Most of us move at such a pace that if something isn’t a current problem, we ignore it in favor of the most recent ‘fire’ to put out. Sometimes, regular maintenance seems like an unnecessary nuisance in our busy work world. It invariably gets moved to the back burner. Just remember, it is only a matter of time before it becomes a very serious fire requiring your attention.

We recently dispatched our team of environmental cleaning specialists to a customer’s plant to clean their two press pits. It appeared to be a routine job of confined space entry, water blasting and vacuuming the resulting waste waters into our liquid vacuum tanker. This was a procedure which had not been performed in a number of years.

Permit required confined space entry revealed something unknown to our current contact and Safeway. A 4′ x 2′ x 40′ trench obscured by various pieces of equipment spilled into one of the pits. (Until then it was also unknown that several pieces of equipment had been leaking hydraulic oil.) For years, this trench had become a receptacle for trash, rags and other debris. In other words, material that could not be loaded onto our liquid vacuum tanker. It was also almost impossible to reach the trench because of the equipment covering it, so manually removing the debris was not possible either.

It was decided that we would return at a later date with a super vacuum truck capable of loading the trash and debris. We would load it and any remaining liquids/hydraulic oil and then off-load the material at a non-hazardous solidification treatment facility which would send it for non-hazardous incineration.

Routine maintenance of this “sleeping dog” would have prevented the necessity of a more in-depth project and saved the customer money by not having to dispatch and mobilize some of the same equipment and manpower for a second visit. We see many situations which prove it might be more cost effective to wake your “sleeping dogs” with routine maintenance!

If you have concerns or questions regarding your company’s generation of waste, please give us a call at 256-492-3704 or visit our website at safewayind.com. Safeway Industrial has a strong and solid reputation in our industry.

-Your friends at Safeway Industrial