Mobile Decontamination Trailers

Grant Stahla, Co-owner of Stahla Services, a nationwide provider of restroom, shower, and ADA trailer rentals again joins Enterprise Radio.

On this episode, the focus will be on the Mobile Decontamination Trailers, all the benefits and the specifics of renting this particular trailer for your needs.

Listen to host Eric Dye & guest Grant Stahla discuss the following:

(Host Eric Dye):  Grant, set the scene—why do decon trailers matter in an emergency?”

(Guest Grant Stahla): Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you can visualize a rail yard and they have a chlorine spill, and when you’re talking about a chlorine spill at one of those facilities, you’re talking thousands of gallons before responders can even approach the leak. They cycle through a mobile decontamination corridor. There’s a dirty zone. And then they shower. And then there’s clean PPE in under 90 seconds. Those minutes save lungs, lawsuits and lives. So in these 15 minutes, we’re going to unpack the tech, the costs and the key models so that the listeners can know exactly which unit to roll out if they need a decontamination trailer.

(Host Eric Dye): Give us the basics, what qualifies as a decontamination (decon) trailer, and where did they come from?

(Guest Grant Stahla): Yeah, good question. So decontamination trailers are self-contained trailers with multi stage cleaning zones for hazardous material removal. That’s a mouthful, but they have roots in Cold War chemical warfare units. Now it’s codified under the OSHA or has WOPER for lead asbestos bio-hazardous material and chemical response. Some of the core deployments are for HAZMAT teams, pandemic screening, industrial shutdowns, asbestos or lead abatement, which means removal or mass casualty events. These are trailers that we don’t hear about often, but when you need them, you really need them.

(Host Eric Dye): What makes a decon trailer different from a regular shower trailer?

(Guest Grant Stahla): Yeah, good question. So with this trailer, there’s a three zone layout. You have a dirty, a shower and a clean. With a triple flap, OSHA airlock curtains for pressure control. You have negative air machines with HEPA or carbon filters. And they capture airborne lead or asbestos filters as well. Onboard hot water, so it’s electric tankless or propane/diesel boilers. So you have instant heat for cold deployments. There’s also gray water containment, so you have 80 plus gallon polymer tanks with cam lock dump valves, or an optional filtration skid. And then you have skid mounted pumps and quick connect plumbing for 30 minute field setup. That wraps up some of the core anatomy and the tech for these decon trailers.

(Host Eric Dye) : Who builds these trailers, and what sets each one apart?

(Guest Grant Stahla): So some of the key manufacturers are Eagle Industries. They make a 16 foot and a 24 foot decontamination unit. They’re either two or four bay shower layouts. They have LFS 10, lead filtration, triple flap curtains, 5.2000 and 6000 tan axles, exterior hand wash stations, HEPA negative air units. So these guys are definitely the leaders with decontamination trailers. There’s EnScaf Enclosures. They make a mobile Decon shower trailer with custom open Bay or two to four shower units with rugged PVC interiors integrated ducting to pair with onsite dust collection for abatement projects. And then you also have ACSI or Advanced Containment Systems. They build mass, casualty,