Industries Step Up Underground Tank Monitoring

Increasing awareness of financial, environmental and legal consequences has pushed

many organizations to add new leak monitoring systems to liquid storage tanks. Underground, remote or otherwise inaccessible tanks can't be easily monitored with sight glasses and depend on electronic systems to ensure tanks are functioning as expected. Inexpensive level switches can save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars of cleanup costs by detecting problems early.

Worker and Public Safety Concerns

Very often tanks contain liquids that are highly hazardous. While contained these liquids pose no danger but a small leak can quickly lead to catastrophic circumstances. Flammable liquids could spread into large pools until a stray spark ignites an inferno. Toxic chemicals might cause both short and long term health problems to workers on site. If the leak is severe enough, it could spread off the company property and even into the water system, endangering public health.

Level switches in each tank could alert operators of unexpected changes to liquid volume that could indicate a leak. Slow leaks that might go undetected for days or weeks can be spotted much earlier as the switch activates a warning on an operator's control board.

Environmental Damage

Leaks and spills of toxic chemicals can contaminate the soil around the tank, potentially leading to months of expensive remediation to clean up the problem. In areas with shallow water tables, contamination can quickly spread across large areas making the remediation job that much harder. Plant and animal life in the area can be devastated, often taking decades to recover even after the cleanup is finished.

Companies minimize environmental effects by adding level switches as part of internal programs to protect the environment. Chemicals that might not be dangerous to humans can still have serious environmental consequences. Something as seemingly harmless as a leak of warm water from a heat exchanger into a nearby stream can fundamentally change the ecosystem and endanger local fish and plant life.

Increased Monitoring Saves Money

Companies also have a more practical reason to increase the number of level switches in tanks: money. Injured or sickened workers may file legal action against the company if the organization has been negligent and not installed enough safety systems. EPA penalties and lost business from public backlash after environmental damage has devastated even major corporations.

The loss of the material itself is often a major expense as well. Leaked and spilled liquids are lost assets and have to be replaced. Undetected leaks can cost a company thousands of dollars a day, and yet an inexpensive level switch could detect the problem and allow workers to correct it.

Sophisticated process monitoring and control systems are available that allow even small companies to regulate every aspect of their operations, but these systems are only as good as their sensors. Install a few more level switches in your tanks to get a better picture of plant operation.

by: Christine Harrell

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