My Oil Tank Leaked! What Do I Do Now?
When an oil tank is removed at a New Jersey residential property, the tank and excavation site is then visually inspected for signs of a leak. Indications will be rather straightforward- there might be holes in the tank or stains in the soil, for instance. Let’s stop right here for a moment. Note that some companies will try to get you to pay for soil testing no matter what at this point in order to determine if soil remediation is necessary. However, it is only necessary to test the soil if the visual inspection indicates that the oil tank has leaked.
Oil Tank Leak is Visually Confirmed, What’s Next
If there is a visual suggestion that the removed oil tank has leaked, you will need to test the soil and proceed according to the NJDEP protocol.
You will need to take multiple soil samples. If the EPH (extractable petroleum hydrocarbons) level is less than or equal to 5100 mg EPH/kg in all samples, then remediation is not needed for EPH. If one or more samples are greater than that level, you will need to conduct soil remediation.
A quick note on soil remediation cost –
The industry average for New Jersey soil remediation starts at $10,000-$15,000 and many times ends up at a number in excess of $20,000. ERC Environmental offers a flat-rate of $8890 that will not change after you sign the contract.
Whether soil remediation was deemed necessary or not, EPH samples will then need to undergo contingency analysis. The analysis is based on a threshold of 1,000 mg EPH/kg. If all sample results are equal to or less than the threshold, remediation is complete for 2-methylnaphthalene and naphthalene. If one or more samples surpass the threshold, you will need to evaluate a number of contingency samples that depends on how many samples exceeded the threshold.
If your contingency samples checked out okay, great! There are a couple more steps we will need to complete for you, but for the most part you’ve dodged an expensive bullet. Keep in mind that the majority of oil tank removals we perform in New Jersey do exactly this. However, if the soil was contaminated enough to need remediation, there may be more to the clean up depending on how the tests turn out. For instance, there may be groundwater issues that need to be addressed.
Always feel free to give ERC a call to learn more!
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