Buried Oil Tanks
Buried oil tanks can be a significant concern in the Greater Victoria area. If your home has one, it is definitely time to have a professional examine, de-commission, and remove the tank.
Oil heat has been a very popular type of heat for many years. The invention of the forced air furnace in the 1930s allowed heating oil to replace wood as a fuel of choice. Many homes had in-ground oil tanks installed right up through the 1960s. Oil tanks are not going to last forever and, in fact, when buried in the ground they can deteriorate even faster due to the soil and water contact. The average lifespan of an in-ground tank is only 15 to 25 years. If that tank leaks oil and that oil gets out into the surrounding ground, the cost for clean up can be very high. Removal of the tank is usually in the realm of a few thousand dollars, the clean up of contaminated soil though can cost significantly more. Recent clean ups have gone as high as $500,000.
Ways of telling you may have a buried tank include:
· Vent or fill pipes rising out of the ground either in the yard or against the side of the house.
· Small copper pipes coming through the foundation into the area around where your furnace.
· A depression alongside the house or close by in the yard.
· Sinking sidewalk next to the house.
· Smell of oil in your backyard or oil on the ground/dead grass (oil floats and will come up to the surface in some instances).
· Your house was built before 1970 and had an oil furnace at one time.
If you are looking at a home that was built before 1970, you should definitely consider having a professional scan the ground surrounding the house to determine if an oil tank may be present. There are a number of professionals in the Victoria, Sidney, and Western Communities areas that will scan your property for only a few hundred dollars.
Some fire departments or municipalities maintain records about these tanks and can be a great resource to determine if you have on the property or whether one was there and was properly removed. Both Victoria and Oak Bay have records of underground tanks.
Be aware that your insurance usually will not cover clean up costs from a leaky oil tank so being pro-active in removing or making sure that property you are purchasing does not have an underground tank is worth the time.
