We were contacted by a homeowner in Long Valley that had an above ground oil tank in his basement that leaked into the slab. He had an environmental company come in to give pricing on the contaminated soil from the oil tank spill but felt he was getting price gouged so came to us to get a second opinion.
Customer thought he was being priced gauged and asked for a second opinion
After we gave our estimate, he opted to go with us so we moved forward with permits for the concrete slab restoration in the basement after the soil removal was complete.
Upon hand digging out the contaminated soil from below the basement slab and taking soil samples the results came back exceedingly high, which was completely illogical based on the amount of that had been spilled from his tank and how quickly it had been cleaned up.
After doing some digging it turned out that there was an open DEP case on the home from 20 years prior when it had been owned by a bank that had the underground oil tank at the time removed that had leaked extensively and had not been fully cleaned up.
The home was purchased from the bank “As Is” from someone who then sold it to the current owner who now was stuck paying for the clean up on a tank, he never owned.
After more hand digging below the basement slab, we were finally able to dig out enough that we got samples back that came back below limits so both the new and the old DEP cases were able to be closed out.
This is a rare case but it does happen. When purchasing a home it is imperative to have a tank sweep to determine there are not any buried tanks, known or not known on the property and although it is not typical, checking with the DEP to determine there is no open issues on the property could also possibly prevent a situation like this one from happening.
Whatever your situation, we are happy to help. We’ve been helping people remove their underground tanks and contaminated soil for 25 years and we can help you too.
973-670-6334, we answer our phones!
