A lot of us have been there – sprinting, sweating, panicking – WHERE IS MY SPILL KIT?!
But with the right preparation and asking yourself the right questions, you can mitigate and eliminate this unfortunate scenario and better equip yourself and your team to respond to a spill event.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
CONTENTS: Do you have the appropriate spill response supplies in your kit? You need to ensure that your spill response supplies match your site’s specific hazards and concerns. Neutralizers for corrosives, chemical-specific absorbents, oil-only absorbents, universal absorbents, absorbent pads, boom, and pillows, clay absorbent – the options are endless, but they should fit your site’s unique requirements and needs. Definitely not a one-size-fits-all!
SIZE: If you don’t have an adequate volume of spill response supplies to match the volume of materials you have on-site, then you are simply not prepared. Take a look at your current spill kit(s) and really ask yourself – is this enough to stop a major release? Am I ready for worst-case scenario? For example, if you have a 5,000-gallon diesel aboveground storage tank, a 5-gallon spill kit isn’t going to cut it.
LOCATION: Spill kits should be readily-available and positioned in easy-to-access areas. If you can’t reach your spill kit because equipment or items in storage are blocking it, it’s no good in an emergency. If you can’t even find your spill kit, then you’re really having a bad day! Make your life easier by planning ahead and positioning spill kits in a variety of locations around your site, focusing particularly on vulnerable areas like drains, water ways, etc.
VISIBILITY: In the heat of the moment during a spill event, it can be hard to keep all your wits about you, so it’s important that you make spill kits easy to spot. If you have a lot of spill kits, but you’re storing your spill supplies in unmarked trash cans, then you are setting yourself up for trouble during a spill. Any joe-schmo off the street should be able to readily spot and identify the location of your spill kits, whether you utilize brightly-colored signage, the stereotypical yellow spill kit containers, etc. Make it super easy to spot and find!
TRAINING: Make sure your team knows how to find and effectively use your spill kits. Annual drill exercises are always recommended, in addition to random “spot checks.” For example, a good test is to simply ask a teammate out of the blue something like, “Hey, do you know where our spill kit is? What’s in there?” If they give you a blank stare or ambiguous answer, it’s probably a good idea to reassess your spill kit availability, visibility, and schedule a short training or drill exercise to refresh.