A Midwest Regional Power Company

The Challenge

In 2015, the customer faced an environmental crisis, when approximately 600 gallons of turbine oil began leaking into a nearby public lake on the power plant’s property. They turned to Heritage for expert solutions and fast-response time to help contain the spill, cleanup and cause as little damage to the lake as possible.

Better VISIBILITY

Heritage deployed an emergency response team that night to better assess and clarify the situation to the customer’s management team. Heritage spent two weeks total at the site, completing the cleanup. The communication from Heritage crew members was instrumental in keeping the customer informed of the cleanup status, while also providing full compliance visibility with regulating agencies.

Better SOLUTIONS

Though there were few daylight hours remaining when first Heritage arrived, our skilled team members made the imperative call to place absorbent boom along the spillway to contain the oil. The following day, hard boom was placed outside of the absorbent boom, and then the remaining cleanup efforts were undertaken. Heritage used the most aggressive solutions to quickly tackle this problem, using vacuum trucks to remove the contamination, then placed in a frac truck. Throughout the two weeks, Heritage identified any small coves and other areas with sheen and light oil on the surface, and continued closing off this area with boom and absorbing the contamination until the lake was successfully cleared of all hazardous waste.

Proven IMPACT

Despite terrain and geographical challenges that the lake posed to the cleanup process, Heritage was able to provide solutions to fit this specific environmental spill, and work cohesively with the customer. Thanks in large part to the resources and capabilities Heritage brought, the community still safely enjoys the public lake today. In fact, it’s cleaner today than before Heritage stepped in to help as trash and abandoned materials on the banks were all removed. The regulators that oversaw the cleanup praised Heritage for its thorough, safe and compliant approach.