The Oil Storage Regulations apply to all installations in the UK (both domestic and commercial. Oil is the commonest pollutant in the UK, accounting for one-quarter of all incidents.
Oil can come in many forms; petrol, diesel, biofuels, grease, liquid petroleum gases to name just a few. Without proper storage, you could cause spills on-site, you are not in compliance with government legislations and you could be fined.
How to store oil, tank and container design requirements, where to locate and protect them and the capacity of bunds and drip trays are all things to consider when storing oil to be legislation compliant.
If you have an oil storage container with a volume of 201 litres or more, you must follow the requirements of storing oil.
When storing oil, you must make sure you have the proper equipment to do so including;
- Oil spill kits
- Secondary Containment
- Generators
If you do not follow the requirements, you may be fined or punished. The Environment Agency may also issue an anti-pollution works notice to compel you to bring your oil storage facility to legislation compliance.
Spill kits are a necessity onsite in the event of a spill happening. Hyde Park Environmental offer spill kits suitable for oil and have everything you require in them to clean the workplace when a spill takes place. Check out our spill kits guide.
Our spill kits provide emergency response in the work environment, ensuring quick response to any spill situation. They are highly visible, fully portable and are available in a range of sizes.
Each spill kit is packed without high-quality HUG absorbent products, including pads, socks, absorbent pillows and even disposable bags for safe disposal of soiled absorbents.
Secondary Containment:
There is often a lot of confusion around secondary containment. Secondary containment is a second line of defence used to avoid, monitor, or mitigate major hazardous incidents.
There are many regulatory controls to be aware of when storing oil. Check out our secondary containment guide for more information.
To collect any oil that spills/leaks from your containment, you must construct secondary containment around it.
In most cases, secondary containment consists of one of the following options;
- Under the container, a drip tray
- A bund – the container’s outer shell
Bunding is necessary for fixed tanks and other containers can be bunded or used of drip trays.
If you employ a bund, it must be able to hold 110% of the container’s capacity. If you don’t have a bind, make sure your secondary containment has the necessary capacity for the container it’s holding.
Generators:
Any of the following generators with a linked oil supply tank with a capacity of 201 litres or more are subject to these rules:
- Stand-by generators, which are generators retained for emergency usage and have a tank that supplies the generator where all the oil from the tank is not utilised in one day.
At Hyde Park Environmental we are creating a brighter future through environmental safety for industry. We offer safe, secure and compliant equipment to ensure you meet regulation standards and workplace safety. Check out our website.
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