Underground tank leak

   / Underground tank leak #1  

marhar

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
411
Location
Denton NC
Tractor
Farm Trac 60
I am looking at a property that has an old fuel oil tank for the furnace. I know the property has a tank in the ground and one above ground. The property also has a well for drinking water. If I move forward Ior the seller will have an environmental engineer verify the tank does not leak.

Have any of you had experience with an old abandoned tank and what did you do?
 
   / Underground tank leak #2  
I bought my current home 25 years ago with a buried tank, I dug that tank up 20 years ago and put in my own buried 1000 gallon tank.
It's no big deal to me.
I have heard of some of the hoops some buyers demand from sellers at times, I know what my response would be to such a demand.
 
   / Underground tank leak #3  
The market will tell what the seller will do to meet your requirements. That the seller will have an environmental engineer (EE) test the soil, says he's a willing seller.
I'd want the soil tested and the tank removed. After removal, test the soil again to be sure the tank didn't break open when lifted for removal.

Absent the above being done professionally, determine the costs to have it done and get a price adjustment to the sell price PLUS something for management (you) and risk. After purchase of the property, contaminated soil or not, you dig up the tank, remove any contaminated soil, and replace with uncontaminated soil.

Before tests begin, learn if the EE is required, and will, report any contamination to the authorities. Operating under radar will be a lot easier than with authorities peering over your shoulders every step of the way.
 
   / Underground tank leak #4  
I am looking at a property that has an old fuel oil tank for the furnace. I know the property has a tank in the ground and one above ground. The property also has a well for drinking water. If I move forward Ior the seller will have an environmental engineer verify the tank does not leak.

Have any of you had experience with an old abandoned tank and what did you do?
Be careful. Had a friend buy a commercial property. A previous owner had unground fuel tanks that he used to fuel equipment with. The previous owner also developed the land behind the business into a housing subdivision with wells and septic tanks.

About five years after my friend purchased the property people in the sub division got to complaining about their water tasting funny. The State Water Resources people started doing testing.

The testing lead to the unknown storage tanks. The civil suits started. The friend had to file for bankruptcy and never did recover.

Be very careful and don’t get holding the bill to clean up a mess made by someone else who did not believe in rules, regulations and laws.
 
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   / Underground tank leak #6  
In 2017,Had to deal with an abandoned oil tank buried right in front of the main entry door when my dad passed away. No one knew about it, but I had a presale home inspection done to get an idea of what needed to be done in order to semi painlessly sell the house.

rather than dig it up, I hired an environmental engineering co to pump it and decontaminate the tank and surrounding soil.
The state EQ was on site to do their own testing, but it really turned out to be no big deal, and not as expensive as I feared.

wouldn’t have wanted to sell the house without disclosing the situation, and risk an expensive lawsuit after the fact.

ps: Asbestos inside and outside the house too, that was a bigger deal, and way more expensive.
 
   / Underground tank leak #7  
My fuel oil furnace at work kept cutting off, filter would be dirty. I told owner I bet 1000 gallon buried oil tank was bad. Owner had a guy dig it up starting at midnight. When he lifted it out it was like swiss cheese.
Replaced tank, paved over...all was well.
 
   / Underground tank leak #8  
I am looking at a property that has an old fuel oil tank for the furnace. I know the property has a tank in the ground and one above ground. The property also has a well for drinking water. If I move forward Ior the seller will have an environmental engineer verify the tank does not leak.

Have any of you had experience with an old abandoned tank and what did you do?
My last employer found a railroad tanker car buried under the alley behind their business. Apparently there was an auto dealer that did it about 50 years prior to use as a gasoline tank.

They hired Safety Clean. They came out, opened the tank lid, and sucked everything out of it. Then they put on respirators and climbed inside and cleaned it. Then they drilled three holes in the bottom; one in the middle and one at each end, and took soil samples from under the tank. The samples came back clean, so they filled it with runny cement, sealed the top, buried it again, and that was that. I left after the 3rd full cement truck ran out of cement. :oops:
 
   / Underground tank leak #9  
Pump the tank out and remove it. Don’t make the situation harder than it needs to be.
 
   / Underground tank leak #10  
It is common to have tanks inspected and certified before buying a property with an underground tank. Often the seller will have it removed prior to sale, as it simplifies the selling process and mortgage process for potential buyers. When we bought our house 13 years ago the seller had the tank removed and we have the inspection report showing such.

If it were me, I would have the tank removed before buying the property. Why take on risk to environmental clean up which gets very expensive. Tanks have a limited life, and even if it checks out now, it might start leaking a few days, weeks, months or years later. Your tank is probably past that lifespan.
 
 
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