Leaking Oil Tank in Westchester County, NY

We received a call from a client in New Bedford located in Westchester County, NY who had concerns their 275-gallon aboveground oil tank located in the crawl space of the basement was leaking. The client had recently received an oil delivery and not long after, noticed an odor coming from the basement. They were unsure if the odor was being caused by the oil tank or something else in their basement.

A crew was sent to the site in New Bedford, NY (Westchester County) to assess whether or not the oil tank was failing and to transfer the oil into a temporary oil tank if necessary. Upon visual inspection of the oil tank there was a noticeable corrosion hole and the oil tank was found to indeed be leaking and oil had to be transferred immediately to stop the release of oil. We transferred the 225 gallons that were remaining from the leaking oil tank into a temporary 275 gallon oil tank on site. We are currently working with the owners in New Bedford, NY (Westchester County) to remediate the release of oil and install a new permanent oil tank. Which can either go in the same location, or new lines can be run in the direction of a different location inside or outside of the home.

When this happens, we are required to remediate the release and determine if the oil contaminated the soil and/or groundwater! This is a very important step that needs to be done to ensure safety for all parties and the Westchester County environment.

In this case, the surface below the oil tank was inspected and luckily the oil release was limited. We did also obtain a soil sample from below the slab and sent it to a laboratory for analysis to verify that that the release of oil did not reach the underlying soils. Also, when something like this occurs we must notify the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. They then generate a spill number and it’s recorded within the state.

We are currently working with the owners in New Bedford, NY (Westchester County) to install their new oil tank on the property. The new oil tank will be installed and the oil from the 275 gallon temporary tank will be pumped into the new 275 gallon oil tank in the basement.

Luckily for this client in New Bedford, NY (Westchester County), they caught it time and we were able to stop the release before it became an environmental issue!