The tip-and-pour method, as well as poorly designed pumps, can expose workers to injury and companies to significant financial losses

Lawn care, landscape, golf course, and nursery handlers and applicators often transfer potentially hazardous chemicals and concentrates such as herbicides, insecticides, adjuvants, and fungicides, from large drums into smaller containers or mix tanks.  This transfer process can have serious consequences if manual “tip-and-pour” techniques or poorly designed pumps are used.

In fact, each year 1,800-3,000 preventable occupational incidents involving pesticide exposure are reported.  Keeping workers safe is not just a best management practice – it is the law.  The federal Worker Protection Standard (WPS) was revised in 2015 and now provides a greater focus on reducing pesticide exposures.  A closed system of transferring chemicals reduces unnecessary exposures by providing controlled delivery of chemical products without fear of worker exposure, over-pouring, spilling, or releasing vapors.  Many of the revisions became effective this January.

“Beyond workers compensation issues related to exposure, there can be other huge potential liabilities: Environmental Protection Agency (federal) or state regulatory fines, as well as clean-up or remediation costs,” says Kerry Richards, Ph.D., President Elect of the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators and former Director of Penn State’s Pesticide Safety Education Program.  “This is particularly true if a pesticide gets into a water source, kills fish, or contaminates drinking water.”

According to Richards, the direct and indirect costs of a pesticide spill or injury can be substantial, not the least of which is the loss of wasted chemicals.  “Pesticides, particularly newer concentrated formulations, are very expensive so spilling a few ounces could cost you several hundred dollars in lost product during a single transfer,” says Richards.

Although a number of pump types exist for chemical transfer (rotary, siphon, lever-action, piston and electric), most are not engineered as a sealed, contained system.  In addition, these pumps can have seals that leak, are known to wear out quickly, and can be difficult to operate, making precise volume control and dispensing difficult.

In contrast, closed systems can dramatically improve the safety and efficiency of chemical transfer, as well as prevent the spillage or loss of valuable chemicals or concentrated formulations.

“The availability of new technology that creates a closed or sealed system is ideal for handling pesticides or other dangerous chemicals, and should become a best management practice,” suggests Richards.  “With such devices, for example GoatThroat Pumps, pesticide handlers can maintain a controlled containment from one vessel to another and significantly reduce any potential for exposure or spill.”

Small, versatile, hand-operated pressure pumps, such as those manufactured by GoatThroat Pumps, are engineered to work as a system which can be either closed or sealed.  The pumps can be used for the safe transfer of over 1400 industrial chemicals, including the most aggressive pesticides.  These pumps function essentially like a beer tap.  The operator attaches the pump, presses the plunger several times to build up a low amount of internal pressure, and then dispenses the liquid.  The device is configured to provide precise control over the fluid delivery, from slow (1ML/ 1 oz.) up to 4.5 gallons per minute, depending on viscosity, and are safe to use with virtually any container from 2-gallon jugs to 55-gallon drums.

Golf Resort Adopts “Best Practice” Pump Systems

Mike Cocino, assistant superintendent of Seaview Golf Resort in Galloway, NJ, sought a safer, more efficient way to transfer liquid fertilizers, wetting agents, biostimulants, and other plant growth regulators from 55 gallon drums to measuring containers.  These would, in turn, be transferred to mix tanks ranging in size from 1 gallon hand pumps to 300 gallon sprayers.

Additionally, according to Cocino, sliding the heavy drums off of pallets with a dolly, and then tipping and pouring the drums was challenging, particularly in areas with limited storage.

“Drums can roll or fall, and you do not want to lose control of an entire drum,” says Cocino.  “When tipping a drum, it’s difficult to pour out the right amount and easy to over-pour or splash some of the contents out.”

Cocino adds that getting to the needed drum typically required his staff had to move a few other drums out of the way, which was a laborious process.

To address these issues, Cocino purchased three GoatThroat Pumps and was happy with the results for a number of reasons.

