I'm looking for companies that provide underground oil storage tank abandonment services in NJ (residential area).
What are the different ways to close an underground oil tank? Does it matter where exactly the tank is located (under the frontyard, backyard, grass, partly under the driveway, etc)? What other considerations are involved?
Any info would be appreciated.
Ask your fuel oil supplier for recommendations.
While you're waiting, GOOGLE:
Given the rules we now have, it'd be insane to do anything but remove the tank altogether. Removing a tank before it leaks isn't generally that big a deal, altho, the tank itself can be a problem to get rid of.
But if it leaks? Big bucks.
How about filling it with concrete?
Bob
zxcvbob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:
Depending on the municipality, the only way to not remove the tank is to show a "major" obstruction (under a deck, a gas or water line running over it etc)
Even then you'll have to have the soil tested and a representative of the local fire department may have to be there to sign off on it.
NJBrad (Yes that's [N]ew [J]ersey)
PS: Remember, this is the state that fined a guy for "destroying wetlands" by putting gravel in a muddy spot on his driveway.
What do you mean abandonment services?
Lemme guess. You are selling your home at this peak real estate market and you have an underground heating oil tank no longer in use that is stopping potential buyers from closing the deal, or something to that nature. Well, it won't be cheap nor will it be easy and straight forward. Not in New Jersey. I think you know that already.
More likely than not the tank is leaking. So you have not only the tank to remove. Containminated soil will have to go too. It could be quite messy. The envieonmental firm you will be hiring won't give you a fixed price because they don't know what's underground. Depending on how big the tank is, how deep is it below grade, and how close is it to the house, a professional engineer likely will get involved to determine if excavation will jepardize structural integrity of the house. I know. I was hire recently just to sit around the excavatin site to tell the digging crew to stop when I decide it is too dangerous to proceed. All these are without the burearcrats hamstringing the operation.
Have I scared you stiff? Which part of Jersey are you located?
Same here in CT. Also, it's tough to sell a house with an underground tank. We bought a house which had an underground tank and the first buyer's deal fell through because of it. They couldn't get the morgtage because of it. We made a deal that we would pay to remove the tank (about $2500, iirc) and the sellers would be responsible for any remediation if there was leaking...
Yep. There was over $14,000 worth of remediation needed because it was leaking. Thankfully CT's amnesty program was still running and the sellers got about 50% back.
One of our neighbors bought a house where the sellers had lied on the disclosure about the underground tank. Big time court case and yes, that tank was leaking also.
JennP.
This usually is not an approved method of abandoning a oil tank in place.
We live in the Meadowlands area and had ours done about 8 yrs ago. $1000 to cut off the top, clean it out, fill with sand. Don't remember who did it but most likely got them from yellow pages/newspaper.
Good Luck.
That's one method. I'd also compare it price wise to actually having it totally removed. That way you don't have anything left to have to disclose to a buyer who may get nervous, even if you know it was done correctly, but is still there.
FWIW, we received an "official" oil tank remediation document issued by the town..
this is not true folks! Your home heating oil tank does not fall under the Federal Guidelines for Commercial underground fuel tanks. If you are not using your tank anymore, simply have the remaining fuel pumped out of the tank. Now there is no possibility of any fuel leaking into the ground surrounding your tank if it should rust through. Don't let some dumb real estate person tell you that underground tanks have to be dug up and disposed of...this is an urban legend. You only have to dig up abandoned tanks if you have a gas station and you quit using them!
Bill (who builds gas stations for a living)
Residential tanks are not "Commercial" tanks which have stored fuel oil that was sold to the public. They do not have to be removed by law anywhere in the United States.
Real Estate people will freak out if they know there is an under ground tank on your property. The prudent thing to do is pump all the remaining fuel oil out of your tank if you are not using it anymore.
It's probably that 2" steel filler pipe and vent pipe sticking out of the ground above the tank that makes the real estate people freak out! An 18" pipe wrench with about a five foot length of 2" pipe shoved up the handle of the wrench for a "cheater bar" will allow the average home owner to remove those "real estate agent offending pipes" from over your innocent fuel oil tank that you have carefully pumped out to remove any possibility of contaminating your neighbors well water!
Bill
(those damn real estate agents call me all the time wanting to know how much it would cost to dig up somebodies fuel oil tank...)
Uh, it wasn't the real estate people. It was the morgtage company.
No, it was the sawed off filler pipe found with a metal detector. The first buyers couldn't get their morgtage because of the tank. It's a problem here in CT. Don't know where you are.
JennP.
In Ontario, it is now law that all underground oil tanks must be removed, whether being used or not. Although it was virtually impossible for someone to tell there was one in my backyard (I had unscrewed the filler and vent pipes 28 years ago) I decided I shouldn't declare that there wasn't one there when selling my house and paid $7650 CDN to have it and contaminated soil removed.
Exactlly. Ours.
JennP.
According to Bill :
Mandatory removal isn't the issue.
Even empty residential tanks have resulted in massive cleanup fees.
This is not true, no residential tank in the United States has ever caused a home owner to pay massive cleanup fees! Tell me specifically who and where the site is?
People hear these tales of site cleanups where gasoline stations have been shut down and many of them have resulted in huge cleanup fees. As a matter of fact, there is so much contaminated soil under most United States gas stations that the EPA realizes now there is not enough money on the planet to clean the whole country up like their
1988 regulations would have required of owners.Bill
so you have a mortgage lender in Connecticut who goes around houses with a metal detector searching for underground tanks? That's pretty scary! Why would a mortgage lender feel a need to use a metal detector to search property for an underground fuel oil tank? Sounds like you're dealing with a fly by night mortgage company to me!
If you have an oil tank you are using fuel from to heat your house you ought to have a pretty good idea if it's leaking or not. If you think it's leaking you should at the least have it pumped dry and abandon it.
If you go by EPA soil analysis guidelines for commercial fuel sites, your soil around your fuel oil tank at home would be considered contaminated if your fuel oil delivery driver has ever spilled a few drops of oil on the ground beside the filler pipe when he is removing his fueling nozzle! That's why homeowners tanks are exempted from the regulations that commercial fueling operations have to follow.
Bill
That's Bullshit! Even in a place like New Jersey they cannot do this to a home owner! A tank that is used to store fuel oil specifically for use in heating the house on that property does not fall under the regulatory guidelines of a commercial fuel storage site where the fuel is either being sold to the public or is being used in a commercial endeavor. Whoever is telling you this is igorant or deliberately trying to mislead you!
Bill
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