What Is Bilge Cleaning and Maintaining?
A process involving high pressure (HP) cleaning, washing and the evacuation of residual fluids for the purpose of sanitation, safety and over all alacrity within the lowest compartments of a ship/vessel. The maintaining of a bilge or bilges would last throughout the entirety of the Ship Alteration and Repair Package (SARP) awarded.
Why & When Is Bilge Cleaning and Maintenance Necessary?
A Bilge is the lowest compartment on a vessel, below the waterline, where any two sides meet at the keel. Differences in the keel are depending if the ship is flat bottomed vessel or not. Thus many spaces residing below the water line throughout a boat, ship or vessel have multiple bilges or bilge pockets. Most spaces this far below deck are considered engineering spaces where machinery, valves and piping are commonly run through. Anything from Ship Service Diesel Generators (SSDG) to Refrigeration systems and Oily Water Separators (OWS) are in direct contact with or around a bilge. This safety benefit was set in place for many occurrences such as unforeseen leaks, system pressure overloads, tank over-flow and to simply keeping any unwanted liquids or materials away from machinery. Keeping these bilges clean is necessary to avoid flooding, fires, the protection of equipment as well as general sanitation purposes. Routine bilge cleaning is also obligatory to the safety and readiness of commercial vessels and most importantly the world’s finest, U.S. Navy.
How Can Pro Tank Help?
Pro Tank is able to offer such professional services due to several accommodations.
First, being that all of our technicians are well trained with multiple qualifications, some of which include: 10 and 30 hour OSHA Maritime training, Hazardous Confined Space training, HAZWOPER certifications, OSHA Competent Persons certifications and DOT Hazardous Materials certifications. All our certifications are in compliance with state and government law 49 CFR 472.704.
Secondly, ProTank spares no expense in acquiring the most up to date equipment and machinery available to accomplish each job with more efficiency, safety and precision than any other tank cleaning company on and off the water front.
We are approved vendors with many major Master Ship Repair Agreements (MSRA’s) and Agreement for Boat Repairs (ABR’s) and organizations such as NASSCO, BAE, CMSD, Pacific Ship Repair, PICS and SWRMC. Based on our past excellent track record and trust among all of our clients, we look toward a long future ahead in our ever growing endeavor to perfect and set the standard among Professional Tank Cleaning services.