empty underground oil tank

[45DUDE]

It cost my dad $5000 to have one removed in the 80's. It had rusted and full of water.

[Char-Gar]

I have know large empty underground tanks to float to the surface when the soil get water saturated.

[Bmi48219]

We purchased a 25 year old rural home that was heated with fuel oil and had a 250 gallon underground tank. Back then I could fill it in June for 75 cents a gallon but we used around 650 gallons each heating season. Filling it up in the winter was always more than double the price.
Replaced the furnace when the heat exchanger started leaking and I was gifted a recent 1,000 gallon in ground tank. After pressure testing it, sand blasting and re-coating, I dug up the old tank and installed the replacement. Because of the larger diameter of the new tank I couldn’t get it buried deep enough to get 4 feet of fill over it. That doesn’t help with controlling the condensation that is a fact of life with underground storage.
I kept the oil supply pickup nozzle 3.5 inches above the tank bottom and added a second longer pickup line in the tank so I could pump out any water that settled to the bottom. Periodically I’d check for water and pump it out if any showed on the stick. Even pumping slowly some oil would come up too. I found if it set for a day the water would settle to the bottom of my bucket and I could siphon it off.
Just for the heck of it I pressure tested the old tank. It held pressure but at six pounds it started to bulge in spots. Wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I had to crush the old tank and take it to a scrap yard in a mixed load to get rid of it.
The price of oil kept going up over the years but we still used the same amount annually and save enough money by filling the tank when fuel prices were down to cut our annual heating cost over 60%.

[Bmi48219]

I have know large empty underground tanks to float to the surface when the soil get water saturated.

Empty in ground pools can do the same.

[beezapilot]

Yep, been down that road before. If you have a buddy with a backhoe and can get away with it, get the tank out of the ground, back fill, cut it up, bring it to the scrap yard (see if they have any lead while you are there) don't get anyone with any form of government associations involved...if you can get away with it.... if it is in the ground, it will haunt you.

[Martin Luber]

Keep an eye on inhouse tanks too, the front may look ok but the backside against the wall may be rusted out. I got my 62 yo tank out just in time, the back looked like a scaley tin can fron an outdoor dump.

You, the homeowner, can dig up, remove, and scrap out fuel tanks but it's a nightmare for a business where they need licenses and certifications ...read very expensive ang heavily regulated.

[Wayne Smith]

As others have said it is way less expensive to remove it now than waiting until it leaks - you cannot get all the oil out - and have to remediate the soil. LOML's profession was to identify the source of oil leaks and make sure they were remediated. Once they leak you are looking at mega bucks. Oil will run down the underground gradient and come out somewhere, if there is enough of it.

LOML worked for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality - but part of her salary was paid by the EPA's LUST program - yes the Federal Government has a LUST program, and she used to go to regional LUST conferences. LUST = Leaking Underground Storage Tanks - whoever named that program back in the early '70's had a great sense of humor.

[MrWolf]

An additional comment: A house we looked at before moving down to Southern Jersey had an in ground oil tank. House was to small for us anyway but the tank was an immediate turn off. About 5-6 years later, we were looking at investment property to flip. That house had finally come back on the market after all those years as they had an oil leak that was discovered during the home inspection. It took that long for remediation and the book with all the info was almost three inches thick. Ended up buying that house. 1,000 year flood took a lot of my profits but that is a other story. Remediation can be a nightmare if authorities find a leak.

[porthos]

how do you fill undrground tank with sand thru the small (2 in.) fill up hole?

[Kimber1911]

Yeah, its really not that big a deal, any excavation contractor can yank it out, ours used to cut a big hole in it and start a fire in it to burn any leftover oil, then scrap it.

