How do I know the cost to cleanup a leaking tank?

I am going to show you three tanks that leaked, which were all the same size and all had similar "small pin holes" and the tank owner was confident that "not much oil leaked out"

The saying getting better with age does not refer to physical properties, hence why you don't see many mature Olympic athlete.  We can get smarter with age for sure, but physically don't count on it.

That said metal rusts, everything suffers wear and tear, even a buried tank.  So don't be surprised if your tank leaks.   But when your tank leaks you want to know how much it will cost to clean up the problem.  Its human nature that we don't like the unknown.  The photo below is from a tank that leaked and while the hole is deep it's not large across a horizontal area. About a $14,000 oil tank remediation.

The next photo the oil traveled both vertically and horizontally.   About a $35,000 oil tank remediation.

The next photo shows a tank that leaked for an extended period of time.   $135,000 oil tank cleanup.

So how do you know which cleanup cost is applicable to your house.  How about the house you want to be with a tank that the owner is selling "as is"?

The common denominator for determining the cost to cleanup a tank leak is to define the area of contamination. A whole page of knowledge can be found here:   Delineating Tank Leaks to Determine Cost

Like any problem you determine costs by determining the severity of the problem.  Tank leaks are no different.  You have to do soil testing BOTH in and around where the tank leak started so you know the size of the contamination.  You use specialized drilling equipment to acquire these soil samples so you can map the problem and provide costs.  Oh and you end up spending several thousand dollars to define the problem just so you can get cost to clean it up.   

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