points typicallyare like a bolted flange or a
water draw valve or a pipingconnection of some kind, a fill
line, a draw line, cargo line,however you want to look at it.
(20:12):
So a couple thoughts onconnection points.
These are easy maintenance andoperation repairs that you can
do that cost very little buthave a high effect on reducing
spills.
The first is gaskets.
Gaskets are not superheroes.
They cannot last forever.
Gaskets are not superheroes.
They cannot last forever.
I have pulled gaskets that are45 years old, 60 years old, and
(20:33):
they are still working, which isamazing.
But that's not how they weredesigned and I don't believe
there's really a guidance on howlong a gasket should last.
I say 10 years is a good, nice,easy number.
You should be drawing yourtanks down and performing
routine maintenance on a wholelot of other things attached to
a tank.
At the 10-year mark, replaceall the gaskets.
(20:56):
When you do that, and if youhave a significant amount of
water in your tank system, Iwould also maybe do it more
frequently, because if watergets into the gap where the
gasket and the flange meet,every time it freezes it's going
to degrade that gasket a littlemore until it starts leaking.
The other thing about flangeconnections and I've seen this a
(21:17):
lot they take everything apart.
They replace all the gasketsand then they put the same
45-year-old bolts and nuts backinto the bolt holes.
Replace those bolts and nuts.
That's like $7 in parts, justdo it.
Bolts do eventually strip, theydo eventually break or they can
have fractures, just like othersteel things on a tank.
So replace the bolts and nutsevery time you do work on a tank
(21:40):
.
It's such a small amount ofmoney, just do it.
And then a couple otherthoughts on connections.
Most people are really goodabout hydrostatically testing
their piping between the marineheader and the first valve of
the tank farm because the CoastGuard requires it to receive
fuel hydrostatic testing on allof your other lines and I think
(22:10):
that's a really good idea, evenabove ground ones, because if
they're leaking you'll know, andnot every pipe looks like it's
leaking, because it only leakswhen it's under pressure right,
especially gasket failures.
Gasket failures you may not seefuel dripping out the bottom
for a long time, but when youput the system in pressure
because you're receiving fuel,it's going to have fuel pulsing
out of it as the pressure goesup and down.
So hydrostatically testing allyour piping, especially below
(22:33):
grade portions, that's going togive you a huge peace of mind
that they're all working the waythey should be and it will
alert you right away ifsomething has failed.
And that I just I feel likethat's something you can do
right now to avoid a really bigproblem in the future.
And then the last piece I wantto talk to you about on
connection points is adjustingpipe supports and leveling the
(22:55):
tank.
A lot of these facilities are onfoundations of sand, riverbanks
Like.
There's a lot of shifty thingsthat are sitting on permafrost
which may or may not be melting,which may or may not be melting
.
As tanks age, especially olderinstallations, you've got a lot
of tension between the pipe andthe tank, especially if they're
(23:15):
sinking or moving at differentrates.
And those are really importantthings to manage right away
before the tension becomes great.
Because as the tensionincreases you've got piping
that's pinched on the bottom andpulled at the top of every
flange right, so you've got agap at the top and a pinch at
the bottom.
Both of those are increasedplaces of spills right, instead
(23:38):
of having them be adjustedcorrectly, and even tension all
the way around.
Also, tension is really hard ontank shells.
If you've got a welded pipeappurtenance, you know the neck
of your flange coming off a tankbut there's a ton of tension on
it.
The tank shell is only so thickand it can only take so much
before it pulls it out of.
You know distorts the actualshell of the tank.
(24:00):
Also, tanks that are not levelthey put all kinds of stresses
on other parts of the tank.
So you can really reduce yourspills by just continuously
monitoring and leveling tanksand piping and I know that's not
easy for humongous tanks like50,000 gallon horizontals.
That's probably not going to bedoable with local labor.
(24:21):
But if you've got a 6,000gallon tank that can be moved
with a loader with a set offorks, you can do that and it is
possible.
So I was just going to drop itthere for set of forks.
You can do that and it ispossible, so I was just going to
drop it there.
For those of you who are ableto do that, a once a year
inspection of your piping andyour tank with a little magnetic
level to show you how level thetank is and how level the
piping is, could really reducethe risk of a spill there.
Haley Hall (24:43):
Great.
So, Shannon, are we ready forthe secondary containment
discussion?
Shannon Oelkers (24:49):
Oh, secondary containment.
I feel like every podcast we dotalks about secondary
containment.
For some reason it's everyone'sfavorite, right?
So there's two types ofsecondary containment we see in
rural Alaska, and this is whereI remember at the very beginning
of this I talked about watermanagement inside the tank.
Well, now we're going to talkabout water management outside
the tank.
(25:09):
So the two kinds of containmentthe first is like what usually
what people think of it is aberm or a dike and there's a
liner inside of it and then thetank is placed inside the liner
and if a tank were to fail, thefuel would fall into this
bathtub liner and be held untilwe could recover it, and it's
(25:34):
not going to spread or enter thewater.
It's going to be contained,right.
So that's the first kind ofsecondary containment.
The second is double walledtanks and that's where you have
a horizontal tank and then theybuild a whole nother tank around
it and then there's aninterstitial space, which is the
space between the inside tankand the outside tank.
And if you've listened to thispodcast, you know that the tanks
are tightly sleeved togetherand the interstitial space is
usually on the ends, the headsof the tank.
(25:54):
There's not any space at allbetween the first and second
wall, or very little.
And then there's a gap on theends, and I'm going to talk
about things you can do tomonitor and maintain both of
these spaces, but I just wantedto talk about the two to kind of
set it up.
So let's talk about thesecondary containment liner, the
(26:15):
liner system, berm system.
First.
Liners and berms need constantmaintenance, and if you don't do
any for 20 years the systemwill fail, and so doing minor
repairs and housekeeping can goa long way to extending the life
of your liner.
A four inch rip this year,after one bad winter with a
(26:36):
whole lot of wind, could be a 24foot rip next year because it
gets blown apart by the wind.
There are self-repair kits forliners.
You can purchase them fromalmost any supplier, and
sometimes you can purchase themfrom the manufacturer themselves
, like Seaman Corp, for example,who's been on our podcast
before.
They have a repair kitspecifically for their product.
(26:57):
Those kits are very difficultfor contractors to use, because
the temperature has to be right,the humidity has to be right,
it can't be pouring down rain,and so repairing minor problems
on a liner is something thatshould be done by local crews,
like if it's July and it's sunny, that is the day that you need
to go fix the secondarycontainment liner, like hands
(27:19):
down, like it's time, and it'svery difficult to contract for
that exact day in rural Alaska.
The other thing about thesesecondary containment areas
that's difficult for people isberms.
Berms sink over time,especially if, for example,
people are driving four-wheelersup and over into the secondary
containment area for maintenanceor inspection or whatever, or
(27:42):
even walking, always in the samearea where they walk in and
there's not like a ladder orstairway in, you'll see it sink
and just like the edge of a cup.
