Underground Storage Tank Locating
Among other potential environmental issues during a real estate transaction, underground storage tanks (USTs) are a very common concern which could cause serious problems. The cleanup cost of leaking USTs could be very expensive and it can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars or more. Tanks may contain a wide variety of liquids ranging from non-hazardous to extremely hazardous substances, although heating oil and gasoline are the most common materials stored in USTs.
While some underground storage tanks can be easily identified and located through record searching and visual inspection, others can be hidden underground without showing any indications of their existences.
We use state-of-art technologies including ground penetrating radar (GPR) to search or locate USTs, or to identify and confirm past UST excavation areas. We can also locate UST associated piping and underground utilities prior to drilling or excavating operations.
FAQ
Sometimes the existence of a tank can be easily identified by finding the fill port, vent pipe or product lines. Sometimes there are no indications of its existence at all. We have found many tanks surprising to buyers and sometimes even to property owners. Call us for a non-invasive scanning!
You can use a metal detector to find a tank if it's made of steel. The problem with a metal detector is that only only it detects tanks, but also other objects containing metals such as reinforced concrete and junks. It's hard to tell whether you detect a tank or something else. A ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey in addition to using the metal detector would be more confirmative and can rule out a lot of false positives from the metal detecting.
It's better to use a company utilizing ground penetrating radar (GPR). GPR can give more convincing evidences if a tank does exist. In the other hand, a company having a GPR doesn't necessarily means they can locate tanks properly. You should only use an expert who knows advantages and disadvantages of theirs tools for tank locating, including metal detectors and ground penetrating radar.