Supply line from functioning buried oil tank on Long Island.

Are you buying or selling a home with a buried oil tank? It’s important to understand some facts about buried oil tanks, or underground storage tanks (USTs), and to understand how to best navigate this issue. It is presently legal to sell a home with a buried oil tank, but there are government testing requirements and certain liability issues that may be involved.

The EPA articles, What Is The History Of The Federal Underground Storage Tank Program & Federal Underground Tank Regulations, a post by the NYS DEC, Underground Heating Oil Tanks: A Homeowner’s Guide, and a website by Practical Environmental Solutions, P.C. outline some facts about buried oil tanks:

1. Until the mid-1980s most underground storage tanks (USTs) were made of bare steel, which is likely to corrode over time and allow UST contents to leak into the environment.

2. Most homes built before 1975 used an underground tank to store heating oil.

3. 88% of all (buried) heating oil tanks have leaked causing contamination levels that require cleanup to comply with State and Federal laws.

4. 12% of all heating oil tanks have leaked significantly that fuel is measured floating on top of the water table.

5. Odds are an underground tank 10 or 15 years old is probably not leaking, but the likelihood of a leak increases as the tank gets older.

6. Many oil tanks were not designed to be buried and, if left in place, will eventually rust and leak.

7. If you notice an unexplainable increase in your home heating oil use, your tank may be leaking.

8. Home buyers may become legally responsible for the tank and for the contamination.

9. Home Sellers are not necessarily released from tank responsibility and cleanup liability by selling the property.

10. There are numerous signs at a house and yard that indicate the possible presence of a buried oil tank.

11. In 1988, EPA passed federal UST regulations (40 CFR 280 and 281) laying out a comprehensive program for the monitoring and upgrading of USTs in the Nation.

12. Tanks were required to be upgraded by December 22, 1998 to satisfy leak detection and corrosion protection requirements.

13. Buried tanks must have some form of leak detection such as annual tightness testing.

14. To avoid leaks and regular testing requirements, a buried oil tank should either be professionally removed or properly decommissioned with an official certificate of abandonment.

15. Site assessments must be performed when a tank is permanently taken out of service.

Links:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/32263.html
http://www.oil-tank.com/genInfo-tankconcern.html
http://www.epa.gov/oust/faqs/genesis1.html
http://inspectapedia.com/oiltanks/Buried_Oil_Tank_Location4.html
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/2646.html

Tags: when were oil tanks buried in yards?, when oil tanks not buried? how deep are oil tanks buried? What are laws about buried oil tanks? Facts about buried oil tanks, environmental safety and USTs, liability and buried oil tanks, NY State laws about buried oil tanks

Do you have the following smoke detector in your home?

There are certain issues that you don’t want to take lightly, and domestic carbon monoxide poisoning is one of them. CO is odorless and deadly. I once inspected an occupied basement apartment that had a boiler room covered with soot that was venting directly into the apartment. Not good. On Long Island, unfortunately, it seems that there is almost annual news of people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. See here and here for two examples.

Recall of LI New Yorker Boilers

In 2014, there was a published recall of New Yorker boilers that had been installed on Long Island. “Plumbing Consultant Robert Gramman said thousands of the recalled boilers were installed as part of the KeySpan National Grid incentive program from 2005 to 2013.” – The New Yorker boilers, AKA Utica boilers, have, “an air-pressure switch that can fail, resulting in carbon monoxide poisoning.” I recently inspected a home with a New Yorker boiler, but it was manufactured in 1997. The following 2 websites help to identify the age of a New Yorker (Utica) boiler using the serial number:

http://www.buildingcenter.org/content/hvac-production-dateage

http://inspectbeforebuying.com/hrc/serialnumbers.asp

Recall of Kidde Smoke / CO Alarms

According to a published report, 1.2 million Kidde CO / smoke alarms manufactured between the dates of Dec. 18, 2013 and May 13, 2014 are being recalled. The defective alarms “may fail to sound during a fire or a CO incident.” If you have Kidde alarms that had been replaced beginning from December 2013, please check the manufacturing date and return them if the manufacturing date falls within the noted window of time.

Remember that just having smoke detectors in your home is not enough. And because each CO detector manufacturer has different installation instructions based on the specific design of the CO alarm unit, its important to read the instructions for the placement of your CO detectors.InterNACHI describes important facts on this subject in more detail. In New York State, the installation of CO detectors is also a code issue, as quoted from a NY government website on Amanda’s Law published in 2010:

“Specific reasons underlying the finding of necessity: Adoption of this rule on an emergency basis is required to preserve public safety by requiring the installation of carbon monoxide alarms in all one- and two-family dwellings, townhouse dwellings, dwelling accommodations in buildings owned as condominiums or cooperatives, and multiple dwellings, without regard to the date of construction or sale of such buildings, as required by Amanda’s Law (Chapter 367 of the Laws of 2009), which will reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by carbon monoxide poisoning and, in the words of the sponsor of the bill that became Amanda’s Law, “create safer homes for New Yorkers;”

Tags: preventing carbon monoxide poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning on Long Island, Consumer Product Safety Commission, placement of CO detectors and alarms, locations of CO alarms, recalls of hazardous boilers, recalls of hazardous CO alarms, Amanda’s Law CO alarms NY