Industrial Hygiene Monitoring at Petrochemical Storage Facility
Challenge
Antea Group was requested by the Client, a bulk liquid storage and handling company, to perform industrial hygiene (IH) monitoring at one of their facilities.
IH monitoring was needed along the fence line near the facility Fire Station, situated near the terminal, in a mixed industrial and commercial setting, due to ongoing excavation of the historically contaminated adjacent property.
The facility is a large petrochemical storage facility and is well-known in the area. Any odors purportedly emanating from the terminal area are commonly attributed to the facility, which brings unnecessary attention from local and state environmental regulators that could result in fines and/or violations. Facility Fire Station employees had reported chemical odors and measured higher than background levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during adjacent property excavation activities.
Solution
Antea Group performed initial air monitoring using a combination of gas meters (multi-gas, benzene, photoionization detection), passive absorbent badges for an administrative employee exposure evaluation, and air sampling canisters to analyze for TO-15 volatiles and tentatively identified compounds (TICs).
Five additional fence line sampling events were conducted by facility employees using Antea Group guidance and coordination.
Result
Through initial and subsequent IH air monitoring and sampling, the Client was able to demonstrate, to local and state regulators who came to the site to investigate off-site odor complaints, that odors at the evaluated area of the facility were caused by the adjacent property excavation activities and not caused by the Client’s own routine operations.
In addition, the Client verified to employee union representatives that employee exposures to the chemical odors emanating from the adjacent property were below all established occupational exposure limits.