If one part of the wall is fourinches lower than the other
parts of the wall, the water isgoing to go out.
You know the short side, itdoesn't matter how tall the rest
of it is.
And so constantly looking atyour berm or wall height and
(28:03):
making sure it's still the sameheight that it's supposed to be
and rebuilding it back up,putting gravel back in to keep
whatever level you've got willkeep your capacity full.
And then, speaking of capacity,the other thing that we see
with secondary containmentliners that can really affect
your ability to hold fuel isthings that reduce the capacity.
(28:25):
So storing a lot of stuff inyour secondary containment area
can take up space and allow evenif it could hold all the fuel
from the tank.
If the tank lets all its fuelgo, if there's a lot of things
in the way, it might overfilland go outside of the
containment liner.
We also see if you don't removewater from that secondary
containment area, like stormwater comes from the sky, rain
(28:47):
or or snow melt if it is stillin there when it freezes, you
could literally have an entiresecondary containment that is
two-thirds ice and that is goingto stay until the spring.
And now you're only workingwith a third of the containment
volume.
Repairing liners, repairingberms and keeping your secondary
containment area neat, tidy andfree of obstacles and ice and
(29:10):
water in general All of thosethings are part of routine
operations and maintenance, butdone every year well under
$1,000.
I think the patch kit's only750 bucks.
Right, you can have it on hand,but all of those together
extend the life of your linerand extend your backup system in
case the tank were to fail.
So that covers the secondarycontainment area, the
(29:33):
interstitial space on adouble-walled tank.
For a lot of these tanks thisis a no-man's land.
Nobody's ever looked in theseever.
Sti SP-001 actually requiresmonthly and annual inspection of
interstitial spaces.
And things that make itdifficult for people to inspect
(29:53):
interstitial spaces is knowledge.
They don't know they'resupposed to A, b, and I have
seen this more times than I careto admit.
They never remove the shippingcover and so it's bolted shut,
like you literally can't lookinside the secondary containment
of a double walled tank becauseit's just screwed shut, bolted
shut.
It's very difficult andsometimes they're done on
(30:14):
purpose to keep water out, andthat's fine too.
But there are things you caninstall on a horizontal double
walled tank to make inspectionof that port easier.
You can have a switch with ayou know a flip lever to like
wrench it down no-transcriptspace.
(30:53):
It's very bad, that's like acatastrophic failure indicator.
They're really common on daytanks, like in utilities,
especially like self-diked tanks.
You'll see a little turkeybaster with the you know pop up
red if something ever gets intothe interstitial space.
All of those types sensors,mechanical float gauges, just
like the overfill preventionvalves they need to be
(31:20):
maintained too.
I've had several times where Itook the interstitial mechanical
float and I pulled it out andthe rod had rusted through and
the float was just sitting inthe bottom.
There was no way it was evergoing to work.
It wasn't even connectedanymore, but it was still there
and it looked really nice on thetop.
So you do have to remove themand make sure that they still
work.
Haley Hall (31:34):
So I know and I have seen that Integrity works with
many companies on record keeping.
How does record keeping playinto reducing the risk of spills
?
Shannon Oelkers (31:42):
Well, that's two words, haley.
Early detection Inspections aremeant to help you identify
problems before they accelerateand get bigger, kind of fixing
it while it's still cheaper.
So remember that four inch tearto the liner that becomes a 25
or 24 foot tear.
A good inspection will findfixable things while they are
still fixable.
(32:02):
And the other classic exampleis coatings.
It's a lot easier to wire wheela two inch by two inch coating
failure and repair that coatingwith an epoxy coat than it is to
do the entire top of a tankright.
There are a few other things youcan do with record keeping.
You can actually perform yourvisual inspections Like don't
(32:25):
pencil whip it, go through thattank, look for things you can
solve today.
If you can solve it today, it'sprobably not super expensive.
Like, a lot of the reallyexpensive things are longer term
and require a lot more projectmanagement and funding.
But if you notice that theclock gauge is broken and you
can order a new clock gauge,that is something you can do
(32:48):
today and you can fix it.
I also like to recommendscheduled replacement of things
that wear out, such as hoses,filters and gaskets.
So we talked about gaskets 10years, replace them.
Even if they look great,replace them.
Hoses and filters are a littlemore challenging.
Filters eventually will stopworking or slow down the flow of
(33:08):
product when they get full.
But if you've got a routineinspection and you've got some
kind of budget where you buythem every three years or every
year, it's a lot easier toreplace them on a schedule than
to wait until it's screwingeverything up with a slow flow
right and then hoses.
They can look really good for along time and then they fail.
(33:29):
And so there are visual signsyou can look for on hoses and we
train our clients on elephantskin bulging.
By the time you get to elephantskin and bulging, the risk of a
spill is very high.
And so if you've got hoses,depending on how frequently
they're used, the temperaturethey're used at and how much
bending or kinking they undergoor twisting, you can develop a
(33:52):
replacement plan.
If you've got a marine like ahigh flow marine hose on a dock
and you're fueling up shipsmultiple times a day for three
weeks in a row in Western Alaska, where it doesn't freeze, there
are specific kinds of hoses forthat, and replacing them on a
routine basis is going to reducethe risk of spills, because
(34:12):
you're not always going to beable to see when something's
wrong or when the collar isabout to break on a hose.
And lastly, I want to talk aboutinventory monitoring.
Inventory monitoring for ourclients who sell fuel retail.
They do this all the time.
They need to know how much theysold each day.
There's an accountingreconciliation.
But for our clients that areusing it to generate heat or
(34:33):
generate power, like a schooldistrict or an electrical
utility, they're looking at adaily burn rate, like how much
they're using and how much in aday or a time period.
If you don't have daily, weeklyor monthly numbers, you're going
to miss small leaks, like whena like, let's say, you have a
drip at a bolted flange, right.
(34:53):
Eventually over a year youmight lose several hundred
gallons of product to that drip,but you're never going to
notice it because you're notnoticing that the month
beginning and the month end areoff.
Like you're supposed to beburning 1,500 gallons but you
actually used 1,800, right?
It's hard to find it withoutthose numbers, what we also see
(35:14):
too with inventories that arenot reconciled.
Frequently they'll have a spilland they don't actually know
how much fuel got spilled.
They know they received 20,000gallons from the barge in May.
The spill happened at the endof June.
They think they were burning800 gallons a day for so many
days in a row and now when theystick the tank, you know they've
(35:35):
got 6,000 gallons in there andthere's not really a what went
where, reconciliation.
So inventory monitoring.
It costs you time, right, youhave to have your staff do it.
But the reconciliation part iswhere somebody who is not at the
terminal, right A supervisor,is reviewing those numbers and
(35:57):
making sure they match up in anaccounting method.
