Spillage Response Training at Bywaters
Project Description
Bywaters, London’s biggest recycling and waste management company, operates four sites in east London. With a commitment to improving the environment and a further, legal requirement to comply with the new Oil Storage Regulations, Bywaters has implemented an environmental management system (EMS) in line with ISO 14001, using the expert services of spill response and containment solutions provider, Fosse Liquitrol.
At the Lea Interchange site in Leyton, east London, Bywaters operates a vehicle workshop that houses approximately 90 vehicles, including twenty skip lorries, twenty rolonof trucks, seventeen refuse collection vehicles and articulated bulk waste vehicles. The company also operates a waste transfer station in Leyton and engineering workshops, a sales development office and a recycling facility in Stratford. Increasingly aware of public, government and industry drives to reduce waste and clean up the environment, Bywaters management initiated the EMS in 2003, beginning with an internal environmental audit of the Lea Interchange site.
As part of the initial review, Fosse Liquitrol carried out a spill risk assessment.
“A detailed survey revealed a number of weaknesses in the degree of preparedness on site, in terms of both spill kit provision and oil spill training. Vegetation at the bottom of a concrete bund containing a diesel storage tank with a 54,000-litre capacity indicated damage to the bund’s base, compromising its ability to contain spills. As the site is due to be relocated shortly to make way for the Olympics in 2012, it made more economic sense to reline the bund rather than replace it. We recommended a programme of bund repair and re-lining in addition to spill response training for all operational personnel in order to bring their facilities and procedures in line with the requirements of ISO 14001 and the new Oil Storage Regulations.”
Miles Hillmann, Director of Fosse Liquitrol
Fosse Liquitrol where contracted to repair and reline the bund with minimal disruption, and carry out its unique, on-site,
British Safety Industry Federation accredited training course in Emergency Spill Response for vehicle workshop and waste transfer station employees in October 2005. After a LRQA audit in November 2004, the site was given ISO 14001 certification.
“Spill response training is an integral part of the overall environmental training that is a fundamentalrequirement of an EMS looking for certification to ISO 14001” explained Dr Alan Kirk, Bywaters’ Environmental Manager.
The use of Fosse Liquitrol as the training contractor meant that I could concentrate on other aspects of the EMS implementation and expansion. Because the training was done on site, the activities of the day had an immediate, identifiable relevance to the participants. The bund repair and relining was carried out to our satisfaction within about a day, and the risk assessment and subsequent recommendations by Fosse Liquitrol enabled us to supply the appropriate spill kits to the sites, ensuring successful environmental auditing. I would definitely recommend their services.
Because the training was done on site, the activities of the day had an immediate, identifiable relevance to the participants”
Dr. Alan Kirk, Environmental Manager – Bywaters
Expansion of the EMS commenced in November 2004, integrating the two Stratford sites. In June 2005, Fosse Liquitrol held a similar Spill Response Training course at the engineering workshop site in Stratford, attended by employees from the engineering workshops, the vehicle workshops and the waste transfer station. In July 2005, the entire EMS was audited and certified as being of the standard required by ISO 14001.