Nopcote, I‐95, a well and a cat - MWUANopcote, I‐95, a well and a cat Brian Tarbuck September...
Transcript of Nopcote, I‐95, a well and a cat - MWUANopcote, I‐95, a well and a cat Brian Tarbuck September...
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Nopcote,I‐95,awellandacat
Brian TarbuckSeptember 18, 2012
6th Annual Drinking Water Protection Seminar
“Common Interests, Shared Solutions”
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Background• My name is Brian Tarbuck• I work for the Greater Augusta Utility District• Abbreviated: GAUD
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WhatisGAUD?• GAUD was created in 2007 by an act of the Legislature
• The District owns and operates a regional wastewater treatment plant, a regional “Trunkline” sewer system, a stormwater utility and a drinking water utility
• 38 employees
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IamGAUD’scopilot• I have 9 bosses (Board of Trustees)• I don’t take a lot of time off• I have two cats, two sons, one wife• I am responsible for 37 employees at GAUD • ...and maintaining the two cats: Kubota and Stihl
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Kubota• Kubota was a “free” cat• Found on the internet website of local shelter
• “Adopted” to contain a suspect mouse problem
• At 16 pounds, he is now a large cat. He has all of his claws.
• He does not enjoy containment.
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Oksowhythecatalready?
• On Friday, October 7, 2011, Kubota had an 8:30 appointment with the vet
• My wife, my 4 year old son and I corralled Kubota into the cage
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Dayoff,onthewaytothevet's...
• The cat is caged for transport• Running late…• Cooper, our 4 year old human, is in the backtelling Kubota it will be ok
• 08:20 Phone rings (Board chairman)• Ignore w/ message as I’m late and need to roll• Phone rings again (he’s on to me…)
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ConversationwithBoardChair
• Ken: "Remember how we said that one day a truck might flip over in the wellhead area?"
• “Yeah, why?” (unholy growling noise from the plastic cat carrier…)
• Ken: "Because a truck flipped over and some goo is coming out of it heading toward the wells"
• Laughter from me… "Yeah, right..."
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Right…What’sacubit?
• Ken: "No seriously, a truck flipped over and there’s goo coming out of it."
• I’m thinking, right… What’s a cubit? From the old Bill Cosby skit. But I say, “You’re serious? Can’t be, someone would have called us.”
• Ken: “Yeah, it’s serious.”• “Alright, I’ll make some calls.”
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Somecalls
• "Andy, this is Tarbuck, we need to roll to I‐95 and check on a possible overturned truck…"
• Andy: “Right... Seriously?? What, I didn’t hear about that?”
• "Yeah, dude, Ken called there’s goo coming out of a truck. I’ll be in to assist in about an hour."
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Meanwhileatthevet’s…
• Kubota is pushing the scales at 16 pounds• He makes aggressive, loud hissing noises at the nice veterinarian
• The 4 year old human is fascinated with the rectal thermometer
• Kubota is fine albeit slightly “tubby”
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Backhome
• Give Kubota a half can of chunk white albacore Star‐Kist tuna; all is forgiven and purring resumes
• Drop off small human; he regales his mum w/ embellished thermometer stories
• I advise Mrs. Tarbuck of a potential disaster and get in the “green truck” (work truck) and go to “the scene”
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Response!
• I drive the 10 miles to Augusta and arrive at…• The wrong place. I drive by the well, there are no trucks of any kind. Hmm…
• I head for the interstate and…
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Aha!
Traffic. Fetched up hard on I‐95 northbound• State police• Wreckers• MDEP• Clean Harbors• MDOT
Illegal U‐turn and I see…
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DEPGuysontopoftruck
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Thiscan’tbegood.
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TheOoze• White thick
material that looks a bit like Elmer’s Glue but not so thick
• No smell per se• Not coned off
or roped off or anything
• Hastily assembled check dam holding some back
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Andy• Andy explains from the available paperwork that The Goo is
a chemical called Nopcote and it was headed for IP Bucksport
• We take photos of the paperwork to email it for analysis
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Hurryupandwait
• Lots of people around; Maine State Police are monitoring traffic, MDOT is setting up / monitoring traffic; CleanHarbors is waiting for the tanker to be opened up; towing service is waiting for the product to be offloaded; DEP is cutting open the tanker
• Traffic is backed up for miles (northbound people coming up for the long Columbus Day weekend)
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Towingguys,waiting…
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MDOTguys,waiting
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DEPguys – NOTwaiting
• The Goo is a chemical called “Nopcote”• Calcium Stearate• Dispersing agent• What is a “dispersing agent”?• What’s a stearate?• DEP guys probably know but they’re busy• Back to the office…
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CleanHarborspumping
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GAUD’sDrinkingWaterDivision
• 5,714 service connections (14,285 population)• 10 storage tanks (9 active)• Available storage volume: 12 MG• 131 miles of transmission and distribution• 1 mothballed surface water treatment plant built in 1993
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GAUD Stats
• GAUD has 3 gravel‐packed wells that supply drinking water and fire protection
• Pumped 644 MG in 2011• Average day 1.76 MGD• Two wells were installed in 1955• The third was installed in 1965• I‐95 circa 1957...
