Environmental crews are using vacuum trucks to clean up coolant and cutting oils from a creek near Walesboro after a manufacturer there had a fire water main break that sent water flooding through a portion of the plant.
NTN Driveshaft in Walesboro reported to IDEM that one of its water mains used for fire protection broke on Sunday, flooding the plant floor, said IDEM spokeswoman Sarah Bonick, director of external relations.
NTN spokesman Barry Parkhurst said a 6-inch sprinkler system water line, which was connected to a pump as part of a fire suppression system, broke on Sunday, setting off an alarm and then causing water to flood on the floor of the north side of the building.
An estimated 200,000 gallons of water went on to the floor, through the building’s doors and into drainage ditches around the plant, he said.
Parkhurst said the water washed across a central tank containing oil that is part of the manufacturing process, causing that material to intermix and leave the building with the water. He estimated that a few hundred gallons of oil could have combined with the water leaving the facility, which eventually made its way to a nearby creek where all the water runoff from Walesboro goes.
In IDEM’s report, investigators said, “as part of the production process, metal working coolants and cutting oils are drained from machines into floor trenches, which return the fluids as part of a coolant loop,” Bonick said. “Those trenches were flooded and the coolants and cutting oils mixed with the water then moved through floor drains and discharged to the storm drains in the parking lot to a retention basin, Bonick said. That basin drains through a culvert under County Road 300W, Bonick said.
NTN hired Midwest Environmental Solutions who established containment through the use of skirted boom and petroleum absorbent boom which was placed in the nearby creek, according to IDEM. Cleanup contractors are using vacuum trucks to collect and properly dispose of the water that has been affected by the oil, Bonick said.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