It can really reduce the riskof a spill because you're
looking at those numbersfrequently.
There's no guesses, there's nomaybes, and if there is part of
your equipment that's failing ata smaller scale, you're going
to identify it right away beforeit becomes a big problem.
Haley Hall (36:14):
Right.
So Shannon million dollarquestion Will this maintenance
magically save your tank farm?
Shannon Oelkers (36:21):
No, sorry, haley, If you have an aging tank
farm and it needs significantcapital improvement projects,
it's not going to save it, butthe good news is it will extend
the life of what you've got leftand it will reduce the amount
of spills you have or the volumeof the spills you could
potentially have.
And that risk reduction isreally important because the
(36:42):
older this facility gets, thehigher the risk goes, and so I'm
sure a lot of you listeningright now, if you have a
45-year-old gasket that's fourdifferent gasket changes that
have been deferred.
It's called deferredmaintenance and getting caught
up on deferred maintenance isreally important, just like a
car, if you never change the oilin a new car, it's not as bad
(37:05):
as when the car is 60 years old.
You've got to do these things tokeep it going, and for a lot of
the communities I'm talkingabout and interacting with Haley
, they don't have a backup, theydon't have a secondary option,
and so this is really important.
You can no longer go five yearswithout doing a water draw, or
40 without opening up all of thebits of the tank and changing
(37:26):
gaskets and bolts and greasingeverything.
Haley Hall (37:29):
Are there any free or helpful resources that you
can point our listeners to?
Shannon Oelkers (37:33):
Yes, I mentioned my favorite, sti SP001
monthly and annual inspections.
That's a great place to start.
If your facility has not donethem before, it's a great place
to start.
The conversation Is the tanklevel.
Is it grounded?
Do we know what all the thingson top of the tank are called
and what they do?
And going through that listwill really help you assess
(37:55):
where your tank is at, and itwill help you identify which of
the things I talked about todaycan be possible for you to
reduce the risk of a spell.
I also wanted to mention Italked a lot about some things
that you can purchase for under$5,000 to help your facility
reduce the risk of spills, andso I wanted to just call out a
few of the places that we shop,because I think some people get
(38:18):
stuck on.
Well, where do I get thesethings, shannon?
So Grainger, of course, sells amillion things, but they have a
lot of the water draw equipmentlike hand pumps and piping and
threaded tubing attachments.
They also carry some of the SCArepair kits that I talked about
previously, although some linercompanies have their own and
(38:39):
you have to go to themanufacturer to get a repair kit
, but Grainger can be a goodplace to find some of the things
I talked about today.
I definitely want to shout outRain for Rent and Kenai repair
kit.
But Grainger can be a goodplace to find some of the things
I talked about today.
I definitely want to shout outRain for Rent and Kenai.
They've got decanting drums andwater treatment systems and
they will ship happily to ruralAlaska.
They're a great partner for uswith that, and I'll include
everybody's company informationin the show notes.
(39:01):
And then we talked a lot at theend about hoses and some of
these industrial componentsfilters.
Arg Industrial can be reallyhelpful for that and especially
for hoses and gaskets.
They also have a really deepbench of knowledge.
They are also a former podcastinterviewee.
And then, lastly, for overfillprevention valves, there's a
company called Northwest Pumpand they sell all the components
(39:23):
for horizontal tanks.
If you need a clock gauge, youneed overfill pumps.
That's a good place to start,northwest Pump and they sell all
the components for horizontaltanks.
If you need a clock gauge, youneed overfill pumps.
That's a good place to start.
Northwest Pump can pull those.
They're Alaska reps for a wholebunch of different
manufacturers.
And then, lastly, as always,you can call Integrity and we
can get you pointed in the rightdirection.
Haley Hall (39:42):
Amazing.
Well, thank you so much,Shannon.
I appreciate how you broke thatdown in manageable steps and I
enjoyed our conversation.
Shannon Oelkers (39:50):
Yeah, thank you for having me talk about it and
if you're listening and you dosome of these steps, I would
love to hear from you about howdoable it was, if it really was
under $5,000.
And if you feel like it didreduce your risk of a spill.
I'd love to hear some feedbackand see if these things are
working.
Thank you, everybody.
Thanks, hi there.
(40:11):
This is Shannon Oelkers and, asthe owner of Integrity
Environmental, I wanted to takea minute here at the end of the
podcast to make sure that youknew the following this podcast
is for informational purposesonly and should not be
considered legal or regulatoryadvice.
We are not responsible for anylosses, damages or liabilities
that may arise from the use ofthis podcast.
(40:31):
This podcast is not intended toreplace professional regulatory
or legal advice, and the viewsexpressed in this podcast may
not be those of the host thatwould be me or Integrity
Environmental.
Thank you very much forlistening and if you do need
professional regulatory advice,we'd be happy to help you as
part of our consulting services.
Thank for joining us.
You're listening to Tank Talkwith Integrity Environmental,
where we speak with founder,principal consultant and bulk
fuel storage expert ShannonOelkers, about regulations,
safety and useful tips forsmooth sailing through the bulk
fuel storage industry.
Come learn the unique joys ofworking life in Alaska with
industry experts, including ourteam, vendors we work with, and
companies we support.
(00:34):
Hi, welcome to Tank Talk Season2.
My name is Haley Hall and I'm apart of the Technical Writing
team here at IntegrityEnvironmental and I am here with
our host, Shannon Oelkers,principal consultant and bulk
fuel storage expert.
So today we're here to talkabout spill prevention and some
smart solutions.
So, Shannon, I hear a lot oftank farms in rural Alaska are
(00:56):
getting older.
Shannon Oelkers (00:57):
It is true, Haley, Alaska is a state of
aging infrastructure and thisincludes our bulk fuel storage
facilities, especially in ruralAlaska.
Now there's a lot of reallywell-maintained firms out there.
I don't want to give theimpression that everything's
fallen apart, but a lot of ourinfrastructure was built in the
1960s and 70s and it is still inplace and it is slowly aging,
(01:19):
especially like in smallercommunities where bulk fuel
storage is owned and operated byutilities or community
organizations.
There just hasn't been fundingavailable since maybe the late
90s to replace or upkeep some ofthese facilities.
Haley Hall (01:35):
So what does aging infrastructure mean for Alaska?
Shannon Oelkers (01:40):
Well, to put it bluntly, the risks of a spill
are much higher.
They're much higher than theyused to be, and the paradox here
is that a spill could force acommunity or entity to spend
money on the spill, remediation,responding to that spill,
cleaning up after the spilloccurs, and all of that money
could have been much betterspent on infrastructure
(02:01):
improvement.
Haley Hall (02:03):
Gotcha.
So I hear the costs of even asmall spill are often equal to
or more than the cost of a newtank.
Shannon Oelkers (02:11):
It's true.
