The Situation: The Case of the Oily Rags Outside of the City’s Fleet Operation Maintenance Bays there is a dumpster with a nicely painted sign saying Deposit Oily rags here………
Bays there is a dumpster with a nicely painted sign saying Deposit Oily rags here. As the newly appointed EH&S Manager for the city you ask the next pressing question to the Maintenance Supervisor. “After you put your oily rags in the dumpster, where does the dumpster go?” His response was; “they take them out to the power plant and burn them.” You just smile and say “oh, that’s nice that the city has that capability” Two days later while you are out at the power plant, you ask the Operations Manager about the burning of oily rags in the unit. He tells you that they used to do that but now with the newer changes in place from the EPA they are not allowed to. So you ask yet again another obvious question; “then why are these dumpsters of oily rags coming out here?” He was surprised that you mentioned it because he had been wondering that himself. Now he has 4 dumpsters on his property filled with oily rags.BEM 3601, Waste Management 4 The Questions: 1. Should the oily rags stay on the plant site? 2. What responsibility does Fleet Operations have?
2The Situation: It is Monday in the middle of August and you are a consultant for a local power plant. This particular plant is of an older design in which it can produce power by burning oil, coal, natural gas or garbage. To burn garbage the refuse trucks have to collect the waste and bring it to the plant. At the plant the garbage is dumped on what is known as the “tipping floor” and then hand sorted. Some items, such as mattresses, appliances and the more sturdy items cannot be burned so they have to be removed from the trash. Its already 98 degrees outside when you receive the phone call from the power plant. Apparently one of the sorters found something that you need to see. You hate going out there particularly on a Monday, because most of the time the garbage was dumped on Friday and has sat there all weekend getting “ripe”. When you arrive and open your car door, you realize you were right; it is very ripe! Gagging, you try to down-play your feelings and go to find the supervisor. This particular work group uses a “working supervisor” plan in which the supervisor also sorts garbage. You find him shortly after your arrival and as he is walking over to you, you noticed that he takes off his filthy gloves and lights up a cigarette. With his cigarette in his mouth he sticks out his hand to shake for introductions. All that is going through your mind is where have his hands been. He runs through his story and apparently one of the workers as found a box with a radiation sign on it, except the box is empty. The Questions: 1. What are your first actions? 2. What do you do if the radiation sign indicates a significant hazard?
