# quick question on fuel tanks



## dayexco (Mar 4, 2006)

good customer just called, they bought a property that has 2-6000 gallon underground fuel storage tanks on the property. they're only about 4-5 yrs old, "we put them in", they've done site pre assessments and found zero contamination....MY question is....i've let my OSHA haz mat lapse, "if" there is a tank company that comes in, and decommisions the tanks......am i legal to lift them out, and haul them away to a scrap yard? the scrap yard will take them as long as they've been professionally decommed.


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

I would say that once decommissioned, they would no longer be HazMat.

But that is just my opinion. And the laws can vary by location.


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## Kgmz (Feb 9, 2007)

As long as it has been legally decommissioned and purged and cleaned, you can haul it.

Normal procedure is to pump out any good fuel in there. Then uncover the tank to the top of tank, but do not remove any deadman straps. Then blow out any lines coming from the tank to pumps, vents, etc. You blow any fuel that may be in the lines with nitrogen. Then you flush and clean the lines into the tank, usually with Mirachem at a 25% solution in hot water at 100 degrees, and have this cleaning solution vac'ed out of the tank. Then you remove all lines, vents from tank. Next you attach a temporary vent pipe to 12 ft above ground to prepare for purging and cleaning of tank. Then we use dry ice to inert the tank and push out any vapors out of the vent. Then the tank can be cleaned with a triple wash of Mirachem and hot water. Then you can dig out the tank, remove the straps and pull it out of the ground and clean the outside of it. Once it is out of the ground soil samples need to be taken from underneath of where both ends of the tank sat in the hole. If the soil tests show less than 40 PPM, the you can fill the hole.

And once the paper work is filled out you can haul it to be disposed of. And will need to get a receipt from the disposal site to give back to whoever is doing the UST decommisioning paper work so they can turn it in with their paper work to the state and EPA.



Edit:
Another thing, find out if your scrap dealer wants a big hole cut into the tank before you deliver it. A lot of scrap yards want the big hole to insure that if there are any vapors in there that they can escape. They don't want to hit the tank with a cutting torch and then have it explode. After the tank is cleaned we throw some more dry ice in there and then cut the hole.


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## Upchuck (Apr 7, 2009)

In Mass. we pump out any good fuel, expose & pull tank and call fire dept. for inspection. They visually inspect tank for leaks and do smell test on sample of dirt below tank. If everything is good we put dry ice in tank and transport to a tank diposal yard. They clean out the tank & cut it up. Never heard anything about needing hazmat cert. for transport. I've only done #2 fuel tanks, gasoline tanks are probably different.


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## Blas (Jan 29, 2008)

Day,

We just did a 40,000 gallon tank at a school and loaded the tank with two 345's but we didn't haul it the disposal company did. I would call them. They know for sure. We use Determan Brownie (763) 571-8110‎ or just do what we do don't ask don't tell lol.


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