Barton Park Industrial Estate

How we averted a crisis through an integrated drainage and civils approach, working with property managers, the EA and tenants to deliver a lasting solution.

Barton Park Industrial Estate, located in Eastleigh. This 42 acre site is managed by a leading international property management firm and houses major distribution facilities, transport depots and light industrial units.

The problem:

After major oil contamination issues impacting a nearby river, the Environment Agency was threatening to shut down the site entirely.

Solving a critical multi-stakeholder problem

Containment

The site was in breach of the Water Authority Act 1991 and on the EA’s ‘Red List’

To avoid the site’s drainage outflows being shut off by Southern Water / EA, Metro Mechanical was appointed as specialist representative by the managing agents

We led a meeting with EA and Southern Water officials, representatives from each of the 20 tenants and the FM to agree an action plan that involved two phases

We held stakeholder meetings each week of phase 1

Phase 1

Installation of specialised booms by the river outfall

Oil-absorbent booms fitted across surface water system, with levels monitored over 4 week period

Dye testing at each tenant’s premises

Using our jet-vac tanker capacity to remove all petrol interceptor waste across site

Lab tests of hazardous oil waste samples

4-week program reduced contamination: Barton Park was off the EA ‘Red List’

Initial Findings 

Following the success of Phase 1, we pinpointed the contamination to a bus depot

Their vehicle washing system linked via a petrol interceptor into the surface water system

We carried out a full-entry investigation of the petrol interceptor and found it had been installed back-to-front

We also discovered a catchment pit beneath the depot that directed oil-contaminated waste directly into the surface-water drainage

Phase 2 

Working with all parties, we designed a correctly-sized and located system

We conducted a ‘flows and loads’ survey to gauge drainage system capacity utilisation

We launched a 12 week program of civil excavations to upgrade the drainage infrastructure and install the correct interceptor systems

We worked with the tenant’s approved contractors while continuing Phase 1 monitoring

Our tanker fleet provided haz-waste removal support

A major crisis averted

Quantifying the success of our approach

>£500,000
Lost revenues for tenants avoided

>£150,000
Environment Agency fines prevented

£8,400
Cost of annual surface and foul-water PPM, and ongoing monitoring

£340
average annual reactive spend across entire 42-acre site since Metro Mechanical project

0
number of Environment Agency issues since Metro Mechanical Project

A comprehensive and rigorous approach in investigating issues allowed us to be successful:

• Phase 1 succeeded immediately in reducing contamination and removing the site from EA’s Red List status
• We took a hands-on attitude – our engineers worked for long hours within the confined spaces of the drainage and interceptor systems to investigate issues up close
• We also adopted an analytical approach, using water testing and data collation from across the site
• We came up with a creative initial solution using boom systems
• We showed initiative to manage government agencies, utilities, 20 tenants, the managing agent, the landlord, and groundworks contractors to get the job done
• Following completion of the project, we re-surveyed the site to provide up-to-date drainage plans

We introduced our robust annual maintenance program to clean foul and surface water systems

6 months after the project, a detailed follow-up investigation revealed no contamination in the water course