Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Uses Of Containment Berms

By Estelle Larsen


Taken from berme, a word in German, it means an area or space that is elevated on a surface. It will act as borders between two other areas. It has been now used in English in terms of naming certain equipment.

A few industries utilize a certain kind of berm in terms of safety. Usually, the oil and electrical industries are using containment berms for most of their equipment or containers for hazardous chemicals. For transformer boxes, it becomes a catch basin under it in cases of leakage due to malfunction.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA, Spill, Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure or the SPCC has guidelines for electrical and oil companies for them to follow for safety measures. This is in order to protect the environment from hazardous solutions. That is the reason why methods to contain leakages or other incidents, are being developed to prevent any further damage to both the industry and to the environment as well.

The outdated method is using concrete as the berm and surface of the area beneath the transformer, but new ways have been developed using different materials. Geotextile boom, which should not be confused with the other, absorbs the oil and solidifies it in order to prevent the flow.

Do not confuse yourself with a boom and a berm. Although both have the same function, they have different structure and versatility when it is used. A berm looks like an above ground pool where it is placed under any source or container that may have a possible spill or leak. These are secondary spill containment.

Berms also have different types. What is mostly utilized are portable berms, due to their flexibility and versatility of utilization. They are highly convenient and can be adjusted or moved easily under the source. It comes with either an assembly or a non assembly type. The company can decide what kind they would use and also regarding the guidelines from the agencies.

A boom is another type of secondary spill containment that has a different structure and a slightly different feature as well. Instead of containing and catching the liquid like a pool, it absorbs it and like in some cases with the geotextile, it solidifies after absorbing. This is convenient when it is needed to place the boom over the area of the spilled liquid.

In cases of spill and oil leaks on various bodies of water, this can be highly convenient to use. Booms are known to be used most often when cleaning spills on the sea since it lets water pass through while absorbing the oil that is floating on the surface of the water. Although it comes with two types, the absorbent and the containment. So do not be confused between them. The material used is what differs them.

There are various reason which berms and booms are used depending on the facilities and containers. The material and the functionality is considered as well. Polymer materials are engineered and designed to meet these functionalities in order for it to work properly. Agencies and company guidelines are most likely provided to determine what kind of secondary spill containment should be used.




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