Environmental compliance is important for almost all industries. When you are running a business, it is important to understand the impacts of your daily operations on the environment. And, as such, the associated legalities.
In Ireland, businesses must meet the requirements of the Water Pollution Act 1997, ensuring that they shall not cause or permit any polluting matter to enter waters. Therefore, fundamental safety measures when storing any type of liquid waste must be in place. One important safety measure that is necessary to meet the legislation and EPA requirements is the regular testing of bunds.
What is a bund?
A bund is defined as a secondary containment facility designed to prevent leaking contents from contaminating the environment. Consisting of an impermeable floor and a set of impermeable walls providing a watertight area surrounding the storage tank, any liquid which escapes the primary containment is retained in the bund and prevented from spilling onto site or escaping to the environment.
Why do I need bunds?
Having secondary containment on all hazardous liquid storage is highly recommended, and depending on your licence, is often a business requirement. The risk of release of any highly contaminated liquid could cause environmental damage and an unsafe working environment, which could lead to prosecution, fines, and clean-up costs, as well as potential reputational risk.
Bund Testing
The testing of bunds is required prior to entering service, and, in most cases, according to EPA requirements, tested every three years.
In Ireland, the EPA’s preference for in-service bund integrity testing is the hydrostatic testing method which requires the bund to be filled with water, monitoring the drop in water level over a defined time period. Where valid safety or practicality issues arise, visual inspections may be carried out by a Chartered Engineer. This requires the examination of the bund for cracks, holes, and other defects which may cause a loss of integrity. This data must be gathered, assessed, and reported, noting any actionable tasks and works necessary to ensure the bunds are fit for purpose.
The Paperless Solution
Bund testing can be a lengthy process and can often involve many hours of administrative work, collating and analysing data, trawling through report after report before submission! That’s why at Edac we have created the digital solution to manage your next bund project, providing a paperless workflow that allows for instant reporting via desktop or any mobile device.
Working with our clients, we create ad-hoc tasks set within a specified time frame that can be assigned to the relevant project collaborators, ensuring all works are carried out on time, and to their required standard. Notify the right people when a task is to be carried out and get notified when works go uncompleted or a non-compliance gets recorded. Our interactive mapping feature with embedded asset co-ordinates, provides a paperless solution to asset management. Locate bunds instantaneously, ensuring works complete in a timely manner.
As a cloud-based software, data can be collected and reported in real time, even when in an offline capacity. And, once tasks are completed, digital sign off can be sent using our digital signature feature. With our fully customised portal, all relevant documentation and reports can be assigned to a specific bund, with the ability to automatically embed photos directly into reports, all of which are in line with EPA templates.
Curious to find out more? Discover our comprehensive tools to assist, manage, and enable your next bund project by speaking to one of our team today or booking a demo here.