Leaks, storage tanks

Removal of a leaking storage tank can limit liability and environmental damage. The following steps may be followed38,39 ... 

In addition, some processes create considerable amounts of particulate matter and other emissions from catalyst regeneration or decoking processes. Volatile chemicals and hydrocarbons are also released from equipment leaks, storage tanks, and wastewaters. Other cleaning units, such as the installation of filters, electrostatic precipitators, and cyclones, can mitigate part of the problem. 

Possible sources of MTBE in groundwater include point sources, such as leaking storage tanks, and nonpoint sources, such as recharge of precipitation and storm water rnnoff (Squillace et al 1996). 

By the analysis of the solid substance remaining after the accident in the leaking storage tank, it was found that half of the substance was a product of a trimolecular reaction of MIC. The formation of this and other products was thought to have been caused by the following sequence of events considerable amounts of water and chloroform were mixed with MIC causing an increase in temperature and hence the melting of the tank wall, which then continued to catalyze the abnormal reaction. 

Increased tetrachloroethylene blood levels have been detected after exposure to drinking water polluted by tetrachloroethylene released from a leaking storage tank (Kido et al. 1989). The investigators detected tetrachloroethylene in blood of exposed families when tetrachloroethylene was in drinking water at levels above 120 pg/L. 

Sources can only be generally linked to specific chemical or microbial contaminants and their potential effects on human and environmental health. The picture at local, regional, and national scales may be blurred by chemical contaminants, which appear in several categories (e.g., benzene or trichloroethylene which have been associated both with landfill leachates and leaking storage tanks). Also, natural biodegradation processes act on primaiy contaminants to yield transformation products (e.g., vinyl chloride and dichloroethylene from trichloroethylene or perchloroethylene). 

Use of MTBE may soon be banned, however because it finds its way into drinking-water supplies from spills and leaking storage tanks, giving the water a bad smell and taste and peihaps producing adverse health effects. 

Groundwater. Spkls of refined petroleum product on land, and leaking underground storage tanks, sometimes contaminate groundwater. Bioremediation is becoming an increasingly popular treatment for such situations. 

Brick buildings severely damaged, 75% external wall collapse. Fired heaters badly damaged. Storage tanks leak from base. Threshold for eardrum damage to people. Domino or knock-on radius. Pipe bridges may move. 

API Publ 334, A Guide to Leak Detection for Aboveground Storage Tanks, September 1995. 

Oxygen leaks into glycol storage tanks, etc. 

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