In August of 2009 Albarrie Geocomposites Ltd. had the privilege to install our SorbWebTM Plus secondary oil containment system for Vaughn Industries. This was a new site and was located beside a farmers field. That alone made our product necessary so that in the event of a catastrophic failure there wouldn’t be any contamination to the soil for growing their crops. This site also was special as it required drainage due to the soils being impermeable.
The drainage seen here is a 6” wide high density, polyethelynene. There are 5 perforated tubes joined together inside a high quality 4 ounce geosynthetic fabric that will keep out any soil from entering the system.
The drainage lines were laid out in central locations of the containment area and can be attached with various types of connectors. Here we see a cross. Others available are end caps, Y’s and 90° bends.
The lines are connected together and brought to an area where it exits the containment site. A minimum slope of 0.5% must be maintained for the system to properly drain. In this case the lines exited the bank, joined together and entered the farmer’s storm line. (Not shown)
The drainage system is then buried in the first 2” layer of sand.
Now the system can go ahead as normal with the installation of the non woven fabric on the banks and followed by the impermeable liner.
The impermeable liner is also strapped to the transformer pad.
At this site we had several locations where grounding wires came up through the ground in the middle of the containment. To address these wires first loose copolymer is placed around the wires under the Oilmat.
A hole is then punched through the Oilmat and the wires are pushed through. A spare piece of Oilmat is then cut to the center and placed around the wires and siliconed to the main Oilmat. The edges are also siliconed.
Next a larger piece of Oilmat is cut to the center and placed and siliconed at a right angle to the fist one. The edges are again siliconed.
Lastly the entire area is covered with loose copolymer.
Any protrusions through the impermeable liner are treated with exactly the same process.
The Oilmat can then be completely installed.
Note: This amount of work was completed the first day and that night it coincidently rained all night and into the morning. Inspection of the Oilmat that morning showed no signs of water ponding or soft areas. It was known right away that the drainage system had achieved its purpose.
We started the day with the adsorbent layer.
The woven geotextile layer is laid down.
The second 2” sand layer is placed followed by another woven geotextile layer.
To complete the SorbWebTM Plus System the entire containment is filled with fire quenching stone.
- Prepared by Mike Dowds of Albarrie Geocomposites Ltd.
