Middlesex County Fire Academy Improvement Project

County: Middlesex

The Middlesex County Fire Academy serves as a state-of-the-art training facility for NJ fire fighters and an emergency response command center for the area. Najarian Associates was retained by Middlesex County to provide professional engineering/environmental services to support the removal of Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) and construction of large-scale improvements to this facility.

Najarian Associates coordinated and supervised the removal of ten USTs and oil-water separators, and their replacement with Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs) and new oil-water separators. Najarian worked with NJDEP to obtain all the proper permits for UST tank closures and AST installations. Tanks removed included the following: 20,000-gallon heating fuel; 20,000-gallon and 8,000-gallon Tek-flame; 10,000-gallon gasoline; 6,000-gallon diesel; 2,000-gallon hazardous material; two 550-gallon waste oil; and a 6,000-gallon oil-water separator.

Planned Improvements

Najarian Associates designed improvements to the site in several areas, including the ‘Burn Pit,’ vehicle fueling station, vehicle garages, hazardous waste area, and the boiler room.

• The ‘Burn Pit’ improvements included the installation of 12,000 and 4,000-gallon ASTs that contain Tek-Flame, a volatile organic chemical used to fuel the training apparatus, and the installation of a 25,000-gallon oil-water separator (OWS) designed to separate out un-burnt fuel and recycle the material to a 4,000-gallon AST.

• Modification of stormwater management system to divert the potentially contaminated stormwater runoff through an in-line oil-water separator to a sanitary sewer line.

• Removal and replacement of existing vehicle fueling area with a 4-hose, gas/diesel fueling station, protected by a canopy. The existing USTs were removed and replaced with ASTs. In compliance with regulatory requirements, a site-wide air-emission control and leak-detection system was also installed for the storage tanks and fuel pipes.

• Removal of existing waste-oil tanks from two vehicle maintenance garages and replacement with oil-water separators. One of the systems required that pumps be installed to discharge to the sanitary sewer system.

• Removal and replacement of the existing 20,000-gallon heating oil UST for the generator, with two 10,000-gallon AST’s in the boiler room facility. Additionally, Najarian replaced all of the burners with a new day tank, an updated fuel filtration system and a sophisticated control system.

Najarian Associates developed a SPCC Plan for the facility to comply with EPA regulations.