Oil Tank Sweeps

The whole point of performing a tank sweep is to determine if an oil tank is present or was present.   

We have completed thousands of Tank Sweeps. Tank Sweeps are part of a property inspection process for properties, where you are looking for a buried tank.  For your reference, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania & Delaware oil heat was the most popular fuel source after coal starting in the 1940's to the early 1980's.   A house built in 1900 had wood or coal as a fuel source and when the home had a chance to have oil installed (shoveling coal was a chore) they converted to oil, gas was not available at many homes and it was significantly more expensive than oil, it wasn't until the 1970's when gas was deregulated and the price dropped, but even then gas lines had to be installed to neighborhoods.

If you have a house of the age where oil heat would be possible, this may sound  odd but the best result is actually finding a buried oil tank.  

The problem with oil tank sweeps is the people who do them.

If you think hiring the cheapest person, who uses the cheapest equipment (metal detector) is going to give you the best results you are wrong.  Time and again we get hired to remove a Found Tank only to dig up everything but a tank.  This creates a common 3 to 4 week delay (you have to get permits for a tank removal) for nothing, this happens all the time.

On the tank sweep side we consistently see inaccurate reports and conclusions from the one man band working out of their house using metal detectors to locate a tank.  This photo below shows what a guy doing tank sweeps with a metal detector working out of his home saying this is a tank.  Where exactly in the photo, its not exactly clear.

So we had to rescan the property with GPR, we found no tank.  The area (geology) had a magnetic signature, but that is not uncommon, meaning to find a common earth metal on a property.

To verify no tank, a small test pit was advanced, no tank found.

You are supposed to mark a tank so there is an outline, like the photo below.  (Yes, the tank goes under the house.)

Unfortunately there are no regulations or licensing for tank sweeps, so anyone with an $800 metal detector can do a tank sweep, and they do.    The problem is you need many tools in your tool box to do any job effectively and the price of more effective equipment can exceed 60K, which limits the number of people willing to make the investment and actually do a good job.

Furthermore say you find a tank (shocker), the company who found it should be licensed to remove the tank so you can get an immediate cost, (how else can they be experts on tanks if they don't remove them?).

If they are not licensed for removal

1. They likely are not that good.

2. You now have to find someone to remove and test it.  

At Curren we scan for tanks and we remove tanks.

If we find a tank, we can provide a proposal to remove and test the tank.  This should be presented to the owner of the property.   Since the tank was a defect that was undisclosed and not known to the owner, the owner should proceed with removal.  It does not particularly matter if we remove the tank or not as our job was to find the tank.  Although we are licensed in multiple states and have removed thousands of tanks our biggest concern for our clients is if the tank leaked.  So anyone qualified firm can remove the tank, but they must also test the soil after removal and clarify if the tank needs remediation or not.  We are happy to review this paperwork post removal for our tank sweep clients.

Unfortunately we find a wide disparity in the quality of environmental work performed when it comes to tank sweeps and tank removal. 

• Tank removal after a tank sweep.  

• A small tank leak can cost $8,000 to $15,0000 

Here is the deal, a tank sweep is performed and 70% of the time the property owner is shocked a tank is present (the other 30% the owner had an idea the tank was present and is just angry we found a tank).  So you are a property owner in the 70% group who is shocked there is an oil tank and you need to get it removed and fast so the buyer doesn't walk away.  You will speak to companies that are glad to remove the tank and on the cheap as well.  They won't talk about leaks or they will say "we can handle a leak when we find one" in essence deferring any conversation of a tank leak and remediation.  

So what this should tell you is companies don't want the $1,600 oil tank removal they want the oil tank remediation, because of the bigger dollars.  Some companies are so wanting to find a tank leak they offer "Fixed Price Tank Removal".   This is where a company is  doing things in their best interest, not the client.

Why do companies want to find leaking tanks? Yes that's what we call small, large is when it cost $50,000 to 74k or more,  bank account crushing is the $100,000+ remediation's. 

How do you accurately perform a tank sweep?   Well you need to have years of experience removing tanks and access to say $50,000 worth of technology.  The more tools in your tool box the 

Remember when dealing with a tank sweep:

• Hire a company that can scan and remove a tank.
• Only trust companies that openly discuss the potential of a clean tank removal and the what if it leaks.
• This is a specialized service not pizza, the best tank sweep company is likely not around the corner.
• Considering a small tank leak remediation can average $8,000 to $15,000, you get what you pay for when performing a tank sweep.  You don't often hear this but pay more rather than less, you will get more technology, more experience and better results.