A Guide to Emergency Spill Response

Environmental protection is your responsibility as a business owner. If your company handles hazardous materials (hazmat), then this responsibility includes preparing for the event of a spill. An appropriate emergency spill response plan helps hazmat companies control the situation quickly and effectively, minimizing its negative impact. Sun Environmental Corp. provides emergency environmental spill response services throughout Upstate New York. Here, we discuss what to do in case of a spill, so you’re prepared.

What Is a Spill Response Plan?

Any business that handles hazardous materials can cause a spill. Even if you take every appropriate caution, accidents still occur. When this happens, it is critical to have a detailed response plan in place. Your response plan should feature clear, concise instructions for containment, documentation, reporting, and follow-up. Areas your plan should cover include:

Potential spill areas, such as loading, storage, processing, etc.
The individuals who are responsible for implementing a spill response
Safety measures to be taken with each kind of hazardous material you handle
Procedures for notifying authorities, such as police, hospitals, and fire departments
Contact information for an environmental remediation contractor to assist with spills
Convenient on-site access and appropriate training with spill response equipment
Procedures to document the spill and spill response

The plan should be provided to staff members via a sign, handbook, or other documentation. Routine training is also valuable. When every team member understands the protocol, your company will be equipped to handle an emergency whenever or wherever it occurs.

What Information Should You Have on Hand?

First, before you act, start by assessing the situation. Hazmat spills take on many forms. A poorly planned response is ineffective at best and may even lead to worse damage. You can avoid complications by evaluating the spill and gathering the following information:

What material or materials were spilled
How much material was spilled
Where the spill is located
What the potential dangers are (fires, toxicity, pollution, etc.)
Whether any staff members were injured
Any other information relevant to the spill

These details should be provided to all relevant parties, including public services, authorities, and your hazmat remediation partner. With a clear understanding of your emergency, cleanup professionals will be equipped to deliver a more efficient, effective response with less risk of collateral damage.

Step-by-Step Guide to Emergency Spill Response

After evaluating the situation, it is time to implement your spill response. The details of your plan are customized to your site, but should cover the following steps:

Evacuate: Evacuate personnel from the spill site, using safety showers and eye washes to clear contamination. Provide emergency medical assistance if necessary.
Contain: Confine the spill area as much as possible by closing doors, sealing drains, and placing barriers to prevent the spill from spreading.
Alert: Contact the relevant services and authorities, including hospitals, fire departments, police, and recovery contractors, providing as much information as possible about the spill.
Secure: Until emergency response personnel arrive, secure the site to make sure nobody enters the spill area. Make sure potential entrances into the spill site are blocked off.
Report: After the spill has been mitigated, conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the spill and identify corrective actions. Then, prepare a report on the spill and your response.

By performing these steps, you minimize damage and help cleanup professionals address the issue as effectively as possible. You also keep your company in compliance with regulations while taking steps to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

Is It Safe to Clean a Spill Myself?

Hazmat spills should be cleaned only by qualified personnel. Hazardous materials are dangerous to your staff, especially without the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleanup equipment. In addition, an untrained response can unintentionally cause the spill to spread. With more injuries, more damage, and a widespread problem in your hands, your company may face major losses.

Instead, partner with a reliable remediation company. Sun Environmental Corp. has served upstate New York since 2010 with industry-leading environmental services. We use the latest equipment to perform cleanups as efficiently as possible without compromising safety. In addition, our staff members are rigorously trained to contain and clean up a wide variety of disasters, including oil and petroleum spills, chemical spills, fuel leakages, and more.

In addition, Sun Environmental Corp. develops long-term customer relationships with comprehensive services to help in the instance of a spill. We offer fully stocked spill kits that can help with the initial response until we are on site and can set up an Emergency Spill Agreement so we are prepared to act quickly. This emergency plan is tailored to your business operations so we can familiarize ourselves with your facility layout, chemical storage, after-hours personnel and contact information, and ensures the administrative portion is in place well in advance. Having these details laid out ahead of time will give you peace of mind in what is usually a stressful situation. For us it is not just business, it’s personal.

Prepare Your Emergency Spill Response Plan with Sun Environmental Corp.

Accidents happen. When they do, it pays to be prepared. Equip your business against disaster by developing an emergency spill response plan with assistance from Sun Environmental Corp. We serve Central, Western, and Northern NY, as well as the Southern Tier and the NY Capital Region, with top-of-the-line environmental consulting and spill response services. Contact us today to learn more or get started.