One of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies with an impressive benchmark of environmental performance looked to Tervita to provide an integrated waste management model across several of their oil sands operations.
At one time or another, we all have challenges with our waste line.
Our customer needed a waste management contractor able to embed itself into the site-wide service operation and provide waste management solutions in seamless alignment with the company’s pursuit of operational excellence.
Solid waste (landfill and hazardous waste) management: Segregation, sorting and landfill diversion tactics were required to deal with waste directly at the source. Leachate collection was a particular issue. Our customer had been using a vacuum back-up style truck to collect leachate, and at times the liquid level was proving unmanageable.
Ecopit (lined pit that consolidates fluid and sludge waste) : Our customer’s practice of transporting fluid and sludge waste by vacuum truck was costly and inefficient.
Lime sludge: Our customer had been managing this waste stream with lugger bins – a labour-intensive application whose manual processes presented personal safety risks.
Tervita employed hazardous waste bins, sorting containers and personnel to sort and organize solid waste directly at the source.
To remove solid waste leachate, Tervita used tanker trucks, whose higher capacity reduced leachate transportation costs by 60%. We also used tanker trucks to haul fluid waste from the ecopit. Their significant capacity advantage over vacuum trucks (30 vs 8 m3) reduced fluid handling costs by approximately 50% while reducing the carbon footprint of transporting waste to our salt cavern disposal facility in Lindberg.
To transport lime sludge, Tervita used hooklift roll-off bins and a roll off truck. In addition to improving on-site safety by eliminating manual activities from the process, this approach eliminated the need for chain hooks and hoists. And by replacing 11 m3 lugger bin with 23 m3 roll-off bins, we significantly reduced the costs associated with lime sludge transport.
Management of production waste (evaporator blow-down water), sulphur, scrap wood and NORM (naturally occurring radioactive materials) Asset recovery programs.
Our approach to handling solid waste leachate reduced leachate transportation costs by 60%.
Using tanker trucks to haul fluid waste from our customer’s ecopit reduced fluid handling costs by approximately 50% while reducing the carbon footprint of transporting waste.
Our sensible solution for transporting lime sludge improved on-site safety, eliminated the need for costly equipment and significantly reduced transport costs.