Location, Removal, and Cleanup of an Underground Tank

A photo of the attached shed with the vent and fill pipes connected to the current above ground oil tank.

The underground utility locator showed a metal object under the shed so the technician dug a test hole to check for the tank.

Once the tank was located it needed to be removed. CommTank crews are setting up to hoist it from the ground.

The hoist is set up inside the small shed. 275-gallon tanks are not very heavy but the ground was holding the tank in place.

A closeup of the holes in the bottom of the steel oil tank. There were many small holes like these in the tank.

A picture of the excavation with wood shoring to hold back the soil.

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This house in Beverly Massachusetts was for sale and the buyer hired CommTank to search for an underground tank at the property. It is common for a new buyer to request this service when there isn’t a record of the underground tank removal at the Fire Department. CommTank’s technician started the search by using an underground utility locator to find the underground tank. The piping for old tanks is typically left in the ground so searching the basement is the first step to determining the direction of the tank. The technician found the tank underneath a shed that housed the current aboveground oil tank. At this point the customer and owner were notified. To complete the real estate sale the underground tank had to be removed.

The owner contracted CommTank to dig up the underground tank and during the job we discovered the tank had been leaking. The tank was originally an aboveground steel tank that had been buried in the backyard to save space. From 1950 to 1980 it was common for home owners to install steel tanks underground but the practice was stopped because of the number of leaking tanks.

CommTank submitted a Limited Removal Action (LRA) plan that covered up to 10 tons of soil to clean up the contamination. The aboveground oil tank was relocated during this work and the cement pad was broken up. After excavating 4 yards of soil groundwater was encountered. As required by the State of Massachusetts, the customer hired an LSP to oversee the remediation, and he submitted an Immediate Response Action (IRA) plan to cover the new site conditions. Within one month of starting the work CommTank had removed all the contaminated soil and restored the area around the shed. An outcome report was submitted to the state and the owner could now sell the property.

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.