Buried Fuel Oil Tanks are an Environmental Liability in the Ground Outside your Home

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More and more we’re hearing nightmare stories of old buried steel fuel oil tanks rotting through, causing oil to leak into the soil that result in huge cleanup bills for the unsuspecting home owners.  

Home & business owners don’t realize that most property insurance carriers specifically exclude any leaks or spills from their oil tank so they are left holding the bag when it comes to this costly cleanup which law requires you to perform immediately by a licensed contractor.  If you can’t pay, the state environmental agencies can often reimburse contractors and lean your property along with interest, penalties and fines.  

Buried oil tanks can hold up or kill property sales just before closing when the buyer or their mortgage company realizes there is a tank in the ground.  

Many of the tanks in the ground were installed post World War II when fuel oil was relatively cheap and there were no regulations on the quality of the steel used in tanks and no thought of “cathodic protection” as is required in many jurisdictions today and is standard for buried propane tanks for decades.  

Homeowners are caught off-guard and pay big money to get that old tank out of the ground before the closing or even scarier – opt to have an environmental testing company perform a “Pressure test” on their old tank – putting unwanted air pressure to see if there is a leak or maybe it’s the final straw and they can cause an aging tank to leak.  We would never recommend pressure testing an old tank, be safe and simply get it out of the ground before trouble happens. 

So why “pressure test” an old tank?

Leaking fuel tanks can cost tens of thousands of dollars to remediate.  If you have an old tank, CES offers many options including removal or abandonment in-place and can provide cost effective solutions for either a new fuel tank inside, outside alone or inside a containment enclosure or what many choose now – switching to clean, efficient, environmentally friendly propane gas heating.  We don’t make our living by removing oil tanks, we try to find solutions for our fuel customers so they can afford to heat their homes for many years to come with us!  

Switching to propane just became easier with our “conversion burner offer” where we’ll use your existing fuel oil furnace or boiler, simply replace your oil burner with a new Gas Burner.  In addition, we offer a full line of high efficiency gas furnaces & boilers with ratings up to 95% AFUE at discounted rates for conversions.   We give you all the options, costs and a payback analysis – no fee or obligation.  Gas is clean and produced here in the USA unlike foreign oil.

Call us today at 800-874-1975 or fill out the inquiry form below for a no obligation site visit to see if we can give you some options & costs. We’ve been helping customers since 1968!