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Dispose of In ground Oil Tank

I have a 1000 gallon metal in-ground heating oil tank and am considering removing it and going with tanks in the basement because I don't want the possibility of the tank leaking and it becoming a Encon nightmare of a cost to me. Additionally, here in NY state it now appears that if you sell your home you are still liable for any future leaks. So my question is: after I have my fuel oil company pump the existing oil into the new tanks, and then I hire a very competent local guy with backhoe to dig it out how (where) do I dispose of it? I don't want to call ENCON !! There would obviously be sludge and some oil remaining it. There are no local outfits or companies within several hundred miles that do anything like this and the oil supplier doesn't want anything to do with it. Has anyone tackled a similar situation? Input appreciated. Thanks. John.

Reply to
John
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My son-in-law used to remove oil tanks and the like. You have to find a company that deals with Hazmat. They will dig up, clean out, remove and dispose of the tank--it ain't cheap!!! It may be against the law to do otherwise. MLD MLD

Reply to
MLD

Chances are the only legal way of handling it is a licensed company to do it for you. It will not be cheap.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Here (not NY) you can pump the oil out and fill it with sand, cut off and seal the filler and vent pipe, and call it a day. Whatever you do, research what your state/municipality requires cause it can hang you up when you go to sell. There are companies all over that deal with this, new England/NY is much more dependent on heating oil than the rest of the country so there ought to be companies around. Probably have to pay a MOF (mob overhead fee), haha.

Reply to
roger61611

My son is an insurance adjuster and he has been involved in some unbelievable claims re: inground and basement oil tank claims. One claim was because an in ground tank leaked and the home owners insurance company wouldn't cover the damage to the insureds property but they did pay for all the damage and cost of removing contaminated soil etc. from the neibours property under the liability section of the policy. Another case was a leaking basement oil tank and the clean up cost because the environment people where called in totalled over $875,000 so far and it could cost them more in the long haul. These prices are not part of some urban legend environmental clean up firms seem to be able to charge what they want to clean up these messes.

Jimbo

Reply to
Jimbo

I removed a basement tank and put it out by the road , a neighbor came by to buy it for a BBQ grill so I let him take it free. Some people use them here as fire pits because open camp fires are illegal. I would not want a tank in my basement as some smell can be evident. and they take up alot of room.

Reply to
m Ransley

John, why don't you pump it out and fill it up with expanding foam insulation? Go to Home Depot and buy cans of "Great Stuff"...I bet if you call The Dow Chemical Company, they can tell you the name of someone who dispenses large quantities of their foam insulation who could drive up with a truck, drop a hose into your tank and fill it with foam insulation...

Regards, Bill

Reply to
Bill

Not a good idea. It is too light and the tank can actually float to the top over time. It must be filled with something reasonably dense, this the sand idea.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Hi, It better not have a leak(environmental issue). Even if it did not leak, better have it done by pros. If you contaminate soil, it beomes legal issue. Big brother will come after you. This is so at least where I live. Tony

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Reply to
Beeper

Drop a few lit sticks of dynamite down the fill pipe and run like hell. The tank will be gone when you get back, and you can have the local concrete trucks come to make you a swimming pool.

Reply to
TPutmann

I know nothing about NY, but here in Ontario, it has been mandated that ALL underground oil storage tanks be removed within a few years, leaking or not, used or not. I was selling a house with one and was advised that it would be impossible to sell without removing it first. It had not been used in more than 28 years and use had been discontinued before we moved in because of leaking. We paid a contractor $8650 CDN to remove it, dispose of it and remove and dispose of contaminated soil. He said that was nothing at all compared to some jobs he had done. It had to be inspected by the Technical Safety & Standards Authority.

Reply to
Alan

I recently paid my fuel oil supplier $3,000 to decommission an in ground 550 gallon tank and replace it with a 375 gallon surface tank. This is in northern New Jersey. The "decomnission" process involved three workers from "Care Environmental" and a digging machine for one day during which they exposed the top of the tank, used a metal saw to cut off the top of the tank, wiped out the oil and residue remaining, and waited for an inspection by the township building inspector. After the inspector was satisfied they filled the tank with sand and backfilled the hole.

I have placed the documentation that the in ground tank was legally decommissioned in a safe deposit box at my bank so I can find it when the house is sold.

Reply to
John_B

Reply to
John

Quite a few years back I had a similar situation. I called the local oil delivery place to come pump the old stuff out and install a new tank in the basement. They said they had nothing to do with removal and this was all they could do for me.

I left it that way for an easy 6-7 years and then had a truckload of sand delivered when we knew we were going to be selling. I dug up about a 1 foot area on top of the tank and then sawzalled an opening in the top of the tank. 5 hours later and about a gazillion wheelbarrows later, she was full of sand. Buried it up again, reseeded the lawn, and she never existed.

The cost to me was 1/2 a day of hard work and a small truckload of sand which was less than $50 at the time. So, lets say $100 for the heck of it today (which would be very high). That still beats the pants off having it done the EPA way....

I bet to do it the "right" way would be an easy $500+

Reply to
Mark

If it's pumped down to the sludge first, there will be no problem. That leaves a gallon or two of junk in the bottom. Even if that leaks down in to the soil, it will be undetectable.

Fill er up with sand after pumping it out. Who cares if it's illegal. Nobody will ever know AND it will not cause any problems in the future.

Perhaps if the "right" way didn't cost 10x as much, people might be inclined to do things that way.

Reply to
Mark

Hi, Very nice attitude. Just like the guys/gals who don't pick after their dogs. I see them every day. on my daily walk with my dog. Disgusting! You're so called part of problem not a solution. Have a nice day. Tony

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Reply to
John

I'm sorry to here you did that Alan! :-(

what was it that P.T. Barnum used to say?

Bill

Reply to
Bill

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