Here's an excellent FAQ for you that likely answers most if not all of your questions.

http://www.currenenvironmental.com/tank-removal/faq/#a3

PA should have their own rules.

Do a search like 'pa dep oil tank removal' ad you should have all the links you could want.

The soil must be tested for contamination. You need a certificate stating the soil is not contaminated.

It is not good enough that the city / county / says that the tank was properly abandond, unless they have had the soil tested and certify there is no contamination.

The problem ( vis a vis resale of the property) is that in the case of buried oil tanks if/when a contamination of the soil or local water table is discovered then the owner at the time of the discovery is liable for the (sometimes) considerable removal and remediation costs. Not the guy who installed the tank or the previous owner(s).

It's like a game of musical chairs - no one wants to be the bozo that winds up holding the bag.

And that goes double because the tank is not longer in service, and although it may be functionally empty, it probably not be truly empty so there is still some oil in it and now it also has a lot air in it, increasing the chance it may rust through.

If I were a buyer and an empty tank was on my proposed property, I would refuse to close until it had been removed, inspected,( and remediated if necessary) and certified OK. No way i would take on the potential liability for a buried, abandonned, tank.

Right now your 33 year old tank is probably just fine so it would be just a question of digging it up, disposing of it (that comes with some fees), getting the soil checked and backfilling. If you put it off and lots of time goes by then there is the risk hat any residual oil does leak through, and then you have all of the above costs PLUS you'll have contaminated soil that needs to be removed and the site remediated. And that most likely will be expensive.

My suggestion is don't wait until some time in the future when a sale may be on the line, or your risk of leaking has increased.

It will never be cheaper (relatively speaking) than it is now.

Geothermal is so cool, I wish we could do that. We have oodles of room for the pipes, but alas, no central heat.

HTH

L.

You definitely want to get the RIGHT advice for your jurisdiction. Call the EPA, for sure. Knowing that whatever you're told now, might change in years to come.

We bought a home that had had an oil tank that they'd had removed. We wouldn't settle until the previous owners had the ground tested and gave us certification that it was okay.

Whatever you do with that tank, be SURE it's done by a company that's QUALIFIED to do the work, so you can get the kind of certificate you will need when you do sell the home in years to come. And put that certification in a very safe place.

You probably would want to have the soil tested. If it's contaminated, you would want to know if the water table underneath is also contaminated.

It's not cheap to have the soil remediation done. If the water is contaminated, it would be very expensive to clean up.

I think you really need to find out what the rules are in PA. Here in NJ, after the remediation is complete, you need to have it inspected and then obtain a letter from Department of Environmental Protection that basically says everything is clean now and you are free from any further obligation.

One of the houses I considered buying had this issue. It took the owners almost two years to fix the problem and obtain the approval letter from NJ DEP. They were fortunate there was no water contamination, but they weren't able to sell the house during these two years, even though several buyers were interested in the house.

This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 14:48

That is one reason when we built in CA we put our oil tank above ground with a cement floor and containment wall. It sure made it easier when we sold. But it was done to code and we had permits, which we left copies with the new owners.