Hazardous Waste Disposal

US Ecology, Idaho

Columbia Weather Systems offers software and hardware customization for applications whose weather monitoring requirements aren’t met by our standard systems.

US Ecology Idaho is just such a case. The company’s Grand View, Idaho facility treats and disposes hazardous waste, non-hazardous industrial waste and low-activity radioactive material. Conditions of their operating permit require USEI to monitor weather conditions at the facility. The company purchased an Orion™ Weather Station with Weather MicroServer™ and Weather Master™ Software.

Grae Harper, Environmental Engineer, contacted CWS to request 1-hour rolling wind speed and direction average to meet a specific compliance requirement. The calculated parameters were added to the Weather MicroServer firmware and Weather Master software.

With this change the user can monitor the 1-hour rolling wind averages through the MicroServer user interface, as well as, Weather Master “Display” and “Trend” screens. The measurements are recorded in the Data Log files as new information is received from the weather station. In addition the parameter was made available to export as trend data through the MicroServer Log Exporter. This feature allows the user to export a (.csv) file, commonly viewed through Excel.

“The customized weather monitoring application from CWS installed at our facility allows USEI to track the rolling one-hour average wind speed when placing treated waste in our landfills,” Harper reports. “When this average wind speed reaches a permit specified upper limit, automatic email alerts are sent out by the Weather Master software and landfill operations are temporarily suspended. The aim of this permit requirement is to control the dispersion of dust on-site.”

“USEI uses the weather monitoring equipment and software in other capacities that help USEI comply with important environmental regulations and promote our industry-leading Health and Safety Program,” he adds. “We are pleased with the work CWS has done for us and plan to use them in the future for any weather monitoring needs we may have.”

For more information:

USEI Weather Monitoring Case Study PDF

US Ecology

Orion Weather Stations

Weather MicroServer

Weather Master Software