New York State DOT Upgrades Maintenance Facilities With ecoSep Oil/Water Separators

Project:        Provide Upgraded Oil Separators
Location:        150 NYSDOT maintenance facilities throughout New York State
Engineer:        New York State Office of General Services
Owner:        N.Y.S. Department of Transportation (NYSDOT)
Contractor:        Various
Project Objective:        Provide New York State with the best available oil separation system in North America

New York State Department of Transportation, over a period of six years (1994 -2000) established an environmental initiative to upgrade and retrofit new oil / water separators (OWS) at DOT maintenance facilities. This undertaking involved not only NYSDOT engineers but also an engineering design team from N.Y.S. Office of General Services. The common goal of both agencies was to bring the approximately 150 state maintenance facilities into compliance with point source discharge permitting requirements, set forth by N.Y.S. Department of Conservation.

An effluent performance specification for free oil content was developed for all OWS suppliers to achieve. The effluent oil content was not to exceed 10 PPM based on an influent, free oil concentration of 1000 PPM with testing documentation to support the specified removal efficiencies. Acceptable manufactures included single wall steel and fiberglass systems as well as separation technologies housed in precast concrete vessels.

Each DOT maintenance facility project was let for competitive bid (various contracts with multiple sites). The bidding contractors had many OWS options to choose from. The ecoSep Oil Water Separator was specified as the "concrete separator" and was typically twice the unit cost of the most competitive single wall, horizontal steel tank allowed.

So why was the ecoSep submitted and installed on approximately 70% of these maintenance facilities? The contractors, when bidding the labor to install different system configurations, concluded the labor and installation costs for the ecoSep actually made it more cost effective despite its higher unit price.

In conclusion, not only did the State of New York achieve its objective of a competitive bid price for each site contract but also received the best available oil separation technology with the ecoSep's superior performance of < 5 PPM effluent free oil content based on a 5000 PPM influent concentration. Every ecoSep submitted also included the best available spill technology, the ecoStop Spill Control inlet valve, to protect against discharge of catastrophic spill events.

SOURCE: Royal Environmental Systems, Inc.