Air Carrier Ground Service personnel reported a lavatory waste ramp spill caused by a ground equipment malfunction. The waste spill drained into storm drain due to the lack of Spill Kit availability.

Date: 2021-12 · Aircraft: B737-800 · Phase: ground

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-hazardous-material-violation|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|ground-event-encounter-ground-equipment-issue

Synopsis

Air Carrier Ground Service personnel reported a lavatory waste ramp spill caused by a ground equipment malfunction. The waste spill drained into storm drain due to the lack of Spill Kit availability.

Narrative

There was a lavatory spill on Gate XX at ZZZ airport at XA:15 on Date; truck #XXXX. The Lavatory Driver noticed the clear dump hose had a crack in it and was spilling lavatory waste on to the ramp. Where the aircraft was parked and being serviced next to a storm drain about five ft. away. The Lavatory Truck Driver noticed lavatory waste draining into the storm drain. The Lavatory Truck Driver stopped the servicing of the rear lavatory. The Lavatory Truck Driver then went to look for a spill kit within the vicinity of the Gate XX and Gates XY and XZ there were no spill kits available. There was about 6 to 8 gallons of lavatory waste that spilled into the storm drain as a result of there being no spill kits available to stop the flow of lavatory waste. Creating a hazardous waste environmental spill in to the storm drain.There is supposed to be spill kits in-between each gates at ZZZ airport from Gate XA to Gate XE. There is currently only 3 spill kits for the whole Terminal C located at Gates XC; XD and XE. The lack of available spill kits to stop hazardous spills on the gates from entering storm drains and creating environmental issues could be addressed with the availability of spill kits properly staged were the can be easily obtained.

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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.