Unethical and Unscrupulous Company
I hired the company Oil Tank Services to remove my 550-gallon underground oil tank from my back yard. I was very dissatisfied with their work and consider them to be an unethical and unscrupulous company for the following reasons.
Firstly, it turned out the tank was a "leaker." The tank had some holes and the manager discouraged me from soil testing based on her premise that if the tank had holes, there was contamination; therefore, soil cleanup was necessary. So, why spend money on testing? asked the manager. I was not satisfied with just a visual test, and after consulting experts, I learned that "Soil sampling after a tank removal is 100% important and not sampling is the biggest mistake you can make." Had Oil Tank Services taken soil samples at the time of removal (cost between $300 and $900), I would have avoided significant stress and saved money on the soil testing. Instead of soil testing, OTS proposed a cleanup contract for $10,500. (Their contract reads: "This is ONLY an estimate since we cannot predict the amount of Remediation or Time Spent on site.") It was proven afterwards, through lab tests performed by a second company that I hired, that the levels of contamination in my soil were way below NJDEP permissible levels of 5100 PPM (which is a fair amount of oil, according to experts). Therefore, soil cleanup was not mandated. OTS acted for their own interest by recommending cleanup without testing rather than the costumer’s interest. I would like to ask OTS, How do you know the extent of the contamination without test results? Do you again rely on visual tests? Do you keep the excavation open until results are back from the lab or do you backfill and reopen if lab results are not satisfactory? That could result in higher cost for the homeowner. Your contract does not address those issues!
Second reason for my dissatisfaction: Oil Tank Services infringed the part of our contract that stated: "OTS will fill excavated area with clean fill and with the original clean fill (sand, gravel, dirt)." Instead they partially backfilled the tank grave with the big chunks of concrete they broke for tank removal, making it necessary for the testing company to use an excavator to excavate the same area for the second time in order to take the soil samples. Had OTS taken the samples at the time of the tank removal or had they not backfilled it using broken concrete, I would have saved the cost of the excavator and operator, instead of spending $4800 on soil and groundwater testing, as I had to do.
Oil Tank Services claims to have more than 20 years of experience in the industry, but they have not learned what other experts have learned: Very often, oil tanks that leak do not require expensive remediation and can be addressed by testing because every state allows a permissible amount of oil to remain in the ground. They offer "free advice," advice that I consider self-dealing. No where in their contract or communication do they advise that in New Jersey up to 5100 PPM contamination is permissible.
I paid $1,400 to OTS for removal of the tank. Soil sampling could go from $300 to $3,000, depending on multiple variables. They proposed remediation of the tank leak for $10,500 (They warned it could go higher.) Of course, they are highly motivated to remediate since it gives the highest profit margins! Oil Tank Services, your business dealings are ill intended!