Leak & Spill Station or Spill Kit, that’s the question ?

A few years ago we came up with the concept of the Leak and Spill Station. The idea came from training our clients in the different responses required when handling ”Incidents” rather than Business as Usual events. Far too often clients were choosing to locate spill kits in risk cells where they would have been far better installing a Leak and Spill Centre. What’s the difference ? Well in my book, “The Spill Response Guide” first published in 2007, we developed the concept of Site Sectoring and the resultant, Risk Cells. The adoption of Leak & Spill Stations for standard operations and Spill Kits being designated for Incident and Emergency response are discussed further.  The Sapira process of Survey, Assess, Plan, Implement, Review, Audit is the building block on which our courses and training are built. When developing your on site spill response resource the first step is to undertake a site survey, identifying the hazards and thus, through the assessment and planning process segregate your site into Risk Cells. Depending on the outputs from this process your Risk Cell Method Statements (Incident Contingency Plans) will allow you to decide which is the most appropriate spill resource within each Risk Cell. In some circumstances both will be appropriate.

So how have things developed since the very crude products produced in early 2006?

Well certainly most of the UK suppliers are now marketing their equivalents. Fosse Liquitrol have their version The Spill Station that’s pretty good. The Australian “Spill Station” despite their name don’t seem to have grasped the concept at all. Others have, as usual, come up with their own copy versions, but there seems to have been little further development of the idea . So what is the concept we here you ask ?

The Sapira process of site sectoring and the development of risk cells allows you to decide which areas within your site have the greatest potential to cause an Incident or worse still an Emergency. Spill Kits by their nature are expensive, and should only be used by trained personal. That’s not people who have attended a, “this is a pad, this is a sock” , type training course offered free as an incentive to buy, by the spill kit manufacturers. The Sapira spill training courses ensure an integrated approach to incident response, positioning your spill response within your overal incident management structure. Where do Leak & Spill Stations fit in ? They are a local dispensing station for risk assessed activities that as a part of business as usual result in spills and leaks. Car work shops, engineering work benches can all result in small drips and leaks. You certainly don’t need to open your spill kit to deal with them. By stocking these centres with appropriate inventory, specific to the task in hand you can manage costs, select cheaper products (you know what’s going to be spilled) and more importantly include the necessary PPE within the Standard Operating Procedures for the Business as Usual task in hand.

Implementing the Sapira Site Sectoring process you can almost guarantee a reduction in costs of consumeables and a more considered spill response resource across the organisation.