At first glance, stormwater may not necessarily seem like the type of thing that you need to worry about at first. After all, isn’t it natural water? The answer may be yes, but that’s not all that gets into stormwater from the time it falls to the time it flows to greater bodies of water. When stormwater flows into soil that is already saturated, it creates excess moisture that can carry debris, bacteria, and waste back into streams, wetlands, and other bodies of water.
For people who work in facilities with chemicals, this is especially dangerous, as it could lead to something harmful going back into the water supply. With this in mind, facility managers need to be at the front of the line when it comes to tackling stormwater safety.
Unlike some other safety compliance technology, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to stormwater safety. In some cases, you may need to focus on keeping water from getting in contact with anything that touches chemicals. In other cases, you may be focused on finding a way to guide stormwater runoff into an area so it can be collected and disposed of safely. In other cases, it may come down to trying to stop erosion in the first place to minimize the amount of runoff.
For example, when talking about dealing with erosion, your best recourse may be to use gravel backs and silt dike barrier systems in order to capture sediment and oil that comes along with stormwater runoff. However, to do this effectively, you need to first do a thorough look at your entire facility to see where stormwater most commonly gathers. Only then can you put around your safety products strategically.
In other cases, you may just need to look for the areas that bring stormwater to the rest of the greater water supply, like storm drains. If this is the case, you can use items like filter bags and dewatering bags and center them around these areas to catch potential contaminants and sediment. The key is being willing to do your research ahead of time.
For energy efficiency, environmental care, as well as your own compliance protocols, it’s important to not only have a proper regimen on how to handle stormwater and stormwater runoff, but also a fundamental understanding of the tools you’re going to use to deal with it as it comes. Depending on the location and nature of your facility, you have a lot of different options on hand. This means that your best asset is going to be pre-planning. By choosing products that match both the type and volume of stormwater you are dealing with, you’re in a far better position to tackle the issue.
The next stage is using the most modern and efficient stormwater safety products. This means using products from Chemtech International. Chemtech is a family-run business with 30 years of experience helping companies around the world with environmental compliance and safety through detection equipment and more.