St Linus Church Underground Tank Tightness Testing

The Commtank crew arrives on site to start the underground tank test.

To accurately test an underground tank a monitoring well must be located next to the tank.

CommTank's crew installs the well screen for the monitoring well.

We utilize a oil/water sensor to measure the depth of the groundwater. It's important to know if the tank is in water or not.

The boiler is taken offline and the line is plugged before the test can begin.

Gauges used to track the fuel level in the underground tank need to be plugged too.

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This project provides an overview of our tank tightness testing service. The customer we featured in this project has been a long time client of ours. In this overview we provide a video showing the steps of the tank test, and photos of a monitoring well that we also installed.

The tank we tested at this site is a 2000-gallon fiberglass underground storage tank that provides heating oil to this large church in Natick, Massachusetts. Lines from the tank supply a boiler in the basement of the church building. Before we can test the tank, the supply and return lines to the boiler need to be disconnected and plugged. By including the lines in the test we can ensure that the entire fuel system is tight and there are no leaks in the tank or fuel lines.

CommTank also installed a monitoring well on site so that the ground water can be checked during each test. The test equipment manufacturer requires a monitoring well and the well also provides visual confirmation that the groundwater under the tank is free of contaminants. This is a service we provide annually for this client and it takes the place of an on-site monitoring device like a Veeder Root TLS350 system.

About the Author: Dan Hoag

Dan Hoag has worked in the environmental and tank storage industry for 16 years. Dan’s range of expertise includes designing systems for oil spill clean-ups, treating soil contamination through "in situ" oxidation and testing, and inspecting underground storage tank systems. As head of Marketing and Information Technologies at CommTank, Dan draws from field experience to write about fuel, water and chemical storage technologies, and the regulations that affect them. He has developed training courses in home inspection, underground storage tank operator, ultrasonic thickness and tank tightness testing. Over the past decade, Dan has published over 60 articles about industry trends and has documented commercial, residential, and environmental projects through illustration, videos, and photography. When Dan unplugs from technology, he spends his time backyard farming, hiking, and kayaking, while masquerading as a hockey player during the wee hours of the morning.