Bob: Fortunately, this incident occurred in an area that is used frequently, and thus detected. One site I am working on is in a rural area, and they have had several incidents at night or over the weekend, and it was not discovered until people arrived during normal work hours. This of course became a cause of concern for the community, as it was concerned that vapors from the spilled liquid could travel the mile into town. There had been a history of releases and odors in town, so any release, no matter how small was cause for concern.
Thought that you may want to consider this scenario in long-term management and continuing obligations.
Peter
Peter
Sent from my iPad To the Brownfield Community,
After sharing this event with Lenny Siegel, he invited my submitting this to the Brownfield List.
This linked blog post recounts an experience I had when a groundwater extraction well failed, overflowing into at the entrance to my swim and tennis club. I was alarmed as I saw children playing in the discharge, and while ultimately the discharged water was benign, the event highlighted numerous potential lessons about older remediation systems that reach off-site to where public interaction is likely.
My personal attention has been toward bolstering the effective implementation of institutional and engineering controls, and the best learning situations are those where we get a practice run that allows learning and inspring.
I hope the post honors all the parties - there are no villans, rather a lesson about the challenges encountered as remedies move toward operating across 15 years, and inherent turnover at people where the impact has extended.
Yours,
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