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Customers• Veteran's Hospital• MaineGeneral• Riverview Psychiatric• Legislature• Emergency Management Op Center• Camp Keyes National Guard• Schools• State government
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GAUDresponse
• Contacted people at DWP to explain the situation as it is flowing toward the well
• Meanwhile, we used our high accuracy GPS to “shoot” the location of the spill, the pipes that transported the spill to the nearby receiving water, and all test points
• We laid that on top of our GIS as follows…
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NopcoteGPSpointsonGIS
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GISexpandedviewWellatlowerleftapprox900’fromspill
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Whatif?
• Do not drink order?• Boil order?• Would this affect other wells?• How long would it take to restart the
mothballed surface water plant?
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Whatwasthegoo?
• Manufacturer: GEO Specialty Chemicals• Nopcote C‐104HSfree• Synonym: Calcium stearate dispersion• Material by weight: 6% proprietary additives, <55% fatty acids and calcium salts and the remainder is water
• Ingestion: May cause gastrointestinal tract irritation, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
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PhysicalandChemicalProperties
• Liquid• White opaque• Odor: Fatty (really? That’s an odor?)• pH: 11 – 12.5 (strong base)• Specific gravity: 1.02 (just heavier than water)• Solubility in water: Dispersable
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AccidentalReleaseMeasures
Section 6 of all MSDS:
• “Do not permit run‐off to get into sewers or surface waterways.”
• What will happen if this gets in the well?• Is it already IN the well?• How do we know?
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Waterqualitydatanearcrashsite
• 9 samples were collected and analyzed for pH, turbidity and conductivity
• pH of Nopcote is approximately 12; measured 12.26 at spill site w/ conductivity of 1702
• Field samples in stream showed pH ranging from 7.56 to 8.09
• Turbidity ranged from 6575 NTU to 2.38 NTU
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Wellwatertesting
• Maine DEP (Cheryl Fontaine) worked with…• Andy Tolman (DWP geologist) and• Andy Smith (DHHS toxicologist) to formulate a testing plan
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Groundwatersampling
Consulting with MDEP, DWP and Toxicology
1. Test for semi‐volatile organics and;2. RCRA metals (minus mercury)
Periodicity of testing:Saturday, 10/8, Monday 10/10, Wednesday 10/12 and Wednesday 10/19
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Impactsonwells
• No detected impact on any of the three nearby wells
• No interruption of service to customers; well nearest the spill was simply turned off.
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DEPPreliminaryReport
• What happened? Truck rollover 1:30 AM • Augusta Fire first responders• MDEP on site 3:26 AM• By noon the tanker was righted• 19.66 tons of contaminated soils removed• 3,468 gallons of unspilled product recovered• 400 gallons spilled
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Whatwe’vedonesincetheevent• Conducted study of drinking water options • Will be installing an additional well • Setting up a local interconnection• Worked w/ MDEP on ICS response for similar future incidents
• Explained location of wells to local first responders
• Worked with MDEP to improve our electronic data collection in the field
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MDEPICS‐201form
• MDEP created an easy‐to use incident response form
• Available from Nathan Thompson, MDEP• Easy to use even for non‐ICS trained people
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Whatwelearned
• MDEP, MDOT, MSP do not have Jack Bauer technology
• Multiagency incident responses are better handled with standard incident command structures
• We were lucky. Going into a holiday weekend we were able to find excellent resources who responded rapidly. MDEP, DWP and Toxicology did a great job helping us
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Advice
• Make sure your local police / fire know where your key assets are located.
• The government really can help. Call them for backup in an emergency.
• Ensure your system has emergency capacity.• Get Incident Command System training to IS 700 / 100 and 200 levels. Retrain.
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Questions?