Do steel drums require secondary containment?
A. One argument that is continually made is that drums do not require secondary containment because each drum is holding less than 200 liters of fuel. This means that the fuel stored at a large fuel cache is already compartmentalized. Due to their small size they require more handling which often leads to damage. Drums are designed for a single use but they are often reused which causes minor leaks because they cannot be resealed properly. While the spills by drums are much smaller in size, the sheer number of drums spilling fuel in the Arctic amounts to a significant environmental threat. Because of these issues many jurisdictions require secondary containment for all fuel storage over 2000 liters. This is now starting to include drum fuel.
