The owner said the tank had been "taken care of"...

My friends at Eco-Tech LLC do great work, with oil tanks and radon, among other things.  We call on them frequently to search properties for buried and sometimes abandoned heating oil tanks.  I've written and posted about their adorable dog, Terra, who is trained to sniff out oil, so she can find a spill, even if the metal of a tank isn't there to be detected.

We're going on 20 years in the real estate industry since oil tanks became a topic, and a concern to buyers. Early on,mostly, many sellers preferred to "decommission" their own tanks, rather than pay a professional, and get bogged down with Department of Environmental Quality standards.

DEQ does allow for the in-place decommissioning of tanks. The tank is opened and any remaining oil is removed. The tank is then cleaned, and filled with a clean, inert substance such as concrete slurry, sand, or sand and soil. The tank is then closed up, but tell tale markers of the existence of the tank are left so its existence is knowable. 

Tanks are also decommissioned by removal.

This week, Eco-Tech was engaged to do a tank search of  a property for a buyer.  I don't know the particulars, but that a tank was found. It had leaked a minor amount. I don't know the specifics of how it was that Eco-Tech LLC came to open up the tank. Decommissioning, removing, checking on a previous decommission?  But what they found in the tank was shocking. No, not THAT bad but...

 

 

They pulled out oil soaked carpet, a tripod, and a barbecue, among other things.  Oh yes, there was sand...contaminated with old oil.  Wow.

 

So,  should you have a tank search done on that house you are buying?  Yes!  Don't try to save a few bucks up front by skipping the tank search.   And hey, if you are lucky, you might even get Terra on your search.

 

 

 

I know some of you have abandoned oil tanks on your property. You bought long enough ago that we weren't making a big fuss about them.  It may not be a fun way to spend money, but deal with it now, and you'll sleep better at night.  And, when you do eventually sell your house, the scary buried oil tank won't drive good buyers away.

 

Call or email me if you want to talk tanks.  503-312-8038  leslievjones@gmail.com



Leaking oil tank supply lines?

And now I'm supposed to worry, not only about underground oil tanks, but the material of which the lines connecting them to the furnace are made?

It makes sense.  A property my clients are buying had a search for an underground tank done by the folks at Eco-Tech LLC. As with most every inspection anywhere, I always learn something. 

We know this house had an oil storage tank in the basement as the sellers took it out and provided us pictures.  But I thought it would be prudent (and so did my clients) to be sure  there wasn't another tank buried in the yard somewhere.  We certainly wouldn't want their future buyers, twenty years from now, finding a leaky tank.

Oil tanks were connected to the furnace via fuel lines to carry the oil.  Most often, we see evidence of this; usually copper lines coming up put of the floor, or maybe through the foundation wall.  Professional decommission jobs will leave the fill lines as past evidence that a tank existed.  You aren't supposed to remove ALL evidence of the tank as it is important for future owners to know a tank had been there.

Sometimes, oil lines were made of...galvanized metal.  Which rusts.  And can rust through when in moist conditions, like buried in soil and concrete in Portland, Oregon.

I had never really thought about this before.  And if I had, I'd most likely think of the of copper lines, which didn't have near the risk of rusting through.  But today, we saw the thicker and bigger, obviously galvanized line.  Which led the tech to educate me.  Apparently, Eco-Tech has done a clean up or two of leaks caused by the lines. 

Ack!  None of us have been worrying about lines.  Does this mean samples need to be taken along the buried line?  All the way?  For oil tanks themselves, samples are usually taken at each end of the tank, as failure most often is at the welded seams on the tank ends. 

This new "worry" isn't just new to me.  Eco-Tech is only now starting to learn the extent of this.  I expect we'll see DEQ put out some new rules and procedures to help clarify the issue.  Along with that,  perhaps testing and decommission protocol may now extend also to the supply lines.  In the meantime, we'll be glad most tanks had copper lines.

If you have a question about buried oil tanks, or any thing else related to real estate, give me a call.  503-312-8038