“Safety is a huge priority for us, and with the sealed pumps we’re able to safely pump whatever product we need without moving or tipping any barrels,’” says Cocino.  “The barrels stay safely in place, upright on their pallets, which definitely is a ‘back saver.’  Because of this, we’ve eliminated any issues of spillage or related cleanup.”

Cocino estimates that by avoiding the need to move the barrels, tip and pour product, and clean up any potential spills, his operation saves at least 50 hours of labor annually.

The landscape maintenance operations use a broad range of chemicals including fertilizers and herbicides. Field service technicians and managers are always searching for the best, most efficient ways to handle them. Inventory management is a critical component of the manager’s day to day operation. One issue which constantly arises is that the chemical room is frequently a mess because the available transfer methods offer little control for the fluid transfer from the large 30 and 55 gallon containers. Additionally, the available pumps breakdown regularly and need to be replaced which is costly to the bottom line. Recently, a manager at a California Lawn Care company had this very dilemma. While the chemical he was pumping is a very effective as an herbicide, but must be handled very carefully when transferring it into field use containers. The usual methods delivered frequent spill which had to be cleaned up. He started looking looked for a pump which would provide better results and give him the control in dispensing. Finally he purchased a GoatThroat™ pump with Viton seals and is very pleased with the results. “My boss was a little skeptical because GoatThroat™ is pretty expensive compared to the $40 pumps we were used to. Plus no one had ever heard of it. We have been using this GoatThroat™ pump for over 3 years and it’s great. I can pump up the container, and, by using the remote tap, I deliver our chemicals to the field container in a neat and controlled way. I don’t have problems with a messy chemical room any more. It is very important to our management that all of our chemicals be handled in the safest way possible both from a worker safety as well as an environmental safety point of view. This is better than anything I have ever seen. And ultimately, this is a great cost saver for my company because we don’t have to spend time cleaning up spills and we don’t have to keep buying new pumps and then throwing them away when they fail.

This is a Sigma Six solution (Best Practices) for chemical transfer at our company, and I intend to bring my GoatThroat™ to our next meeting of all of the Branch managers.”

Golf course management involves the purchase, storage, and dispensing of many types of liquids from fertilizers to insecticides and having to deal with all of the issues that come from these activities. Accordingly, Mike Higuera, Jr., Manager of The Ranch Golf Course in San Jose, CA suffered  such  difficulties when using high volumes of liquids: spills, employee injuries, leaks, and loss of product.  The initial issue was that the 55-gallon drums of liquids were stored horizontally in a dedicated chemical shed with spigots  mounted  on  the  fronts.  Positioning  the  full  drums  was  both  difficult  and  dangerous.  Then,  because  they  projected  into  the  room,  the  spigots  were  often  subject  to  accidental  contact,  sometimes  being  completely  dislodged. The resultant mess was expensive and, depending on the chemical, dangerous to employees. “I had tried a suction pump with an upright 55 gallon drum,” said Higuera. “But it had a three-foot stroke and was hard to pump. My guys were constantly straining muscles using it. I read the trade press to keep up on any new technologies that might make my job easier,” he said. “That’s where I read an article about Goat Throat pumps. I had  tapped  a  few  kegs  in  my  youth,  so  I  was  familiar  with  the  technology  that  permitted  the  drums  to  be  positioned  vertically  and  then  easily  pressurized  with  short  strokes.  I  added  it  to  the  budget  and  bought  my  first  one.  That  was  six  years  ago  and  not  only  have  the  pumps  turned  out  great,  I’ve  also  added  some  options  that  make life at the course even easier. One is a remote tap that comes at the end of flexible tubing so we can set the receptacle on the floor to fill it. That is very helpful when we’re pumping one of our fertilizers, liquid iron. It weights 10 pounds per gallon, so if the employee is filling a 5-gallon can, he would end up holding 50 pounds. The other option was to use an adaptor with an air regulator on top. We hook the pump up directly to our compressor, so we don’t have to hand pump. “The bottom line is that the pumps have saved us time, injuries, and product.  They paid for themselves very quickly.”