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Here's the latest edition of Environmental
Enlightenment - a SHORT, LIGHT and SIMPLE environmental newsletter. Its
purpose is to inform and educate.
The online version can be viewed at:
http://www.amiadini.com/newsletters/environmental-enlightenment-095.html
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This is one in a series of newsletters dealing with dry cleaning operations and their historical impact on air pollution and groundwater contamination. For more information please refer to the newsletter section in our web site www.amiadini.com.
Waste Management Practices
in Drycleaning Operations
(The information in this newsletter has been gleaned from an EPA sponsored site http://www.drycleancoalition.org and enhanced with pictures obtained from the Web.)
Contaminant Source Areas – Where to Sample
Based on data collected from contamination assessments performed at 150 drycleaning sites in Florida, the drycleaning machine is the most common contaminant source area at drycleaning sites.
Discharges of solvent and solvent-contaminated wastes are associated with solvent transfer, solvent storage, and machine operation and maintenance.
Historically, solvent has been added to drycleaning machines through the door of the machine (front of the machine) or through the button trap door, located at the back of the machine. Solvent discharges are related to overfilling the machine, leaking door gaskets, cleaning out the button trap, replacing seals on the solvent pump, changing filters, distillation cleanout, and equipment failures.
A bucket used to collect separator water is normally located behind the drycleaning machine.
If the bucket is not emptied on a regular basis the separator water will overflow to the facility floor. This has been a common occurrence at drycleaning facilities. There have been cases where the separator water bucket has fallen or been knocked over, releasing separator water to the facility floor.
If drycleaning is no longer performed at the facility and the former locations of the drycleaning equipment in the building are unknown, look for cut off lag bolts protruding from the concrete floor slab. The machines were anchored to the floor with these bolts.
Sometimes the bolts have been removed and their former locations are marked by concrete or mortar patches. Sometimes the floor in a former drycleaning facility is covered with carpet or floor tile and the former location of the drycleaning machine is unknown.
As a general rule, in strip shopping centers, the drycleaning machine is most often, though not always, located in the rear portion of the drycleaning facility.
If feasible, sampling should be conducted beneath the facility floor slab at both the front and back of the drycleaning machine.
Look for discolored and/or peeling floor tiles near the solvent use, solvent storage and waste storage areas. If expansion joints or cracks (pathways for solvent and solvent waste migration) in the floor slab are located near the drycleaning machine, sampling should be focused in these areas.
In transfer and vented dry-to-dry operations, collect samples at locations of the vents for the tumblers (dryers).
Call me if you've got any questions. There are no
obligations.
Ami Adini
Ami Adini & Associates, Inc.
Environmental Consultants
Underground Storage Tank
Experts
323-913-4073; 323-667-2336
fax
mail@amiadini.com
www.amiadini.com
Ami
Adini is a mechanical engineer, California Registered Environmental
Assessor, Level II, and president of AMI ADINI & ASSOCIATES, INC.
(AA&A), an environmental consulting firm specializing in all phases of
environmental site assessments, rehabilitation of contaminated sites and
upgrading of underground storage tank facilities.
AA&A supplies practical solutions to
environmental concerns using the highest standards of ethics and integrity
while providing its clients with maximum return on their
investments.
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