Project Profile: Vantage Hemp Co. UST Installation
Greeley, Colorado
The public has had access to products made from hemp extracts for years. Since the approval of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp, demand for these products has increased significantly, product types have diversified and the industry has matured. It was only a matter of time before the industry required CGRS’s tank/UST installation expertise.
That time has come: CGRS installed a 20,000-gallon secondary emergency containment tank for Vantage Hemp Co. (Vantage) at its new facility, 2337 115th Ave. in west Greeley. If pentane and/or ethanol – used in CBD extraction processes – spills in the building, the substances will go into the tank instead of the sewer. The business needs only a 16,000-gallon tank for emergency containment, so Vantage Hemp will use the tank’s additional 4,000-gallon capacity to trap fluids from cleaning the facility and process equipment.
Vantage approached general contractor Roche Constructors about 18 months ago to build its new buildings – which will have one of the largest systems for extracting cannabinoids from hemp of its kind in the U.S., according to Aaron Evans, Roche project manager.
“They were involved from the start of putting a shovel in the ground. After some coordination with Vantage’s operational engineers, it was discovered that a large secondary spill containment system would be needed in the building,” he said. “Unfortunately there was no way to provide a containment system inside the building that wouldn’t affect operations significantly. After a few brainstorming sessions, it was brought up that maybe we could pipe the containment to outside the building.”
Evans consulted with LandOne Engineering LLC, which suggested he reach out to the tank experts at CGRS. After CGRS recommended a double-wall fiberglass tank for the chemicals Vantage would use, Roche contracted with CGRS to design and install the system. A CGRS staff engineer coordinated with Vantage’s interior designer for the UST piping, electrical work, control, sensors, conduits and more that would go inside the building.
Construction work began April 6, 2020, and included demolishing and removing the concrete sidewalk, parking islands and asphalt parking area covering 5,850 square feet. The crew then dug a hole measuring 70’ long x 42’ wide x 17’ deep for the tank. Once they completed installing the tank, the crew:
- covered the tank with 500 square feet of concrete,
- replaced 450 square feet of sidewalk,
- resurfaced 4,900 square feet of asphalt, and
- excavated, loaded, hauled and disposed of fill offsite.
Roche provided power to the console and emergency overfill alarm.
“Our biggest challenge was the size of the site,” said CGRS Project Manager Drew Higgins. “It already had its final surfacing and landscaping done, which made it difficult to proceed with our process as normal.”
The semi-trucks couldn’t get into the site to haul material in or out, so CGRS enlisted tandem trucks, which only haul 15 tons compared with 25 tons per load.
“Weather was pretty good to us,” Higgins noted. “We only lost about three days to snow.”
CGRS completed the job within budget in early May 2020, only three days later than anticipated because of the issues with weather and trucking. Roche should finish construction of the entire facility and the plant begin operations by the end of July, Evans said.
‘Hemp’ is a term used to classify varieties of Cannabis that contain 0.3% or less THC content (by dry weight). Hemp has generally been used to describe non-intoxicating Cannabis that is harvested for the industrial use of its derived products. – medium.com