I mean a larger tank, like a20,000 gallon double wall tank,
could be over $200,000.
And I don't have any analyticaldata.
So tank is about 200K.
We work with a lot of spillresponse.
You know we partner with theAlaska Chateau Network and we do
site characterization for a lotof our clients.
(02:32):
After a spill no-transcriptspill while we're waiting for,
(03:14):
you know, a way to upgrade thisinfrastructure appears for the
state of Alaska.
There's not really a wayforward that anyone's identified
that makes sense yet.
Haley Hall (03:23):
Right.
So is there anything ourlisteners, with very limited
resources, can do to lower therisk of spills?
Shannon Oelkers (03:31):
There really is .
There really is, which is whyI'm here today.
I want to talk about it becauseI think it's critical.
There are several steps in highrisk areas and these are things
that can be done for relativelylittle money I'm talking under
$5,000.
They can be done with locallabor, they don't require you to
spend weeks of time doing themand I'll go over them but, like
(03:54):
these are things that areachievable and doable on a
pretty tight budget and theyreally lower the risk of a spill
, so I think they're importantto talk about.
Haley Hall (04:02):
Well, don't hold out on this now.
What are these steps?
Shannon Oelkers (04:06):
There are four kind of the highest risk areas
for a spill in a tank system.
The first is water managementboth inside and outside of the
tank.
Overfill prevention systems,connection points, anything
that's bolted or screwed onto atank, and you know my personal
favorite secondary containment.
Those four areas are sort ofthe highest risk areas for spill
(04:29):
.
When something fails aroundthose areas, that's when we see
higher risks of spills.
Haley Hall (04:35):
Okay, well, let's start with water management.
What do you mean by watermanagement?
Shannon Oelkers (04:39):
So, like I mentioned, briefly when I
brought it in.
So, like I mentioned brieflywhen I brought it in, water
corrodes steel.
When it has a fuel source alongwith it, it eats the fuel,
corrodes the steel, and so youput water, fuel and steel
together and it's a corrosiveenvironment.
And so a lot of what we do, alot of these tank systems are
engineered and designed to keepwater from interacting with
(05:02):
steel in the fuel environment,and that's things like coatings
and design, and those are biggerprojects.
But for what I'm talking abouttoday, water management is
removing water from where itcomes into contact with the
steel tank and piping to preventthat corrosion from occurring.
So, like I said earlier, it canbe inside the tank, but it can
(05:23):
also be outside.
So right now I just want totalk about inside the tank, and
water can get inside of a tank anumber of ways.
The first is that it condenseson the inside of a tank,
especially if there's lowervolumes in the tank, just like a
cold glass of water on a hotday.
You'll see water forming on theinside of the tank and running
down the inside, forming on theinside of the tank and running
(05:45):
down the inside, and then you'llend up with water on the bottom
, sandwiched between the fueland the steel, which is an ideal
climate for microbially inducedcorrosion, which I have a hard
time saying but is commonlycalled MIC M-I-C.
Other ways water can get insideof the tank is weather, and
people who are not from Alaskalistening to this conversation
may maybe like Shannon, Weather?
(06:05):
Yes, absolutely weather.
If you have ever been to ruralAlaska, the storms we see are as
strong as any tropical storm orhurricane, but much colder,
higher winds.
And if you've got a tank andit's situated or oriented to
where the vent can be blown into, you can have water come into
that tank all year long.
There's also introduced water.
(06:28):
The most common example of thisis you're receiving fuel from a
barge and there's maybe alittle bit of water from the
bottom of the barge tank thatcomes into your system.
Barges work really hard tofilter and keep that out, but it
does occur sometimes.
But the other way water can beintroduced in the system is if
you're moving fuel from tank totank to try to like I don't know
(06:48):
, if you've got four tanks andyou want to consolidate all of
your fuel into one, you're goingto be collecting the water from
each of the tanks as you'redecanting one into the other and
you'll have water from theother three tanks plus the
initial tank all in one.
And so, as you're strippingtanks down, the water builds up
plus the initial tank all in one.
And so, as you're strippingtanks down, the water builds up
into whichever tank is yourfeeder tank for a system like
(07:12):
that.
So keeping that water out canbe important, but also removing
the water on a periodic basis,and this is where we talk
frequently about water draws.
Everybody knows what a waterdraw is in the fuels industry,
but I'll go over it again justin case somebody out there
listening doesn't.
A water draw is a routinemaintenance procedure in which
you find and remove water fromthe bottom of the tank.
(07:32):
For horizontal tanks, which ismostly what I'm talking about
here, it's either anappurtenance from the top and
there's a drop tube that goesall the way to the lowest part
of the tank so that you can suckthe fuel out, or it's an access
through the bottom of the tankand it'll go through the double
wall, or just be directly fromthe shell of a primary single
wall tank and it's a valve youcan open to let fuel and water
(07:53):
out of the bottom of the tank.
Water draws are part ofeverybody's maintenance program.
I have yet to meet a facilitythat doesn't have routine water
draws as part of its operationsand maintenance plan.
But water draws don't happen,and there's a very specific
reason for that, and this iswhat this whole conversation is
(08:15):
leading up to is water draws arereally hard to do, especially
if you don't have equipmentinstalled that makes it easier,
and you don't have equipment todeal with the water and fuel
that you pull out of the tank.
And so if you don't havepermanently installed equipment
to make it easier, you are up ona tank busting nuts in the cold
, in the rain.
You're using a hand pump tosuck out a tank.
It's very difficult, it's noteasy, and so what I would like
(08:38):
to recommend this is somethingvery easy to do for well under
$5,000 is just permanentlyinstall things that make water
draw access easier.
There are systems that can goin.
You know remember I mentionedsome of these horizontals have
top access for water draw Right.
There are systems you can screwin that will allow you to use
(08:59):
the hand pump at eye level orstanding level next to the tank
instead of being on top of thetank and for tanks that have
water drawers on the bottom,there are systems that you can
install that have hoses that arepart of the system and you can
turn the valve, install the hoseinto your bucket and sort of
eliminate the spray and themanagement and trying to jam
(09:19):
something in under the nozzle.
And so my first recommendationis to get something permanently
installed that makes wateraccess easier and that will
increase your staff'swillingness and ability to do
water draws Once they do a waterdraw.
Every water draw is a mix offuel and water.
It's not like you open up thevalve and water comes out and
(09:39):
the tank's good.
There's a little bit of fuel inthe piping because when they
fill the tank up, their fuelenters that system.
You have to strip whatever's inthat water draw line of fuel
and then you get the water andthen you have to have a place to
let it sit so you can pull thewater off the bottom and then
return fuel either to the tank,depending on how clean it is, or
maybe to like a waste oilburner.
(10:01):
So, in addition to doing apermanently installed water draw
access, we recommend having adecanting container and it's
like a drum Haley, it's just a55-gallon drum and there's a top
with a funnel that you can pouryour oily water mixture into.
