Stop Shoveling Oil-Soaked Dirt and Shale at Substations

Between natural disasters, service interruptions and pandemic protocols; routine maintenance intervals are often being stretched from once a month to once every two months. For some, routine maintenance has even been reduced to a quarterly check-in.

Meanwhile, persistent leaks and drips at each substation haven’t stopped, and taking a substation offline for repairs and replacements isn’t feasible. Just five leaky transformers can collectively add up to 10 gallons of dielectric fluid that soaks into the shale and has to be shoveled out so that it doesn’t seep into the ground or get carried to storm drains every time it rains.

Those white oil spill sheets you put down to absorb the oil have disappeared every single month. The only evidence of them is a tiny corner that you sometimes find under a rock.

White spill sheets were never intended for extended outdoor use. They were made for cleaning up a big oil or fuel spill on water. The sun’s UV rays degrade white sheets in as little as two weeks. That’s long before you can get back to the substation to pick them up.

Open-top drip pans and pails don’t fare much better than white spill sheets. Sure, they catch oil drips. They’ll probably even still be there when you return next month – which is more than you can say for the white spill sheets. But, chances are good that unless you live in the desert; they’re going to be full of water, not oil.

Oil floats on water, so when it rains and water fills the pan; any oil that was in the pan gets a free ride over the top rim. That means that you won’t just have one spot of oil to shovel up under a leak, you’ve got to rake and shovel out a much larger area. Or call for an expensive remediation contractor.

When you’re done shoveling up the oily mess – again – make this the last time you have to deal with heavy shale and dirt or spend thousands for an expensive remediation contractor. It’s time to give your shovel a break.

After you’ve removed the oil stains, install Spilltration^® Husky PolyBack Oil Filter Pans under your leakers instead of white spill sheets or traditional open-top drip pans. Husky Pans are task-designed for extended outdoor use.

Made of 100% recycled fibers, Husky Pans are UV-resistant and guaranteed to last in the field for a minimum of two years. That means that they’ll be right where you put them, month after month.
Husky pans capture oil and filter out clean rainwater, so they don’t overflow like traditional drip pans. They also won’t become a breeding ground for insects because there’s no standing water.

Now, when you return for monthly inspections, you won’t spend half a day shoveling and replacing shale. Maintenance is as simple as replacing any of the oil-soaked pads in the Husky Pans. It takes seconds, not hours. Your shovel is going to be jealous.