When working in special locations such as beside a source of the community’s drinking water, storage tank painting projects deal with more risks than regular tank painting. The risk lies in harming the local ecosystem’s plant and animal population, and the even greater risk of introducing harmful substances to vital sources of potable water.
As such, the containment system during old paint removal should not allow any traces of coating dust or chemicals to reach and contaminate the environment. But working “in the wild”, where the terrain is often rough and uneven, may not make it possible to build a total containment system.
Another problem is the inclement weather. The storage tank painting project can be mired in a wet and mucky location for some period of time, making the work difficult and cause delay. Out here in these locations, the storage tank painting crew is really roughing it literally. When the weather turns bad, they work on the tank interior, and work the exteriors when the weather improves. Blast-cleaning the tank’s surface can take many days and even weeks to complete, because it has to be done carefully. This, despite the use of a dust collector that siphons the debris from blast-cleaning and paint removal.
The due diligence is all in the name of environmental protection. The sudden entry of men, machines, and materials in these remote locations are disturbing the ecosystem already, the least that can be done is to remove any further negative impact by the storage tank painting project to the local habitat.
