sdge environmental lab

Environmental Analysis Laboratory

Environmental Services

Certified Annually by ELAPEnvironmental Laboratory Accreditation Program

Programs the Lab Supports

• Hazardous Waste Characterization• Waste & Storm Water Testing• Transformer Oil Testing• Poly Chlorinated Biphenyl Testing • Powerplant Water Testing• Gas Compressor Stations - Well Water

Program• Soil Import and Export Testing• Air Emissions Testing• Gas Leak & BTU Testing• External Revenue – Carlsbad Desalination

Plant

Environmental Services part of Operations Support

Hazardous Waste Characterization

Overview

Miramar & Kearny TSDF• Profile the waste drums for proper

disposal• Hazardous Soil Disposal • Vault Dewatering Program

Construction Debris • Lead Paint• Asbestos

Miramar TSDF

Kearny TSDF

Waste from entire company

PCB Waste ONLYAll other Hazardous Waste

Drum Sampling


Waste Stream Identified for Sampling

Paint or Construction Debris Sampling


Waste Stream Identified for Sampling

Hazardous Waste

Utility Pole Sampling

Vault Dewatering Program

Sump pump with Filter Sock

Water is tested for odor and

visual content Then pumped to the storm drain

Vault Dewatering with a Tanker

Off loaded into the

OWSTransported to Miramar

Water removed

from vault

Water Discharged to Sewer

Oil skimmed from water

Soil/sludge separated

Water holding tanks

Vault Dewatering Permit Support• Annual Sampling Event – on site sample

pulled and tested by the lab• Research testing for filter sock

development & sump pumps• State Mandated Testing – 4 year study

for all priority pollutants

Vault Dewatering Lab Support

Vault Dewatering Lab Support – cont’d

Vault Water Vacuum Tanker Support• Wipe samples for PCB’s• Non-Hazardous vs. Hazardous Water

disposalOWS Solids Bin

• Quarterly sampling for disposalOWS Discharge Permit Support

• Quarterly report sampling• Split sample with quarterly City of San

Diego sampling event

Storm Water Pollution Prevention Program

Industrial SWPPP’s

Permit Support

Miramar TSDF Palomar Energy Center

BMP’s

LAB SAMPLES DISHCARGE

Storm Drain Filter Insert

Industrial SWPPP’s

Permit Support

Rain Event Occurs – Lab gets email alert from our Meteorology Group

Lab Technician samples the rain water as it flows into the storm drain and conducts visual observations

Lab analyzes for• pH• Conductivity• Oil & Grease content• Total Suspended Solids• Permit Specific constituents associated to the industrial activity• Results are submitted annually to the Regional Water Quality Control Board in order to allow legal discharge of rain water From our facilities.

Transformer Oil Program

Investigative Analysis – Used Oil for Selling Depolymerization

of Paper Windings

Oil Quality Trending

The Lab tests the oil for:• Total Acid Number (Corrosion)• Color (sign of aging)• Metal content (gear damage or sign of sparking) • Furans (thermal degradation of paper)• Dissolved gases (flammable gases can be generated)• Viscosity & Surface Tension (sign of aging)• Water content (reveals a leak to the atmosphere, causes

damage) • PCBs (Hazardous waste >5 ppm)

Gives the electrical engineers a health report on the transformers in the system.

Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls

A Bit of Background: Banned in late 1970’s• PCBs are very stable which explains their

persistence in the environment• PCBs are man made and have been used in

many different products, including electrical equipment, surface coatings, inks, adhesives, flame-retardants, and paints.

• Incineration may lead to PCB pollution and produce dangerous by-products, such as hydrogen chloride (HCl) and dioxins.

Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls

• PCBs readily absorb into the skin (fatty tissue) and will accumulate in the body.

• They reduce the fire risk associated with transformers

• Many of our transformers predate the 1970’s.• Exposure to PCB’s has been linked to cancer in animal testing.

Emergency Spill Response

When a transformer is hit by a vehicle and spills oil, the lab will give same day results often within hours of the spill occurring.

Issues of concern: Oil that has entered the storm water conveyance system

Emergency Spill Response

PCB’s Gas Ops Support

Power Plant Work

Cooling Towers require NPDES Permits to discharge. This requires weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual testing and reporting.

For the Palomar Energy Center we conduct all permit required tests and analyze their storm water for the SWPPP.

Natural Gas Compressor StationsWell Monitoring Program – Remember Erin Brockovich?We test the ground water around all SDGE and SoCal Gas compressor stations for:

Hexavalent Chromium (Cr6+)And more!

Cr6+ was an additive used to prevent corrosion in cooling tower water.

PG&E paid out $333 M to dealwith the Cr6+ contamination to ground water around just 1 of their compressor stations.

Soil Import and Export

Soil being held for testing results

Soil sampling for confirmation of effective clean up.

Soil Import and Export

Soil Quarry Sampling for Import

Preconstruction coring to avoid delays

Air Emission Testing

Linearity Testing for Emissions Stacks

Moreno Compressor Station

CEMS-Continuous emissions monitoring systemRequired to be tested on a quarterly basis• Ensures the CEMS system is in calibration and

functioning normally.

Gas Leaks & Odorant

When a customer is concerned due to an unusual odor….or no odor at all!

Gas employees have handheld devices that can be used effectively for detecting low levels of methane and natural gas.

When the levels are too high, the lab takes an air sample and runs it on a lab instrument to verify if the leak is natural gas.

Tedlar sampling bag

Gas Leaks & Odorant cont’d

When is there is no odor?

Our natural gas is odorized in Nevada but….. • Some new gas lines have to be “pickled” with odorant

if the interior of the pipe absorbs the mercaptan as it flows through the line to the end user.

• The lab has been trained to transport and dispense pure mercaptan into the line with the assistance of the gas crews.

Gas Ops Support – PSEP

Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Agua Hedionda Lagoon

First Pretreatment

Second Pretreatment

Reverse Osmosis

Post Treatment

• Reverse Osmosis water can be slightly acidic• It may be low in minerals that make water

taste good.

Energy Recovery

46% of the energy used to generate the RO water is recovered through capture of the hydraulic energy as the brine is rejected from the membranes.

Brine Discharge & Water Supply

Brine water is mixed into the powerplant cooling water dischargebefore discharging to the ocean.

50 Million Gallons of Drinking water enter our municipal system each day.

The Ocean Plan

Industries that discharge directly into the ocean are highly regulated.

The National Pollution Elimination Discharge System (NPDES) regulates the quality of the water as it exits the plant.

Testing seawater poses challenges for detection at low levels.

The Ocean Plan regulations were based on testing in clean DI lab water. Detecting contaminates in brine water at low levels can be extremely challenging.

The Ocean Plan

Throughout the plant commissioning process our lab provided compliance testing throughout the plant processes.

The Desalination Plant when live on December 14, 2015.

The Lab Team

Environmental Analysis Lab

Ask us to come to your meeting!Or request our services.

Contact Information:

Lab Manager – Lydia Pellecer (858) 549-6518Front Desk – Crystal Yousef(858) 503-5371

sdge environmental lab

Documents