Date: Fri 07-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

council-ordinance-Wright

Full Text:

Officials Search For Remedies For Growing Number Of Leaking Oil Tanks

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

One out of every four underground home heating oil tanks that have been dug up

in Newtown since 1993 have been leaking, contaminating the surrounding soil

and sometimes even water supplies.

"In 1993 the problem was minimal. Last week we pulled three tanks in one day

and all three were leakers," said Fire Marshal George Lockwood. "It's a

growing problem."

Mr Lockwood spoke at last Thursday evening's meeting of the Legislative

Council Ordinance Committee. The committee, which is considering the

possibility of enacting an ordinance to regulate buried oil tanks, had invited

Mr Lockwood, Assistant Sanitarian Martha Wright of the Newtown Health

District, and C. James Kaiser, general manager of Holcomb Fuel, to a meeting

to discuss the problem of leaking tanks.

At this point no one knows exactly how many homes were built in Newtown with

underground heating oil tanks, but the number probably is in the thousands,

according to town officials. In many neighborhoods, built in the 1960s and

early 70s, these tanks are now about 30 years old. The life span of an

underground tank is considered to be 15 to 20 years, Mrs Wright said, but it

can be much shorter if the tank is placed in damp, acid soil.

"The thinner the walls of the tanks, the faster they can go," she said.

"Damage also may have been done during installation, there may be loose pipe

joints or bent piping, or the metal may react with the concrete and corrode."

Tanks also can rust from the inside out because of water or condensation in

the tank.

"When a tank springs a leak, water gets in first, and eventually the oil gets

out," Mr Lockwood said. "If the tank is in gravely soil, the oil will go right

to China."

There have been instances of tanks that leaked into the water supply of the

homeowner, the wells of neighboring homes or into nearby brooks and ponds.

Mrs Wright said the oil tank at one new house in Sandy Hook apparently leaked

from the day of installation because of a damaged pipe and soon the leaking

oil contaminated the well. Within the first year, the homeowner put a charcoal

filter on his water system to filter out the odd taste in the water. By the

time the problem was identified, the situation was so bad that the house had

become uninhabitable.

Cleaning up the contamination caused by a leaking oil tank can be very

expensive. "The average cleanup is $6,000," Mr Kaiser said. "The highest I've

seen was $55,000."

Mrs Wright said she hasn't found an economical, practical way to test

underground tanks.

"Pressure testing a tank can cause it to blow," she said. "Soil testing may

not reveal the problem. The best solution is to remove the tank and install a

new tank inside the basement or garage."

Generally it costs about $2,400 to remove and dispose of a tank and install a

new one, a cost which many homeowners are reluctant to incur.

Mrs Wright said she and her husband decided to have their underground tank

removed last year. When the tank was unearthed, and a hole cut in the top, she

thought she had made a mistake.

"Everything looked fine," she said. "I thought I was getting all this expense

when there wasn't a need."

But when the tank was completely out of the ground, she discovered they had

made the right choice. The bottom of the tank was so corroded that it was

ready to spring a leak at any time, she said.

Thick-walled tanks, properly installed in sand, may last for decades.

"But in the late 70s and early 80s when many homes were built, cheap tanks

often were used. They were dropped in holes (in the ground) and filled with

anything available," Mr Lockwood said.

Rocks and rubble around the tanks moves when the ground freezes and thaws,

causing damage to the metal, he explained.

In some neighborhoods, where several leaks have occurred, the town has sent

letters to all of the homeowners warning them of the potential problem and the

liability. Generally homeowner insurance policies won't cover damage caused by

leaking tanks.

"When we've pinpointed areas, we've sent letters to the homeowners, trying to

educate and protect them, but they don't want to hear it," Mr Lockwood said.

"Some have called the first selectman's office and complained. They're afraid

they'll have a problem if they want to sell their homes."

If a tank can't be removed, such as if it is buried under a deck, it can be

left in place provided the tank is cut open, cleaned and filled with sand by a

properly licensed contractor. Soil samples also must be taken to be sure the

tank hasn't leaked. The cost for this method is about the same as if the tank

was removed, Mr Kaiser said.

When new homes are built in Newtown now, the Health District recommends that

the home heating oil tanks be placed inside the house or garage, or

alternately in an enclosure outside that will trap any leaking oil. The same

recommendation is made when buried tanks are replaced.

"In three years I've only seen two (replacement) tanks go back into the

ground," Mr Lockwood said.

In those cases, a special thick-walled tank, called a Stip-3, designed to

inhibit reaction by the tank to the soil, can be installed. These tanks are

significantly more expensive, but they are an option if there is no other

alternative location for the tank, Mrs Wright said.

Sometimes homeowners can detect a leak if the furnace doesn't light or if more

oil is being used than is usual, if an odor of oil can be detected in the

basement or in the shower, or if there is an oil film in the water. But often

the problem isn't discovered until the oil shows up in a neighbor's well or

pond.

Mr Kaiser said some oil companies offer Homeowners Environmental Loss

Protection (HELP), a $49-a-year insurance plan which provides up to $200,000

in coverage in case of an oil leak. But customers often don't take advantage

of the insurance plan.

"We have 4,000 customers in Newtown, about 42 percent of them have underground

tanks, about 50 percent of those are older tanks, and about 500 customers are

on the insurance plan," he said.

While insurance protects the homeowner financially, it doesn't protect the

environment and the drinking water supply. So the ordinance committee members

are considering whether to enact an ordinance like many other Connecticut

towns have done.

Gail Halapin, who researched the subject for the committee, said the first

step is to try to determine the scope of the problem in Newtown by estimating

how many buried home heating oil tanks there are in town. From that point, the

committee must decide what it can mandate and how it can enforce the

ordinance.

Education is important too, said committee member John Kortze, adding "Are we

here to write an ordinance or here to solve a problem?"

The problem is that most people don't want to even think about the possibility

of a leak, Martha Wright said.

"For most people, it's out-of-sight, out-of-mind," she said. "It can be an

expensive surprise."