But there's some kind of fauceton the bottom and you let it
sit and let the water and theoil separate and then you can
pull the water off the bottom.
(10:22):
But here's the kicker, becausein the old days in the old days
which we are not in anymore thatwater would just get stripped
to the ground, but that waterhas been inside a fuel tank.
It's contaminated, right, right.
And so this also createsproblems for people doing water
(10:42):
draws, because they end up withdrums with a bunch of oil and
water in them, but they knowthey're not supposed to get rid
of the water.
And so I also suggest pairingsome kind of water treatment
system.
And there's a couple that arereally mobile and they're easy
to use in rural Alaska andthey're not that expensive.
And the one I recommend themost is called a granular
activated carbon system, or GAC,g-a-c.
You know, rain for Rent sellsthese at like 1500 bucks.
(11:05):
Again, it's a drum, it's loadedwith granular activated carbon
and you put oily water in thetop and it filters through that
carbon, just like a Brita filterdoes.
I think Brita actually is a GACsystem but you can put it
through and out.
The bottom comes clean water.
And the nice thing about GACdrums is they start slowing down
and working slower and sloweras you use up the carbon.
(11:28):
So it kind of tells you aheadof time that it's about to be
exhausted and you can orderrefills once you buy that
initial drum and the refills arelike half the cost of the
initial drum and they're a loteasier to ship.
You can get a bag of activatedcarbon to come out, pull the old
one out and it can be disposedof at the local landfill and you
can put a new one in.
I like that system a lotbecause it tells you when it's
(11:49):
starting to not work good andyou can bring in replacements.
And it's generally pretty easyto use and if you keep it inside
when you're not using it a shop, they can last years and years
and years.
They don't do as well ifthey're left outside to rust.
There is another water treatmentsystem that I think is pretty
easy to use.
It's called the AbsorbW system.
It's a blue plastic drum.
(12:10):
It has sorbent pillows insideof it.
You can run oily water throughit.
It will connect and absorb theoil and let the water flow
through.
The only thing about theAbsorbW that I don't like is
that if it stops working, youwon't know the water will still
go through at about the samerate.
That one's very light, it'seasy to ship, it's easy to store
(12:31):
.
A lot of people have them aspart of their spill response
kits because they're so easy touse.
If you don't have a lot of waterat your facility, if you're not
generating a lot of water inyour tanks, that might be a
better choice for you.
But if you've got hundreds ofgallons a year that you need to
treat, the GAC might be a betterchoice for you.
So all of those things together, if you bought all of the
(12:52):
infrastructure, the piping andthe hand pump to improve water,
draw access, and you buy adecanting container that will
allow you to separate fuel fromwater, and you buy a water
treatment system like the GakDrum or the Absorb W, all of
that together is under $5,000.
And those are three things youcan do right now.
And then pulling water fromyour tank system is going to
(13:16):
immediately lower the amount ofcorrosion that's going on, not
just on the tank shell, buteverywhere water pools.
You know low spots, you know,behind flanges, against the
gaskets.
Getting the water out is prettyimportant.
So one last thought on watermanagement before we move on to
overflow prevention.
Water entering the tank can alsobe prevented, and one of the
(13:39):
easiest ways to do this andcost-effective ways is
installing something called apressure vac vent on the tank
and it utilizes pressure andvacuum to vent the tank.
So when you're filling the tank,the pressure increases, a flap
opens and lets any kind of airor vapor inside out, and when
you stop filling the tank itfalls down and it closes off and
(14:01):
it keeps vapors from escapingthe tank.
Right, they're not required fordiesel or jet A, but they are
really good at keeping water outof the tank, especially if
you're in one of thosecommunities where the weather's
intense and water is gettinginto the tank.
As an auditor, I can tell youI've been to a lot of facilities
where I show up and everysingle tank has a garbage bag
(14:23):
taped or tied around the ventand I immediately know that
they've got a water managementproblem and it's probably from
water coming in the vents insome way.
And pressure vac vents they'renot that expensive, especially
for horizontal tanks.
They can be under $1,000.
Wow, and so that's somethingthat maybe put all of that
together for your facility andyou may be making a job or
(14:45):
something that was reallydifficult for your people to
handle much more easy, and it'sa system that works really well.
So that's all I got to sayabout water management inside
the tank, and I'd like to talkabout overfill prevention next,
because that's also important.
Haley Hall (15:00):
Great, so let's talk about overfill prevention.
The state of Alaska isreporting that 13% of spills in
the last three years were fromoverfills.
Shannon Oelkers (15:10):
Yeah, 13% statewide in Alaska and it's a
big problem for rural Alaska.
And there's a couple of veryspecific reasons why following
best management practices in theinventory taking a stick to the
tank or gauging it, finding outhow much fuel is in the tank
before the barge comes, afterthe barge comes, and then also,
as you use the fuel and draw itdown, understanding how much
(15:33):
fuel you have along the way.
Overfills are also problematic,sometimes because of water.
If you're not managing water inyour tank and we have run into
this multiple times You'll talkto somebody and you say how much
fuel is in the tank and theysay oh, let's pretend it's a
10,000 gallon tank for ease ofconversation here.
How much fuel is in the tank?
8,000 gallons?
(15:54):
Oh, okay, 8,000 gallons.
You would think that there's2,000 gallons of freeboard of
space in that tank, but whatthey're saying is there's 8,000
usable gallons floating on topof a layer of maybe six to eight
inches of water, which is yourwater that has not been managed
or removed right.
And so sometimes having to doinventory math where you stick
(16:17):
the tank and it says there's 13feet of product in the tank or
whatever, or 11, but some of itsproduct and some of its water.
That introduces enough matherrors into the calculations
that you can get overfills.
The other reason overfillsbecome a big problem is a lot of
their pumping systems andreturn line systems have been
damaged or have stoppedfunctioning the way they were
(16:39):
originally engineered to be orset up to be, and they have made
workarounds.
But that means some of thebackup systems have failed, and
that includes overfill valves.
Like overfill prevention valvesare not meant to last 70 years
or 50 years or even 20.
And some of the oldest overfillprevention valves I've seen
(17:01):
when you pull them out of thetank they're stiff, they're
crusted with gunk, they havelittle thin, you know activator
arms that get bent, and so whatwe recommend is, if you have a
overfill prevention valve onyour tank and there's a couple
different kinds, there's floatsand there's whistle vents and
there's some other things pullit out and maintain it.
(17:21):
Make sure the float still works, make sure all the mechanical
pieces still move, make surethere's not gunk blocking
certain things so that you can'tuse the valve the way it's
supposed to be, and maintain it.
I mean, a brand new overfillvalve for most horizontal tanks
is under $1,500.
And so we're not talking aboutan incredible amount of money
for this.
(17:42):
And then, lastly, overfillprevention can be significantly
reduced just by improving visualgauging.
