Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

At around 8.45 am, 10,000 litres of milk from a cheese factory spilled into the Ouatier River due to incorrect configuration of a diverter valve. The milk, being unloaded from a tanker truck, was directed to an already full storage tank that overflowed. As the tanks were located above a rainwater drain, the milk was directed directly into the river. The employee in charge of the unloading operation become aware of the problem and alerted the guard station. The guard and the technical supervisor on duty closed a gate valve to close off the rainwater network. A surface pump was installed near the gate valve to divert the dairy’s internal rainwater network into the wastewater system. After drawing the pollution into these networks internally, the operator opened its clean water networks to increase the river’s flow rate, raise the oxygen level in the water and limit the risk of asphyxiating the aquatic fauna. Corrective measures were implemented: reminder of the verification procedures relative to manual valve operations, securing of manual valve positions by electric control devices or PLCs, backfilling of the rainwater drain under the milk storage tanks.