Oil Tank (UST) Investigation Abandoned Oil Tank Found
When a previously undisclosed Underground Storage Tank (UST) is found the best course of action is to decommission the tank which entails cleaning and removing or filling the tank in place in conjunction with obtaining soil samples to ensure the tank did not leak and requires remediation.
For properties where an owner refuses to remove the tank, buyers are faced with the decision of walking away from the purchase or assessing their risk of purchasing the property with a buried oil tank. The risk is having to remediate a tank leak. Regulations place the responsibility of cleanup for a discharge on the property owner.
For buyers wanting to assess for contamination in the soils around the tank. You can advance soil borings around the tank. (you cannot dill and obtain soil samples below the tank). So you are assessing adjacent to the tank and deeper than the anticipated bottom depth of the tank.
The standard investigative procedures is to advance (where physically possible) three soil borings around the tank. (The side of the tank toward the house will not typically be sampled due to the presence of the tank oil supply lines at this location). Each soil boring is evaluated for the presence of oil via a field vapor meter (Photoionization detector). Soil samples can be obtained from each boring or from the soil sample with highest field screen reading will be laboratory analyzed. Soil samples are $120.00 each for New Jersey and $200 for Pennsylvania.
The downside of testing a tank that really should be decommissioned is that you cannot 100% assess the tank area for contamination. You are not able to test under the tank or between the tank and the house so contamination could still exist and remediation could be necessary. The tank could also be filled with oil impacted material if the tank had been previously filled in place. Typically removal and remediation cost in this scenario would be under $10,000.00.
How you investigate a found tank is to perform a subsurface investigation around the current location of the number two heating oil Underground Storage Tank, (UST). The borings will be advanced along the three sides of the tank to evaluate the soils around the tank for the presence of oil.
Each soil boring is evaluated for the presence of oil via a field vapor meter (Photoionization detector). Soil samples can be obtained from each boring or from the soil sample with highest field screen reading will be laboratory analyzed. If no readings are detected by the vapor meter you should obtain a sample from each boring. This is the opposite of conventional wisdom, because you would think if all borings look visual and olfactory clean why test? The reason is old oil can loose aromatics that are what can be detected by a vapor meter. So a soil sample can be contaminated with old oil (remember the tank was found, so no one knows how old the oil actually is)
The decision regarding testing a tank found during a tank sweep when a seller doesn't want to remove the tank has a variety of factors, pluses and minus and should be discussed with an environmental professional. Internet University is not enough of an education
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