ProDave Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 This is an interesting one going on at the bottom of our road. They had a delivery of heating oil. Unfortunately instead of filling the new oil tank as instructed they filled the old, now disused tank. Even more unfortunately that must still have been connected somewhere with the result 400 litres of heating oil leaked into the floor void under the suspended timber floor. The owners have moved out into a caravan. I have just spoken to the contractors starting the remedial work. The plan is to dig down and underpin the foundations, to then enable them to dig under the house and remove the contaminated soil. At least a months work they estimate. Being paid for i understand by the delivery companies insurance. It will be interesting to see how this works out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Seen a lot of these and the oil will travel along sewer pipes, bt cables etc and end up in each of the neighbours gardens so beware. If the water table is high it will also leak into this and could end up anywhere. The house will never be the same. Always have that oil smell in it no matter what they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 We are higher up the hill than them and about 200 metres away so have no fears of contamination here. Scottish Water have been down looking, no doubt SEPA have had a look as well. They will be interested to make sure none ends up in the burn and then into the river. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 We had oil contamination at our site. Old tank was leaking for years. knew about it at the time so had mentally put aside £5k to deal with it. Initial survey said it wasn't too bad. No smell, no die back. We we started digging the founds for the basement, we hit a large area of heavily contaminated soil about 1.5m down. I could smell it from other end of site. Oil had sunk down over the years and saturated a layer of stony clay, about 4x5m and couple hundred mill thick. Had it tested and came back as hazardous with a 15% oil content... Theoretically flammable! Now have a nice pile of contaminated soil on polythene at the back of the site for disposal. The guy that tested it recommended leaving it exposed for as long as possible as enough VOC may evaporate for it to become contaminated, but non hazardous... Can then go straight to landfill. Oil is horrible, and I'd never, ever have it as a heating source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 I asked what they were going to do with the contaminated waste and apparently there is a designated contaminated landfill site somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 People down the road from us had a tank leak. It was only discovered after oil turned up in a stream 100 yards down the hill. Hate to think how much the clean up cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 4 hours ago, ProDave said: I asked what they were going to do with the contaminated waste and apparently there is a designated contaminated landfill site somewhere. Yeah, there aren't many licenced landfills that take contaminated soil.... There are none in northern Ireland so it all has to be shipped over to Scotland. I was told £500 a tonne! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 1 minute ago, Conor said: Yeah, there aren't many licenced landfills that take contaminated soil.... There are none in northern Ireland so it all has to be shipped over to Scotland. I was told £500 a tonne! It will be taken away from here by the skip load. It will be interesting to see how many. Knowing our ground conditions here and high water table, I hope they get it done before the "wet season" starts otherwise i just can't see how they will do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 51 minutes ago, Conor said: £500 a tonne! Jeez, I had to have asbestos taken away to a landfill site in Cornwall, a lot cheaper than that tho! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Wonder why there isn't something out there to emulsify it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 6, 2020 Author Share Posted August 6, 2020 I spoke to the home owners today. The decontamination work starts in earnest next week. Apparently there is something like a 4ft crawls space under this house. The plan is to break through an access hatch underground in the gable end supported with suitable lintels, then a team suitably suited with breathing apparatus will crawl in and start digging up the solum and removing the contaminated soil. They have admitted it it may not be possible to successfully decontaminate it this way, with worst case being the house has to be knocked down and rebuilt if this fails. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 22, 2020 Author Share Posted August 22, 2020 This is dragging on really slow. After a long delay for whatever reason, they cut the access doorway in the end wall and a team have been in under the floor to investigate. The finding is the oil is soaked into all the under floor insulation, and into parts of the timber frame, certainly all the floor. Inside the house, paint is peeling from the door frames and cement falling out from around the door and window frames. The next plan it seems is to take up all the internal floors to see if it is possible to remove and replace the contaminated timbers and then sort out any solum contamination. Owner is getting very peed off with slow progress. Owner thinks it will end with a knock down and rebuild. Also hearsay says the bill so far is already up to £100K which to me sounds like consultants fleecing the insurance industry? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Just knock the bloody thing down already !! Dig the shite out and dispose of, and then infill and compact, and rebuild. The writing is on the wall.......the house is on borrowed time. Oh, and don't listen to rumours, most are utter bollocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 This should all land squarely on the shoulders of the OFTEC installer who commissioned the new tank / de-commissioned the old one. This is ENTIRELY their fault and should be coming off their insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 22, 2020 Author Share Posted August 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said: This should all land squarely on the shoulders of the OFTEC installer who commissioned the new tank / de-commissioned the old one. This is ENTIRELY their fault and should be coming off their insurance. Grey area. I don't know who installed the new tank, or even if it was during the ownership of the present owners who have only been there a couple of years. I belive the oil delivery companies insurance are footing the bill for filling the wrong tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Not really. If a registered installer goes to a job, they should see what’s ‘going to go wrong’ and make it safe. Same way when “we” cut a moulded plug off an appliance “we’re” supposed to mutilate that plug so it cannot be plugged in so the live cut off end cannot hurt someone who doesn’t know the danger of doing so. Regardless of the timeline, the last person there working on oil is responsible for at least identifying the possible dangers and capping off the old tank. If you went to a job where there was a shed that had been removed, and an SWA was sat on the grass still made off but just the breaker turned off, what would you do? If you ask for a little badge that says you’re fit, competent and qualified, you are then ordained to go above and beyond in all you do. In the instance of this oil spill, that due diligence fell to the wayside. On a project a year it’s ok ago, there was an oil tank with about 1800L of oil in it which was decommissioned to convert to a log gasification system. The scaffolders who put their scaffold yo for us to do the flue etc trampled all over the 10mm oil lines as they went along. Then it started to leak. I switched the shut off valve off and instructed the client, in writing, that it needed to be rectified by an OFTEC reg’d and insured installer immediately. The cottage was at the bottom of a steep valley with a fast flowing stream at the front of the house. You can imagine what 1800L of oil into that would have done, environmentally, let alone cost repercussions, and even though that tank was never touched by us, I still felt it was my responsibility to make the client aware of the massive dangers that were in front of me, ( even though it was caused by the complacency of others ). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 23, 2020 Author Share Posted August 23, 2020 I just have the feeling, the new tank and "decomissioning" of the old tank may have been done by the previous owner, quite possibly with no OFTEC involvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 19 minutes ago, ProDave said: I just have the feeling, the new tank and "decomissioning" of the old tank may have been done by the previous owner, quite possibly with no OFTEC involvement. That would make more sense tbh. Another great example of not being a penis and saving the wrong few quid in the wrong place. If the insurers ever found out that, he'd get the bill. Best we shut up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottishjohn Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 On 29/07/2020 at 22:08, Nickfromwales said: Wonder why there isn't something out there to emulsify it. there are plenty of emulsify ing fluids - problem will to get it too all the contamination ,which you could never be sure of while the oil is in the ground. so has to be dug up and moved I was offered a petrol station by shell for FREE which had a similar problem cost to clean it up would have been approx 1.5m --so thats why they still own it -as long as they operate it and do not open up the ground it does not have to be done - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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