[farmbif]

hope you dont live in a place were you call the govt to ask about it and people in white suits with gloves and gas masks show up you might have to get a second mortgage to pay to get things straightened out.
if possible and if you dont have nosey neighbors that have love interest with the EPA policies you might go to equipment rental place and get an excavator and dump truck for a long holiday weekend and pull that thing out of the ground, fill in the hole and put some sod on top.
I used to live in a place where at one time I would have to appear at city hall and pay fines if I had a pickup truck parked in the driveway or the grass was too tall or for any number of stupid reasons if a nosey neighbor called.

[cwtebay]

What has been eluded to by other posters - contact the county sanitation for advice. It may cost a bit, but you won't regret it.
I purchased an old Ford dealership that was deemed "clean" of underground storage tanks (in writing in the contract). I discovered 2 tanks that had been filled with sand, the DEQ elected to allow me to hire a contractor to remove them - and surrounding "contaminated" soil. It cost $73,000 +/- for the previous owners to pay.

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[Winger Ed.]

I'd dig it out, and remove it.
That will eliminate any future problems.

[imashooter2]

how do you fill undrground tank with sand thru the small (2 in.) fill up hole?

A shovelful at a time.

[Wayne Smith]

how do you fill undrground tank with sand thru the small (2 in.) fill up hole?

You would have to blow it in to truly fill the tank.

[.429&H110]

I worked for a place that had six 12k single wall 20 year old fuel oil tanks. Every year a man would come and leak check them, one year one leaked. When the tanks were new, they had tank insurance against this day.

The inside of an oil tank is coated with stinking black oatmealy sludge. My tank cleaning machine would scrape the loose stuff and pump the sump, the steel is still slimy black. Going to need a new double wall tank, transfer the oil, pump the old tank dry, call the optimistic contractor. His bid was optimistic, and he made it.

He cleaned off the dirt to expose the top half of the tank, mashed 100 pounds of dry ice to fit through the four inch hole. Next day, the optimist cut the top off with an abrasive wheel, made a long strip of steel 4'x16', dumped a half ton of sawdust into the tank. Squeegeed the black oatmeal into the sawdust. Wet a line of sawdust and torch the ends off the tank, burn the tank into eight foot pieces. I would not have thought of sawdust. The wet sawdust kept the steel cool, soaked up the slime. Tank made a neat pile on the flatbed, sawdusty scrap steel.

The old tank was on clay, was maybe 2 yards of contaminated muck, State sniffed clean so bury it.
Then we dug up five more. It's an easier permit if it isn't leaking.

[shooterg]

Isn't some research ongoing into oil eating bacteria ?
And there was a govt. program that paid for old tanks (household) to be dug up and replaced I saw advertised somewhere - unless it was a dream !

[MUSTANG]

Isn't some research ongoing into oil eating bacteria ?
And there was a govt. program that paid for old tanks (household) to be dug up and replaced I saw advertised somewhere - unless it was a dream !

There was a science fiction 1 hour or so movie about Oil Eating "bugs" back in the late 1970's if I remember correctly. Basis was that they succeeded in lab creating an oil eating bug to clean up oil spills. The bug "Got Loose" (Reminds me of an asian country) and spread until all the oil industry globally was destroyed and vehicles stopped moving. The Protagonist in the movie drove a horse pulled wagon around the country "Selling Peanut Oil" that was immune to the "Bug".

[Wayne Smith]

Yes, oil eating bacteria exist naturally. The trick has been to 'breed' enough of them to be effective. They are being used, I'm not sure of effectiveness. They will work much better in a liquid environment than in a solid one.

[WRideout]

I have 20+ years experience as an environmental scientist, and a degree in microbiology. In almost every case, secure landfill disposal is the cheapest way to go. However, it is true that some bacteria eat oil, or petroleum-based substances. Pseudomonas will grow on any kind of plastic or organic material that stays wet. The problem with treatment by biological methods is that you have to create a good environment for the bacteria to grow. Also, bacteria grow best in an aerobic environment; even those that can exist without air. Trying to treat oil-contaminated soil in the ground could possibly be done, but might require years of treatment and groundwater monitoring during that time.

Wayne