So everyone listening to this,if they have a tank farm, I bet
you somewhere right now at yourfacility there is a clock gauge
on a tank and you know itcompletely is broken.
It doesn't tell you anythinglike what reality is, because
(18:03):
clock gauges, again, are notdesigned to work forever.
Clock gauges, again, are notdesigned to work forever.
They need to be calibrated andtuned up and adjusted all the
time, and so if you have a gaugeon a tank and it's not working,
that is also money well spent.
Spend the $750 to get a newclock gauge, keep it tuned.
(18:24):
You're going to have to buyanother one in five years.
Yes, that's absolutely true.
But that will help you preventoverfills because when someone
looks at the tank they can seehow much is in it, even if
they're not super knowledgeable.
We all know that, like,actually gauging the tank is the
gold standard.
There's a lot of peopleinteracting with a tank looking
to see how much fuel to put inthe day tank for a transfer that
(18:46):
maybe you're not going to beinvested in that gauging.
So, for overfill prevention,follow your inventory, best
management practices, install,maintain and replace your
overfill prevention valves andthen improve visual gauging
whatever that looks like foryour system.
Make sure that if you do have agauge it's working.
Consider installing a gauge ifyou don't have one.
You don't need electricity forall gauge types.
(19:09):
There are plenty of gauges thatare manual and they don't
require electricity, but if youare fortunate enough to have
electricity at the top of yourtank, you have many more options
for gauging that are fairlyreasonable.
I think they would still beunder $5,000.
Haley Hall (19:22):
Great Earlier Shannon, you mentioned
connection points.
What are those?
Shannon Oelkers (19:29):
Connection points.
Is this where I make a bad jokeabout tank dating?
Connection points are any placeon a tank where piping and
appurtenances are bolted orthreaded to the tank and a lot
can be done here for very lowcost to reduce the risk of a
spill and in integrity'sexperience I'll say it is our
(19:50):
number one cause for physical ormechanical failure.
If a tank has a spill it'salmost always at one of these
connection points.
So connection points typicallyare like a bolted flange or a
water draw valve or a pipingconnection of some kind, a fill
line, a draw line, cargo line,however you want to look at it.
(20:12):
So a couple thoughts onconnection points.
These are easy maintenance andoperation repairs that you can
do that cost very little buthave a high effect on reducing
spills.
The first is gaskets.
Gaskets are not superheroes.
They cannot last forever.
Gaskets are not superheroes.
They cannot last forever.
I have pulled gaskets that are45 years old, 60 years old, and
(20:33):
they are still working, which isamazing.
But that's not how they weredesigned and I don't believe
there's really a guidance on howlong a gasket should last.
I say 10 years is a good, nice,easy number.
You should be drawing yourtanks down and performing
routine maintenance on a wholelot of other things attached to
a tank.
At the 10-year mark, replaceall the gaskets.
(20:56):
When you do that, and if youhave a significant amount of
water in your tank system, Iwould also maybe do it more
frequently, because if watergets into the gap where the
gasket and the flange meet,every time it freezes it's going
to degrade that gasket a littlemore until it starts leaking.
The other thing about flangeconnections and I've seen this a
(21:17):
lot they take everything apart.
They replace all the gasketsand then they put the same
45-year-old bolts and nuts backinto the bolt holes.
Replace those bolts and nuts.
That's like $7 in parts, justdo it.
Bolts do eventually strip, theydo eventually break or they can
have fractures, just like othersteel things on a tank.
So replace the bolts and nutsevery time you do work on a tank
(21:40):
.
It's such a small amount ofmoney, just do it.
And then a couple otherthoughts on connections.
Most people are really goodabout hydrostatically testing
their piping between the marineheader and the first valve of
the tank farm because the CoastGuard requires it to receive
fuel hydrostatic testing on allof your other lines and I think
(22:10):
that's a really good idea, evenabove ground ones, because if
they're leaking you'll know, andnot every pipe looks like it's
leaking, because it only leakswhen it's under pressure right,
especially gasket failures.
Gasket failures you may not seefuel dripping out the bottom
for a long time, but when youput the system in pressure
because you're receiving fuel,it's going to have fuel pulsing
out of it as the pressure goesup and down.
So hydrostatically testing allyour piping, especially below
(22:33):
grade portions, that's going togive you a huge peace of mind
that they're all working the waythey should be and it will
alert you right away ifsomething has failed.
And that I just I feel likethat's something you can do
right now to avoid a really bigproblem in the future.
And then the last piece I wantto talk to you about on
connection points is adjustingpipe supports and leveling the
(22:55):
tank.
A lot of these facilities are onfoundations of sand, riverbanks
Like.
There's a lot of shifty thingsthat are sitting on permafrost
which may or may not be melting,which may or may not be melting
.
As tanks age, especially olderinstallations, you've got a lot
of tension between the pipe andthe tank, especially if they're
(23:15):
sinking or moving at differentrates.
And those are really importantthings to manage right away
before the tension becomes great.
Because as the tensionincreases you've got piping
that's pinched on the bottom andpulled at the top of every
flange right, so you've got agap at the top and a pinch at
the bottom.
Both of those are increasedplaces of spills right, instead
(23:38):
of having them be adjustedcorrectly, and even tension all
the way around.
Also, tension is really hard ontank shells.
If you've got a welded pipeappurtenance, you know the neck
of your flange coming off a tankbut there's a ton of tension on
it.
The tank shell is only so thickand it can only take so much
before it pulls it out of.
You know distorts the actualshell of the tank.
(24:00):
Also, tanks that are not levelthey put all kinds of stresses
on other parts of the tank.
So you can really reduce yourspills by just continuously
monitoring and leveling tanksand piping and I know that's not
easy for humongous tanks like50,000 gallon horizontals.
That's probably not going to bedoable with local labor.
(24:21):
But if you've got a 6,000gallon tank that can be moved
with a loader with a set offorks, you can do that and it is
possible.
So I was just going to drop itthere for set of forks.
You can do that and it ispossible, so I was just going to
drop it there.
For those of you who are ableto do that, a once a year
inspection of your piping andyour tank with a little magnetic
level to show you how level thetank is and how level the
piping is, could really reducethe risk of a spill there.
Haley Hall (24:43):
Great.
So, Shannon, are we ready forthe secondary containment
discussion?
Shannon Oelkers (24:49):
Oh, secondary containment.
I feel like every podcast we dotalks about secondary
containment.
For some reason it's everyone'sfavorite, right?
So there's two types ofsecondary containment we see in
rural Alaska, and this is whereI remember at the very beginning
of this I talked about watermanagement inside the tank.
Well, now we're going to talkabout water management outside
the tank.
(25:09):
So the two kinds of containmentthe first is like what usually
what people think of it is aberm or a dike and there's a
liner inside of it and then thetank is placed inside the liner
and if a tank were to fail, thefuel would fall into this
bathtub liner and be held untilwe could recover it, and it's
(25:34):
not going to spread or enter thewater.
