GN urges heating fuel tank inspection

This is what a pin-hole leak in a heating oil tank looks like. (FILE IMAGE)

Homeowners and property managers may save significant oil spill cleanup costs if they take the time to conduct regular inspections of their heating oil tanks, says the Government of Nunavut.

A property owner in Iqaluit is now contesting charges filed by the GN under the Environmental Protection Act following an oil spill on her property a few years ago.

This legal challenge, due back in the Nunavut Court of Justice next month, may have prompted Nunavut’s environment department to send out a reminder to all homeowners and property managers to conduct inspections of their heating oil tanks.

The GN-produced Illustrated Homeowner’s Guide to Heating Oil Tanks provides information on how to properly inspect a heating oil tank and to recognize potential spill risks.

The guide is available on the Department of Environment website.

You may also contact the Department of Environment at (867) 975-7700 or call your local Conservation Office for more information, the GN suggested in an April 17 news release.

Typically, fuel tank leaks are discovered during the spring when the snow melts.

That’s because when tanks are surrounded by snow, you can’t see the leaks from the holes, which can produce a steady stream or simply drip into the snow.

Without snow, the holes can be hard to detect unless you know what you’re looking for.

Sometimes the hole on the outside is so perfectly round that it looks like it has been drilled out. So much so, that some people suspect the leak holes are the result of vandalism.

Bur the holes are generally caused by corrosion. That process, known as “microbial-induced corrosion,” occurs when tiny oil and water-loving critters dig craters into the sludge that accumulates at the bottom of tanks and through the metal.

Two years ago, a small leak in a fuel tank in Cambridge Bay allowed 1,600 litres of fuel oil to leak out. It wasn’t detected until the snow started to melt.