How to find out if a buried oil tank is on your property

One of my clients has a single family home where there is potential evidence of a prior oil tank being buried in the ground.  So, the buyer asked, within the contract, to have it researched and if one was found that it be decommissioned – if it weren’t already.  Many readers of this blog know that I’ve brought up this topic a couple of times before early this year.

There are several companies that do offer these kinds of services and 2 from my services page that I contacted and referred to my client to consider were the following:

Filco
13190 Stone Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98133
Office: 206-547-8347
Tacoma: 253-922-6383
www.filcoenviro.com
Fuel Tank Installation (FTI)
11536 Seola Beach Dr. SW
Seattle, WA 98136
Office: 206-244-8020
Email: [email protected]
www.fticompany.com

Each firm had their own format of how they would go about doing the research but a lot of it does come investigating the site specifically for things like vents, in-fill pipes, and piping that may go into the house from a suspected tank location.  Filco specifically uses a powerful magnet of sorts to do some of their locating as well as the diagnostic/investigative search.

Since it is part of the contract, we’ll need to be sure and provide documentation of the findings to escrow to satisfy conditions of the agreement too. Considering lenders want to know these kinds of details again, I wouldn’t be surprised if a copy finds its way that direction as well.

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