Litoclean’s immediate response key to controlling an oil leak

The location of the service station, close to neighboring farms, posed a high risk to people.

One of the greatest risks in the event of soil contamination is the impact on people. One customer encountered this problem when a leak at a service station affected the neighbors’ vegetable gardens, but Litoclean’s quick intervention managed to control the social alarm immediately.

The location of the gas station posed an additional problem in this case. It is built on two levels separated by a slope, in the higher part is the station and in the lower part, a plot of land out of service in which it was detected that the affection was being mobilized. This lower part is the one that caused the leakage to surface in the irrigation channel used by the adjoining farms to irrigate their orchards. In addition, there was a risk of the contamination spreading to the estuary and the adjoining wells, which would have caused more serious problems.

In response to the client’s call, concerned about the situation, our company responded immediately, as Andrés Carmona, one of the people in charge of the project, explains: “We got to work on the weekend and in a matter of a couple of days we had everything up and running and the contamination was under control. The speed of our reaction was the key to stopping the effects on the neighbors”.

The first measure taken was to create a hydraulic barrier with pneumatic pumps for intensive and first level pumping in the low area where the mobilization of the affection was detected in order to stop the contamination. Instantly people stopped observing spills in the stream and on their farms and work continued on the decontamination tasks by high vacuum.

In total, more than 38,000 m³ of water was treated and 1,200 kg of hydrocarbons were recovered. In less than two years, the objectives set at the beginning of the project were achieved.

“The remediation worked very well and in a very good timeframe, despite the added difficulties. The peculiar profile of the site and the fact that it was a busy gas station complicated the remediation work, but we were able to adapt to the circumstances and achieve the objectives ahead of schedule,” says Javier Cortón, the engineer in charge of the case.

In this type of situation, which requires urgent action, Litoclean’s high degree of experience and expertise allows the problem to be brought under control immediately to ensure everyone’s safety.

The TEMA LITOCLEAN Group has a long history working in soil investigation and decontamination projects and as an environmental and safety consultant.