Underground tank leak

[Gator6x4]

Pump the tank out and remove it. Don’t make the situation harder than it needs to be.

Getting someone to pump and remove it may be a huge problem.

 

[Peace]

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.

Do you know why they used concrete rather than dirt to fill the tank? Is seems dirt would allow the iron to naturally decompose back to the earth.

 

[4570Man]

Do you know why they used concrete rather than dirt to fill the tank? Is seems dirt would allow the iron to naturally decompose back to the earth.

They probably used a flowable fill mix that’s the vast majority sand with enough cement to get hard. You can’t really fill a tank with dirt unless they cut the whole top out.

 

[Peace]

They probably used a flowable fill mix that’s the vast majority sand with enough cement to get hard. You can’t really fill a tank with dirt unless they cut the whole top out.

I’m not looking to start debate, but I still don’t understand the logic. If it’s a void at the top of the tank that is the concern, pour in the last quarter, over filling, in loose mud. Level out when dry. A fraction of the cost?
There are about 200 gal in a yard of concrete. A train car holds about 9,000 gal. That would require about 45 yards of concrete? That’s 4 and 1/2 truck loads. Even a light grout mix seems expensive.

 

[mikester]

Have the owner dig the tank up and removed . I've done a no. of them around here because their no longer allowed. The problem comes when trying to get rid of the tank. The last thing I'd do is get an environmental engineer involved.

I think I'd walk away from that property rather than take on a lot of future costly headaches. Eventually some rich developer will buy the property and greenwash the problem away. I can't afford the lawyers, insurance premiums, and government agency permits, delays and do-gooders.

 

[Gator6x4]

Do you know why they used concrete rather than dirt to fill the tank? Is seems dirt would allow the iron to naturally decompose back to the earth.

Be really hard for someone to remove the concrete and start using the tank again.

 

[Rockbadchild]

I don't think I would want to deal with this unless it is proven there isn't any contaminations... once you deal with contaminated soil that's a can of worm that you can't close...

 

[dodge man]

When I was working, we got into something called LUST, leaking underground storage tank. There was some government money involved that is probably long gone. I saw several dug up and some of the surrounding soil woukd usually have to be hauled away. Depending on the size and level of contamination it could be simple or expensive.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I’m not looking to start debate, but I still don’t understand the logic. If it’s a void at the top of the tank that is the concern, pour in the last quarter, over filling, in loose mud. Level out when dry. A fraction of the cost?
There are about 200 gal in a yard of concrete. A train car holds about 9,000 gal. That would require about 45 yards of concrete? That’s 4 and 1/2 truck loads. Even a light grout mix seems expensive.

Well, how much will a Trac hoe, big crane, low boy to haul off tank, dump trucks to haul to fill the void, smoothing equipment, land scaping, probably other things too? Runny concrete sounds cheaper and better.

 

[MossRoad]

Do you know why they used concrete rather than dirt to fill the tank? Is seems dirt would allow the iron to naturally decompose back to the earth.

Yes. The runny cement flows into all the voids if vibrated and never needs compacting. It's under an alley with truck traffic. So they wanted it full and never be able to collapse.