Field Service & Emergency Response

Types of Mercury Wastes Managed

SET manages metallic Mercury-containing instruments, including meters, manometers, thermometers, pressure gauges and flow meters. SET manages inorganic mercury salts and salt solutions, such as mercuric chloride and mercuric sulfate, as well as organic mercury wastes, such as phenylmercuric acetate. 

Hopcalite Testing, Lumex Screening, and Reporting Services
Mercury is a toxic and volatile material, testing and screening must be thorough and accurate. SET utilizes hopcalite testing in accordance with NIOSH method 6009. This method requires raising the temperature of the affected area to ensure any minute volumes of mercury will be volatized and captured during the testing process. SET also provides initial mercury screening with calibrated mercury vapor analyzers.

What To Do If Mercury Spills
In the event of a mercury spill or a suspected spill, it is critical that swift action be taken as the substance is corrosive in liquid form and toxic if inhaled or ingested. We recommend the following steps be taken as soon as possible:

• Identify impacted areas and evacuate immediately.
• Isolate the affected area (HVAC, pedestrian foot traffic, sewers, or water runoff). Use caution tape to tape off the affected area immediately.
• Notify anyone that was present in the area of the mercury spill. They should have their clothes bagged and alternative clothing is provided to them before they leave the site. Notify the facility manager. If the spill is an RQ event (Reportable Quantity Release), notify appropriate local, state, and federal agencies.
• Compile a list of names of all the people that were present at the time of the suspected mercury spill. All of those people must be contacted as soon as possible so that any cross-contamination can be contained.
• Call SET and speak to one of our customer service representatives immediately to have any urgent questions answered and to schedule immediate remediation for all affected areas.

SET Environmental provides NORM/TENORM management services to a nationwide client base which include:

• Site Assessments and Remediation Radiological Surveys
• On-Site Pipeline Pig & Equipment Decontamination
• Facility Cleanup and Decommissioning, Valve, Pump, and Tubular Decontamination
• Waste Sampling, Packaging, Analysis, Characterization
• Waste Disposal and Transportation
• Spill Response
• NORM Project Management

For additional information on our NORM capabilities, please reach out to your local representative or contact the SET Corporate Office.

SET offers a full range of remediation and industrial cleaning/decontamination services including:

• Hydro blasting (3,000 – 40,000 psi)
• Coating removal
• Weld preparation and mill scale removal
• Surface preparation and cleaning
• Refractory removal
• Polymer removal
• Online cleaning
• Automated cleaning technologies
• Air pre-heaters
• Decoking
• Boiler descaling
• Boiler recovery bottoms
• Exchangers
• Furnaces
• Reactors
• Evaporators
• Condenser tubes
• Water recirculation
• Mold growth removal for walls, ceilings, and structures
• Line jetting
• Turbo Vac services
• Sludge removal from acid/caustic tanks
• Vacuum sludge removal from oil-water separators, tanks, and pits
• Sewer line decontamination
• Facility closure and decommissioning
• Bag houses
• Abrasive blasting
• Overhead cleaning with mask and seal preparation
• Confined space entry
• Confined space standby and rescue
• Permit required, confined space entry tank and pit cleaning
• Heavy equipment cleaning (mill stands, extruders)
• Silo cleaning with sanitization

Our environmental remediation services include the following:

Construction of slurry walls — creating an engineered barrier in situ to encapsulate any contaminants from migrating

Containment enclosures for odor control and air emissions — SET has engineered containment for hazardous materials such as mercaptan vessels, mercaptan contaminated soils, and chemical warfare agents such as VX and tabun

Excavation dewatering — this includes managing rainwater, groundwater, or stormwater; communicating into underground utility vaults, open excavations or cable runs using submersible pumps, vacuum trucks, and temporary on-site water treatment systems; and then disposing of water on-site under the local ordinance or transporting water to a wastewater treatment facility

Filter press treating of sludges from digesters or settling ponds — dewatering the sludge with a filter press greatly reduces the volume of materials for management on-site or off-site disposal

Installation and operation of vapor extraction systems — these systems involve in situ remediation techniques, effective for volatile organic compounds in groundwater or underground zones of contamination where excavation is not a viable option

Lagoon stabilization — hazardous and non-hazardous constituents can be solidified in place or pumped and processed through a filter press, and transferred back to the lagoon, applied to the land, or transported for off-site disposal

Oil/water separators — SET routinely inspects and cleans oil/water separators to make sure they are operating properly; oil/water separators filled with sludge that do not allow for phase separation will lead to environmental liabilities when oil “pushes” through the system

Subsurface site investigations — SET can plot a sampling grid, gather samples, perform soil analysis and report the results on a CAD diagram in the form of a site investigation report to delineate the extent of contamination for clients

Tank farm dismantlement — once tanks have been decontaminated, SET can dismantle or demolish tanks for asset recovery

UST/AST removal and abandonment — SET’s certified tank experts can remove underground storage tanks or abandon tanks in place depending on site conditions and approval from local agencies

In situ soil stabilization and solidification — SET can employ in situ chemical treatment, bioremediation, or solidification of contaminated soil where site conditions dictate soil be left in place

Fertilizer acquisition from lagoon remediation — sludges from sludge digesters and many lagoons make great soil nutrients; SET has secured land application permits for local agencies to supply fertilizer to foster rich soil conditions while reducing the amount of waste disposed of by the client

Transportation and disposal of waste — if in situ or land application is not available, SET is able to transport waste using its own fleet of trucks with roll-off boxes and dump trucks; SET will also ensure liability elimination or reduction by ensuring that waste is disposed of at SET’s Part-B permitted TSDF or at a strategic alliance partner facilities.