It's going to be contained,right.
So that's the first kind ofsecondary containment.
The second is double walledtanks and that's where you have
a horizontal tank and then theybuild a whole nother tank around
it and then there's aninterstitial space, which is the
space between the inside tankand the outside tank.
And if you've listened to thispodcast, you know that the tanks
are tightly sleeved togetherand the interstitial space is
usually on the ends, the headsof the tank.
(25:54):
There's not any space at allbetween the first and second
wall, or very little.
And then there's a gap on theends, and I'm going to talk
about things you can do tomonitor and maintain both of
these spaces, but I just wantedto talk about the two to kind of
set it up.
So let's talk about thesecondary containment liner, the
(26:15):
liner system, berm system.
First.
Liners and berms need constantmaintenance, and if you don't do
any for 20 years the systemwill fail, and so doing minor
repairs and housekeeping can goa long way to extending the life
of your liner.
A four inch rip this year,after one bad winter with a
(26:36):
whole lot of wind, could be a 24foot rip next year because it
gets blown apart by the wind.
There are self-repair kits forliners.
You can purchase them fromalmost any supplier, and
sometimes you can purchase themfrom the manufacturer themselves
, like Seaman Corp, for example,who's been on our podcast
before.
They have a repair kitspecifically for their product.
(26:57):
Those kits are very difficultfor contractors to use, because
the temperature has to be right,the humidity has to be right,
it can't be pouring down rain,and so repairing minor problems
on a liner is something thatshould be done by local crews,
like if it's July and it's sunny, that is the day that you need
to go fix the secondarycontainment liner, like hands
(27:19):
down, like it's time, and it'svery difficult to contract for
that exact day in rural Alaska.
The other thing about thesesecondary containment areas
that's difficult for people isberms.
Berms sink over time,especially if, for example,
people are driving four-wheelersup and over into the secondary
containment area for maintenanceor inspection or whatever, or
(27:42):
even walking, always in the samearea where they walk in and
there's not like a ladder orstairway in, you'll see it sink
and just like the edge of a cup.
If one part of the wall is fourinches lower than the other
parts of the wall, the water isgoing to go out.
You know the short side, itdoesn't matter how tall the rest
of it is.
And so constantly looking atyour berm or wall height and
(28:03):
making sure it's still the sameheight that it's supposed to be
and rebuilding it back up,putting gravel back in to keep
whatever level you've got willkeep your capacity full.
And then, speaking of capacity,the other thing that we see
with secondary containmentliners that can really affect
your ability to hold fuel isthings that reduce the capacity.
(28:25):
So storing a lot of stuff inyour secondary containment area
can take up space and allow evenif it could hold all the fuel
from the tank.
If the tank lets all its fuelgo, if there's a lot of things
in the way, it might overfilland go outside of the
containment liner.
We also see if you don't removewater from that secondary
containment area, like stormwater comes from the sky, rain
(28:47):
or or snow melt if it is stillin there when it freezes, you
could literally have an entiresecondary containment that is
two-thirds ice and that is goingto stay until the spring.
And now you're only workingwith a third of the containment
volume.
Repairing liners, repairingberms and keeping your secondary
containment area neat, tidy andfree of obstacles and ice and
(29:10):
water in general All of thosethings are part of routine
operations and maintenance, butdone every year well under
$1,000.
I think the patch kit's only750 bucks.
Right, you can have it on hand,but all of those together
extend the life of your linerand extend your backup system in
case the tank were to fail.
So that covers the secondarycontainment area, the
(29:33):
interstitial space on adouble-walled tank.
For a lot of these tanks thisis a no-man's land.
Nobody's ever looked in theseever.
Sti SP-001 actually requiresmonthly and annual inspection of
interstitial spaces.
And things that make itdifficult for people to inspect
(29:53):
interstitial spaces is knowledge.
They don't know they'resupposed to A, b, and I have
seen this more times than I careto admit.
They never remove the shippingcover and so it's bolted shut,
like you literally can't lookinside the secondary containment
of a double walled tank becauseit's just screwed shut, bolted
shut.
It's very difficult andsometimes they're done on
(30:14):
purpose to keep water out, andthat's fine too.
But there are things you caninstall on a horizontal double
walled tank to make inspectionof that port easier.
You can have a switch with ayou know a flip lever to like
wrench it down no-transcriptspace.
(30:53):
It's very bad, that's like acatastrophic failure indicator.
They're really common on daytanks, like in utilities,
especially like self-diked tanks.
You'll see a little turkeybaster with the you know pop up
red if something ever gets intothe interstitial space.
All of those types sensors,mechanical float gauges, just
like the overfill preventionvalves they need to be
(31:20):
maintained too.
I've had several times where Itook the interstitial mechanical
float and I pulled it out andthe rod had rusted through and
the float was just sitting inthe bottom.
There was no way it was evergoing to work.
It wasn't even connectedanymore, but it was still there
and it looked really nice on thetop.
So you do have to remove themand make sure that they still
work.
Haley Hall (31:34):
So I know and I have seen that Integrity works with
many companies on record keeping.
How does record keeping playinto reducing the risk of spills
?
Shannon Oelkers (31:42):
Well, that's two words, haley.
Early detection Inspections aremeant to help you identify
problems before they accelerateand get bigger, kind of fixing
it while it's still cheaper.
So remember that four inch tearto the liner that becomes a 25
or 24 foot tear.
A good inspection will findfixable things while they are
still fixable.
(32:02):
And the other classic exampleis coatings.
It's a lot easier to wire wheela two inch by two inch coating
failure and repair that coatingwith an epoxy coat than it is to
do the entire top of a tankright.
There are a few other things youcan do with record keeping.
You can actually perform yourvisual inspections Like don't
(32:25):
pencil whip it, go through thattank, look for things you can
solve today.
If you can solve it today, it'sprobably not super expensive.
Like, a lot of the reallyexpensive things are longer term
and require a lot more projectmanagement and funding.
But if you notice that theclock gauge is broken and you
can order a new clock gauge,that is something you can do
(32:48):
today and you can fix it.
I also like to recommendscheduled replacement of things
that wear out, such as hoses,filters and gaskets.
So we talked about gaskets 10years, replace them.
Even if they look great,replace them.
Hoses and filters are a littlemore challenging.
Filters eventually will stopworking or slow down the flow of
(33:08):
product when they get full.
But if you've got a routineinspection and you've got some
kind of budget where you buythem every three years or every
year, it's a lot easier toreplace them on a schedule than
to wait until it's screwingeverything up with a slow flow
right and then hoses.
They can look really good for along time and then they fail.
(33:29):
And so there are visual signsyou can look for on hoses and we
train our clients on elephantskin bulging.
