Monday, September 16, 2013

Usefulness Of Spill Containment Berms

By Dawn Williams


Oil spills have grown in number in the recent years. This happens because of unknown leaks from liquid petroleum containing vessels. It has a number of ill effects in the environment like coral reef destruction. Human and animal health are also put at risk in times of this man made calamities. There are a number of strategies used by leakage governing bodies to contain the disastrous fluids and these include the use of spill containment berms.

There are a lot of oil spill disasters recorded in history. The worst of them has affected the lives of millions of people. It has caused fires and infiltrated water beds thereby contaminating the water supply. It has also caused diseases such as skin and respiratory problems. Animals have been forced out of their natural habitats which caused a great disruption of the ecosystem. There are cases that management of overflows has taken years and decades.

Containment is a process that indicates prevention of expansion of an unfavorable thing or event. It is a strategy used by industries in making sure that harmful chemicals cannot contaminate natural resources. It can also be applied in health in terms of preventing the spread of diseases and viruses. In the spillage control department, it refers to a process engaged into for the purpose of limiting the dispersion of harmful fluids.

Many oil spill responses have been formulated to counter the negative effects done by spillovers to the environment and the living organisms. They can be in forms of mechanical, chemical, biological and physical strategies. Scare tactics are utilized to ward off animals from affected places.

One type of mechanical approach to containing harmful liquids is berming. It involves the utilization of containment berms. They are usually a form of barrier that limits the flow of adverse substances towards uncontaminated areas. The use of the berming process can be traced back in the nineteen hundreds. They are designed either to contain an entire overflow or to provide routes to a a collection basin.

A limiting berm comes in different types. It can be small and portable for emergency type usage caused by leaks from small containers and drums. It can also be assembled like the L bracket . On the other hand, it may not also require assembling. This no assemble kind automatically forms a catch basin whenever spills occur. The use of a collection basin is utilized for the elimination of leaked material.

Berming has its advantages. One of which is that it provides a quicker way to respond on spillage incidents. To prevent harmful fluids to sip in the water bed, this step is usually taken. It can be easily deployed and set up to immediately limit dispersion of dangerous liquid substances. Through this method, some leakage materials can be used if it is not very contaminated with foreign matters.

Like other processes, berming also has disadvantages. Extremely large affected area limits the ability of the berm to contain substances. More often, it also needs the help of other processes like chemical and biological ones to effectively and fully manage disastrous effects. This will entail a higher budget allocation.

Spill containment berms are not the only way to control leakages. The community affected can also participate by cleaning up shorelines. An oil spill crisis needs the cooperation of everybody. What people do to nature will come back as a reflection of their actions.




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