Protecting USTs from Bad Weather, Avoiding Headaches
Winter has certainly arrived in New Jersey, and presents an opportunity to remind members about proper practices before/during/after inclement weather.
Last week we saw the first major snowfall of the winter across the Garden State, and a lighter snowfall earlier this week. To add to the post-holiday chaos, there’s also expected snow for parts of the state this Friday and Saturday.
When it comes to the weather, regardless if there’s rain or snow, there will be eventual runoff (and perhaps even flooding) that could impact your underground storage tanks. What’s more, when the weather rapidly shifts from snowy-and-cold to relatively “warmer” weather (as it did this week), it may trigger an immediate influx of melt-water runoff that can overwhelm local storm drains or create unique flooding hazards.
Water is the enemy of any UST system. Aside from inviting unwanted attention from regulators, a sudden influx of water can damage your tanks, and the contaminated fuel will damage patrons’ vehicles. It should be avoided at all costs.
Most regular Road Warrior readers will recall the flooding incident in Camden that contaminated fuel and did lots of damage (to the station, the consumers’ cars, and the station’s reputation).
If you don’t recall that incident or want to refamiliarize yourself with it, you can do so by clicking HERE and HERE.
To avoid such issues, all station owners should follow their compliance calendar and make regular maintenance a daily part of their routine. But when there’s precipitation, it should trigger an immediate reminder to do so.
If you haven’t done so already, review your own routine with employees. Water generally gets into your tanks through vent lines, faulty inlet fill caps, overflowing spill buckets, weak tank gasket seals and/or piping, rushed/poorly-executed tanker deliveries, broken floats, or even moisture seeping in from vent caps and vent balance pressure seals. That means before a storm or snowfall is even a potential threat, you should be looking at these safeguards and the larger tank apparatus to make sure everything is sound. Make sure your automatic tank gauge (ATG) system (Veeder-Root or otherwise) is working properly, and that your employees know how to recognize when a water alarm (or take the added step of using tank stick (sometimes called a probe stick, petroleum gauge stick, or otherwise) and paste to determine if there’s any water in the tanks.
These are relatively simple steps that can save you plenty of headaches. Your own reputation aside, both the Department of Environmental Protection and Weights & Measures will undoubtedly hand out hefty fines for non-compliance. Do whatever you can to avoid having them pick your pocket!
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