Posted By RyanSmith Hello everyone any help or advice would be very much appreciated. I work for a fabrication company and we have been contracted to supply and fit a Walkway 30 foot up around the perimeter of a tank at a water treatment plant. I have carried out a full risk assessment and there is a problem area regards an adjacent tank that contains Methane. This tank is around 30 feet in height and made of a thick concrete construction. However due to welding of certain parts I requested further safety advice regards protecting workers from explosion from the contractor. Procedures were given to us from the contractor regards gas monitoring before, and during any welding work, in addition to other precautions and procedures. Here now is my query, The contractor has said that they cannot provide men to monitor gas levels, and felt that it would be our responsibilty to measure the methane levels during any welding work on the tank. I had difficulty with this due to our lack of experience with methane gas monitors, unknown emergency procedures if levels are to high, and lack of training regards monitoring equipment. A compromise was that we could supply the detectors if the contractor could supply a person with suitable experience and training to use the monitoring equipment. The response to this was that the Contractor was unsure as to the legal position as to having their employee using there equipment or equipment hired by ourselves to protect against the risk of explosion whilst we were carrying out work. My question is this: If we are to be carrying out work on a contractors site, who have there own procedures in the protection of the site from methane explosion, should we the outside hired contrator be responsible for methane detection or should the company whose site it is be responsible for the detection of methane gas whilst work is carried out? Any help, assitance or views would be greatly appreciated on this subject. If you have any further questions please dont hesitate to ask. Thank you.

Posted By RyanSmith Thank you Crim, In response to your question, no it is not a CDM site. And work will be completed before the date stated. Thank you for your response.

Posted By Crim Hi Ryan, I think you should employ a specialist methane contractor and add the cost to the bill. Don't do it yourself as it may lead to problems. A local council has recently been prosecuted because a worker was welding manhole covers and ingited methane gas. (Callsafe services limited construction safety news).

Posted By RyanSmith Hello Jim The Client is the company who's site it is and who we are doing the work for. I have referred to them as the contractor in my post though they are the client, and it is there site, they are normally responsible for their own monitoring of the presence of methane. Apologies for the confusion.