When released indoors heating oil can damage both a home and its contents and cause health problems.
Underground oil tank spill.
Information on what to do if you have an oil spill or oil contamination from a heating equipment failure an oil delivery over fill and or oil contaminated storm waters.
You can repair a leaking tank if the person who does the repair carefully follows industry codes and standards that establish the correct way to conduct repairs.
If a spill has ever occurred while filling the tank or if the tank or piping has or is leaking residual oil will be present in the soil around the tank.
Here we give some first response suggestions for indoor or outdoor heating oil storage tank leaks.
Whether a heating oil tank is aboveground or underground spills or leaks of heating oil can potentially occur during the tank s lifetime.
The only way to eliminate the hazards that come with an underground oil tank is to remove the tank from your property.
Heating oil contamination and your home.
Remove the underground oil tank.
If a residential heating oil ust was removed from july 1 1999 to december 31 2001 the owner may have obtained amnesty for the underground tank leak and the address may appear on a list located in the environmental quality records file room.
If you discover you have an abandoned tank on your property it s best to get rid of it.
Below are the requirements for tanks and piping spill overfill and containment sumps.
Analytical data from an independent laboratory provides third party data concerning the presence or absence of petroleum around the buried storage tank.
For those that use oil heat this means replacing it with an above ground tank.
The greatest potential threat from a leaking ust is contamination of groundwater the source of drinking water for nearly half of all americans.
Underground storage tanks usts approximately 542 000 underground storage tanks usts nationwide store petroleum or hazardous substances.
Cleaning up an oil storage tank leak.
Insurance may only cover a portion of these costs further increasing your risk.
Professional cleanup assistance will be required for underground oil storage tank leaks or spills but even for those tanks following the suggestions here can reduce the spill size help contain it and can reduce the ultimate cleanup costs for the oil spill.
First if your oil tank sprouts a leak the cost of cleaning the contaminated soil and water can stretch into thousands of dollars.
In 2015 epa revised the underground storage tank ust regulations.
Most home heating oil tanks are not regulated by new york state s petroleum bulk storage pbs regulations because they have a capacity of less than 1 100 gallons see the pbs registration fee worksheet pdf 11 65 kb for more information.
However some delegated counties have regulations that do apply.
Underground heating oil tanks.
The risks of an underground oil tank range from environmental and legal to financial and health related.