By the time you get to elephantskin and bulging, the risk of a
spill is very high.
And so if you've got hoses,depending on how frequently
they're used, the temperaturethey're used at and how much
bending or kinking they undergoor twisting, you can develop a
(33:52):
replacement plan.
If you've got a marine like ahigh flow marine hose on a dock
and you're fueling up shipsmultiple times a day for three
weeks in a row in Western Alaska, where it doesn't freeze, there
are specific kinds of hoses forthat, and replacing them on a
routine basis is going to reducethe risk of spills, because
(34:12):
you're not always going to beable to see when something's
wrong or when the collar isabout to break on a hose.
And lastly, I want to talk aboutinventory monitoring.
Inventory monitoring for ourclients who sell fuel retail.
They do this all the time.
They need to know how much theysold each day.
There's an accountingreconciliation.
But for our clients that areusing it to generate heat or
(34:33):
generate power, like a schooldistrict or an electrical
utility, they're looking at adaily burn rate, like how much
they're using and how much in aday or a time period.
If you don't have daily, weeklyor monthly numbers, you're going
to miss small leaks, like whena like, let's say, you have a
drip at a bolted flange, right.
(34:53):
Eventually over a year youmight lose several hundred
gallons of product to that drip,but you're never going to
notice it because you're notnoticing that the month
beginning and the month end areoff.
Like you're supposed to beburning 1,500 gallons but you
actually used 1,800, right?
It's hard to find it withoutthose numbers, what we also see
(35:14):
too with inventories that arenot reconciled.
Frequently they'll have a spilland they don't actually know
how much fuel got spilled.
They know they received 20,000gallons from the barge in May.
The spill happened at the endof June.
They think they were burning800 gallons a day for so many
days in a row and now when theystick the tank, you know they've
(35:35):
got 6,000 gallons in there andthere's not really a what went
where, reconciliation.
So inventory monitoring.
It costs you time, right, youhave to have your staff do it.
But the reconciliation part iswhere somebody who is not at the
terminal, right A supervisor,is reviewing those numbers and
(35:57):
making sure they match up in anaccounting method.
It can really reduce the riskof a spill because you're
looking at those numbersfrequently.
There's no guesses, there's nomaybes, and if there is part of
your equipment that's failing ata smaller scale, you're going
to identify it right away beforeit becomes a big problem.
Haley Hall (36:14):
Right.
So Shannon million dollarquestion Will this maintenance
magically save your tank farm?
Shannon Oelkers (36:21):
No, sorry, haley, If you have an aging tank
farm and it needs significantcapital improvement projects,
it's not going to save it, butthe good news is it will extend
the life of what you've got leftand it will reduce the amount
of spills you have or the volumeof the spills you could
potentially have.
And that risk reduction isreally important because the
(36:42):
older this facility gets, thehigher the risk goes, and so I'm
sure a lot of you listeningright now, if you have a
45-year-old gasket that's fourdifferent gasket changes that
have been deferred.
It's called deferredmaintenance and getting caught
up on deferred maintenance isreally important, just like a
car, if you never change the oilin a new car, it's not as bad
(37:05):
as when the car is 60 years old.
You've got to do these things tokeep it going, and for a lot of
the communities I'm talkingabout and interacting with Haley
, they don't have a backup, theydon't have a secondary option,
and so this is really important.
You can no longer go five yearswithout doing a water draw, or
40 without opening up all of thebits of the tank and changing
(37:26):
gaskets and bolts and greasingeverything.
Haley Hall (37:29):
Are there any free or helpful resources that you
can point our listeners to?
Shannon Oelkers (37:33):
Yes, I mentioned my favorite, sti SP001
monthly and annual inspections.
That's a great place to start.
If your facility has not donethem before, it's a great place
to start.
The conversation Is the tanklevel.
Is it grounded?
Do we know what all the thingson top of the tank are called
and what they do?
And going through that listwill really help you assess
(37:55):
where your tank is at, and itwill help you identify which of
the things I talked about todaycan be possible for you to
reduce the risk of a spell.
I also wanted to mention Italked a lot about some things
that you can purchase for under$5,000 to help your facility
reduce the risk of spills, andso I wanted to just call out a
few of the places that we shop,because I think some people get
(38:18):
stuck on.
Well, where do I get thesethings, shannon?
So Grainger, of course, sells amillion things, but they have a
lot of the water draw equipmentlike hand pumps and piping and
threaded tubing attachments.
They also carry some of the SCArepair kits that I talked about
previously, although some linercompanies have their own and
(38:39):
you have to go to themanufacturer to get a repair kit
, but Grainger can be a goodplace to find some of the things
I talked about today.
I definitely want to shout outRain for Rent and Kenai repair
kit.
But Grainger can be a goodplace to find some of the things
I talked about today.
I definitely want to shout outRain for Rent and Kenai.
They've got decanting drums andwater treatment systems and
they will ship happily to ruralAlaska.
They're a great partner for uswith that, and I'll include
everybody's company informationin the show notes.
(39:01):
And then we talked a lot at theend about hoses and some of
these industrial componentsfilters.
Arg Industrial can be reallyhelpful for that and especially
for hoses and gaskets.
They also have a really deepbench of knowledge.
They are also a former podcastinterviewee.
And then, lastly, for overfillprevention valves, there's a
company called Northwest Pumpand they sell all the components
(39:23):
for horizontal tanks.
If you need a clock gauge, youneed overfill pumps.
That's a good place to start,northwest Pump and they sell all
the components for horizontaltanks.
If you need a clock gauge, youneed overfill pumps.
That's a good place to start.
Northwest Pump can pull those.
They're Alaska reps for a wholebunch of different
manufacturers.
And then, lastly, as always,you can call Integrity and we
can get you pointed in the rightdirection.
Haley Hall (39:42):
Amazing.
Well, thank you so much,Shannon.
I appreciate how you broke thatdown in manageable steps and I
enjoyed our conversation.
Shannon Oelkers (39:50):
Yeah, thank you for having me talk about it and
if you're listening and you dosome of these steps, I would
love to hear from you about howdoable it was, if it really was
under $5,000.
And if you feel like it didreduce your risk of a spill.
I'd love to hear some feedbackand see if these things are
working.
Thank you, everybody.
Thanks, hi there.
(40:11):
This is Shannon Oelkers and, asthe owner of Integrity
Environmental, I wanted to takea minute here at the end of the
podcast to make sure that youknew the following this podcast
is for informational purposesonly and should not be
considered legal or regulatoryadvice.
We are not responsible for anylosses, damages or liabilities
that may arise from the use ofthis podcast.
(40:31):
This podcast is not intended toreplace professional regulatory
or legal advice, and the viewsexpressed in this podcast may
not be those of the host thatwould be me or Integrity
Environmental.
Thank you very much forlistening and if you do need
professional regulatory advice,we'd be happy to help you as
part of our consulting services.
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