Oil spill in garden.

Kitkitty

I've had a leak of kerosene from my oil tank -possibly 200litres. It has burnt a small patch of grass in my garden, but has also crossed to my neighbours garden. They smelled oil in the kitchen, and when they investigated, they realised it was coming from my tank. When they dug a hole, of about a foot deep, they saw kerosene pooling. Just looking for some advice on what action I need to take. The source of the leak has been rectified, but is more action needed?

magicbastarder

there may be trouble ahead...
if they report this, and it's contacted the foundations of their house, the insurance companies will have a field day.
i know someone whose tank drained into the ground after an aborted attempt from someone to siphon the kerosene out, and the insurance company ended up spending a five figure sum to rectify (my father in law was shown the documentation); and have heard stories (of a more he said, she said nature) of people having to move out of the house as the kerosene had soaked into the foundations; you do not want to be living in a house where a carcinogen like that is evaporating into the house.

roy rodgers

I've seen this costing 100k before

mickdw

This is a serious issue nowadays however I personally think people are going over the top in terms of rectification.
If this was a self contained issue your best bet would be to say nothing.
Given that the neighbour is now involved, you can be sure someone is going to put them wise and as soon as the official people get involved, the sh1t will hit the fan.
Your insurer will be duty bound to cover costs to remove all contaminated soil in all surrounding properties and dispose of it properly, put back clean soil and landscape etc.
If the contamination is found near the house itself, it's goodnight.

Is there any possibility that the neighbour realised they had a leak themselves and are fitting you up? Ive seen a case first hand where this happened!

magicbastarder

mickdw wrote: »

Is there any possibility that the neighbour realised they had a leak themselves and are fitting you up?

given that the OP mentioned that the source of the leak has been dealt with, i suspect that possibility is remote.

roy rodgers

I'm a plumber and have seen this first hand too and insurance companies will run riot with it. But nothing like a good week of rain wouldn't sort out but I wouldn't be eating the fish out of the local river

magicbastarder

i suspect the OP didn't hear what (s)he wanted to hear.

Kitkitty

Thanks for all the replies. I was sleeping for the night, hence the lack of response! My insurance guy has already briefed me on the clean up route, but I was concerned that it was above and beyond what was necessary. To view the 2 gardens, from surface level, there appears to be very little amiss. However, I appreciate that there may be unseen havoc going on below the ground.

iano.p

Was in a house that something like this happened half a tank went into the ground but wasn't pooling like yours. It caused two close neighbours to start fighting due to the damage insurance sorted it out but it cost's thousands and a long time to sort

Kitkitty

Any rough idea on a timeline for resolution?

Marhay70

Kitkitty wrote: »

Any rough idea on a timeline for resolution?

This is going to depend on the extent of the spill. This happened to neighbours of mine when the entire contents of a tank in a neighbouring house were spilled, over a period when the house was unoccupied. The house was on a height above my neighbour, resulting in the kerosene leeching through the garden and into the foundations of his house. All the soil in the garden had to be removed to a depth of at least three feet, and the ground floor of the house had to gutted, the concrete foundation removed, along with part of the rear supporting wall and all internal walls. It was a very lengthy procedure, the family was out of the house for over a year and the noise, dust etc was a constant annoyance. The work was carried out by a specialist environmental contractor and I often thought it would have been easier just to demolish the house and start again. Even after the renovation work was finished, the family weren't allowed to move back in until the contractor had revisited a few times to check all was well.
Again, probably not what you wanted to hear and perhaps an extreme example but it was a serious environmental issue and even the local authority was involved. Very expensive for somebody, certainly into many tens of thousands.

mickdw

To be honest considering the way these things are dealt with now, I think the regs regarding domestic oil installations need to be totally revised to make this almost impossible.
Compulsory oil catch trays, sealed ducting from tank to served property etc.
There would appear to be a disjoint between the thinking in the regs and the damage being caused. Off the top of my head, the regs are quite loose when only dealing with domestic volumes of oil storage - this would lead you to believe that spills of that amount are not so critical. Then we see an actual domestic spill and it gets treated like a nuclear accident so something needs to change here.

iano.p

Kitkitty wrote:

Any rough idea on a timeline for resolution?

Took about two years in total. The owner of the other has had to move out for that time. After all the work was done no one could move in for around 4 months just to be sure it didn't come back and this was only 500 liters. Just were the tank was made it worse. Plus you said yours is pooling this one wasn't like that so are you sure how much you lost.

Kitkitty

Hmm makes for grim reading!! Thank god for insurance! I'm thinking 200-300 litres.. Seems to be only happening since January.. Wondering how this is all going to affect my insurance policy. But that's a small worry by the sounds of it.

Marhay70

Kitkitty wrote: »

Hmm makes for grim reading!! Thank god for insurance! I'm thinking 200-300 litres.. Seems to be only happening since January.. Wondering how this is all going to affect my insurance policy. But that's a small worry by the sounds of it.

Try to look on the bright side, the fact that it has pooled might mean it hasn't spread too far from the source of the leak and it might only be a case of repairing the leak and replacing some of the soil. I would guess your soil doesn't drain very well and that may be a saving grace in this instance.