While nowhere near the scale of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there are, according to the Environment Agency, some 3,000 pollution incidents in the UK involving oil and fuel every year. Not all of these result from road accidents – some come from leaking oil and fuel tanks, spills during delivery and deliberate disposal into drainage systems – but quite a few involve damaged diesel fuel tanks on trucks and there are also a significant number of accidents involving oil and fuel from tankers, plus a certain number of incidents involving even more unpleasant liquids. The UK Highways Agency deals with a "Large number of incidents involving oil spills each year" and adds that, "Many of these incidents require specialist contractors to assist in their clear-up operations."
Apart from the hazard to driving, which usually requires collecting the spillage up in some way before the road can be reopened, oil getting into drainage systems causes all kinds of problems. Wildfowl are vulnerable both through damage to the waterproofing of their plumage and through swallowing oil when they preen. Mammals such as water voles may also be affected. Fish exposed to oil are not good to eat.
The Challenge
Once a spill on a road has occurred, there is an urgent need to stop it getting into the drainage system, which means temporarily blocking any relevant large holes as quickly as possible. These could be temporarily filled with earth, except they would then need to be cleaned out again, or stuffed full with something else that comes to hand, provided it fills the hole completely and there is no opportunity for leaks to get past it.
We do not know what is happens to be the most popular current method of accomplishing this in the UK – the UK Highways Agency only talks about using, "The correct equipment" and having "The required level of expertise" and complying, "With all associated environment legislation", but we do know that a British product that is proving to be the solution of choice across the water in France. This product is inexpensive, solves the problem elegantly at low cost, is very quick to deploy and will be described fully in our November edition both in print and online. See if you can come up with anything better.
