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Highway 31 Bridge -
Elk Rapids, MI
Enviro-Prep® was sprayed on the two bridge abutments by the MDOT
maintenance crew at thicknesses near 20 wet mills. After allowing
the product to dry (about 1 hour), the steel was sand blasted with
expendable grit. The field crew reported a noticeable decrease in
dusting during removal, as compared to normal operations. The untreated
waste (paint chips plus media) was hazardous, and the treated waste
was nonhazardous. The results were:
|
TCLP Lead (mg/l) |
| Untreated Waste |
22.0 |
| Waste plus 20 wet mils Enviro-Prep® |
0.48 |
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Water
Tower - Midland, TX
Enviro-Prep® was sprayed on the tower, but
this time at various thicknesses (10, 15, and 20 wet mils) to determine
the optimum (minimum) thickness to achieve non-hazardous lead results.
All three thicknesses resulted in non-hazardous waste, with the
20 mil application achieving non-detectable levels of lead. The
product and the original coating were removed with normal sandblasting
techniques, and the waste was disposed of as non-hazardous. The
results were:
|
TCLP Lead (mg/l) |
| Untreated Waste |
122.0 |
| Waste plus 10 wet mils Enviro-Prep® |
1.9 |
| Waste plus 15 wet mils Enviro-Prep® |
0.25 |
| Waste plus 20 wet mils Enviro-Prep® |
<0.2 |
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International
Bridge - Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Enviro-Prep® on this project was applied with
and airless spray pump. The contractor used 150" of 1/4" ID
airless hose, and a RAC IV #631 spray tip. The product was applied
at 20 wet mills and removed with recyclable grit. This particular
portion of the job used 50 gallons of product, which equates to
roughly 5,000 sq. ft. of steel. The contractor was able to apply
the product in the morning and began blasting about two hours after
applying it. The air temperature was in the upper 30's to low 40's,
with a brisk wind passing through the Soo Locks. This project required
full containment that provided for warmer application conditions.
The results were:
|
TCLP Lead (mg/l) |
| Untreated Waste |
120.0 |
| Waste plus 20 wet mils Enviro-Prep® |
0.53 |
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Water
Tower - Rocky Gap State Park, Cumberland, MD
This project required a 10 wet mil application
of Enviro-Prep® to an aboveground water storage tank 40 feet high
and 15 feet in diameter. The job was started on a perfectly sunny
fall day, which allowed the product to dry in as little as 30 minutes,
and was completed the following morning in a heavy morning fog.
A Graco Bulldog Airless Sprayer was used with a #635 airless spray
tip, 50' of 3/8" ID hose followed by 100' of 1/4" hose.
The contractor also took out all filters in the gun and pump to
increase spray efficiencies. The paint and Enviro-Prep® were removed
with expendable grit. The job consumed a total of 100 gallons,
with approximately 80 gallons used on the outside and top and the
remainder used inside on the ceiling. The contractor saw significant
savings by using Enviro-Prep® because the benefit of reduced dusting
and non-hazardous waste allowed him to use a one-drop containment
structure. The contractor figured his costs to be about $0.10 -
$0.14 a sq. ft. and his non-hazardous waste disposal costs to be
$300.00 - $400.00 less per drum than hazardous waste. The test
results were as follows:
|
TCLP Lead (mg/l) |
| Untreated Waste |
56.0 |
| Waste plus 10 wet mils Enviro-Prep® |
<0.50 |
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Chip
Silo Supports - Springfield, OR
SPRINGFIELD, OR: "During our September
mill maintenance shutdown we endeavored to clean and paint the
structural steel supports inside one of our large chip silos. We
have four such vessels and have undertaken this work on two of
them previously.
"The project began early swing shift
on Sunday and proceeded on or ahead of schedule until about 5:30am
on Wednesday. During the pressure-washing phase of the job the
painting foreman observed what appeared to be lead primer under
the topcoat of steel. The paint was then tested and found to contain
high levels of lead. The two silos we worked on previously are
of the same vintage and construction but had no lead-based paint
in them. Nor could we have tested for lead before the shutdown
because the steel is inaccessible under operating conditions.
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"The sandblasting phase of the work
could not proceed because the personal protective gear and
engineering controls were not in place for an OSHA-compliant
lead abatement project. But the lead posed another problem.
EPA classifies our mill as a "small generator" of
hazardous waste. We plan our abatement projects quite carefully
to avoid exceeding the monthly limits of hazardous materials
necessary to maintain that classification. By the time this
project got underway, we had already reached out monthly limit
for waste generation... with 8 days to go before the start
of a new month. Furthermore, this project would generate 4
times our monthly limit!
"We had two choices at this point:
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Abandon the painting job and wait for
a later 7 day mill outage opportunity, or
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Acquire and use a lead "neutralizer" product,
such as ENVIRO-PREP® that would permit us to proceed with blasting
and painting, albeit with some schedule delay. (ENVIRO-PREP® is
a non-hazardous product we have screened and tested on another
project.) Our tests have demonstrated that it is effective
at rendering lead paint to non-detectable in TCLP (toxicity
characteristic leaching procedure) tests and therefore not
regulated by the EPA. This product converts the soluble lead
compounds to harmless metal salts... in this case, lead phosphate.
"We called Hoffer's Coatings, Inc. in
Wausau WI at 6:15AM PST and asked them to assemble 60 gallons of
ENVIRO-PREP® and prepare it for immediate shipment by air. At about
8AM our purchasing manager contacted corporate aviation to arrange
a charter that could get the product to our mill immediately. By
4PM that same day the painting contractor was applying the ENVIRO-PREP® in
the silo. During the day they had set up their clean rooms, changing
stations, air compressors and implemented engineering controls
for a full lead abatement project. They had also drafted a project
lead compliance program and a fall protection program for our review
and approval. Arrangements were made to collect the spent blasting
media and store it in a secure area on site pending the results
of TCLP tests to confirm its disposability.
"The sandblasting actually went a little
faster than planned and we did some creative scheduling to recover
the balance of the lost time. The project finished within 2 hours
of the original plan and production was not impacted. TCLP tests
performed on the 8,000 lb. of spent blasting media indicated that
ENVIRO-PREP® had, indeed, rendered the lead to be non-detectable.
It was then hauled to a landfill with no special documentation
required or extraordinary disposal costs incurred.
"In the process of researching ENVIRO-PREP® our
environmental team learned of several other products that claim
to be as effective as this one. However it appears that some of
these contain lime and portland cement which really do nothing
to remove the hazardous lead compounds but simply act to defeat
some of the testing processes used to detect them."
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