Leaks occur for a variety of reasons and can vary from being minor leaks to catastrophic ones. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to experience a leak from your heating oil tank, you’ll know how much damage can be done to the surrounding area, not to mention the financial implication of losing fuel and the cost of clearing the spill up. Kerosene heating oil is toxic and harmful to plants and animals as well as a threat to habitats and a danger to water at the surface and underground. The longer a heating oil leak or spill is left, the worse the environmental pollution will be – and the greater the cost of the clean-up. Leaked oil can be very difficult and expensive to clean up and can affect human health and property, pollute water courses, damage plants and wildlife and make soil infertile.
Maintaining your central heating oil tank and preventing it from leaking is your responsibility, and in this blog we’re going to take a look at how leaks occur, advise you on what to do if you experience a domestic heating oil leak, and, importantly, look at what you can do to prevent an oil leak in the first place.
How do leaks occur?
Some of the most common incidents are due to damage to the heating oil tank body itself, such as a crack or a split, damage to, or wear-and tear of, equipment on the tank such as sight gauges, to fuel feed lines, or failure of components at the oil central heating boiler end of the system such as flexible hoses. Whilst plastic tanks can split, metal tanks can rust, often at the base. If you’re considering changing your heating oil tank, a bunded tank offers added protection against leaks as it is essentially a tank within a tank. The inner tank holds the heating oil, whilst the outer-skin is a secondary tank that offers protection, and so is the safest way to store your fuel. In some cases, a bunded tank is compulsory – more information can be found in our blog about domestic oil tank installation and regulations.
What should I do in the event of a spill or leak?
Leaks can occur at any point in the oil central heating system. You might notice a strong smell of oil but may not be able to see the leak on first inspection, whereas some leaks are easy to spot, for instance a split in your tank may have home heating oil visibly flowing from it.
Whilst fumes from heating oil are non-toxic and pose little immediate risk, they can cause headaches, sore throats, skin rashes, and nausea and vomiting. If there is a strong smell of oil in your house, then ventilate the areas by opening windows and doors and keep children and pets away from any potential leaks. Do not smoke near the leak.
It’s important to try and stop the leak at the source by turning the tap off. If the leak is not obvious, start at the heating oil tank itself and look for any signs of oil that has spilled onto the ground. If there is no trace of leakage, follow the pipeline to your boiler looking for any signs of leakage.
If you have a plastic oil storage tank and it has split, you may be able to stop the leak temporarily by plugging the crack by rubbing a bar of soft soap across the leak or by using sealing putty. Contact your domestic heating oil supplier – they will be able to come and assess the extent of the spill and remove any heating oil from your tank to prevent further spillage.
If possible, put a bucket or some sort of a container under the dripping oil to catch it, but don’t use containers that will be used to store food for humans or animals. Any oil captured must be disposed of correctly and legally – usually it can be recycled safely at your local household waste site.
Close valves or taps but be careful not to get any oil on your skin. It’s always a good idea to wear rubber or vinyl gloves to protect your skin and avoid getting any heating oil on your clothing. But if oil does come into contact with your skin and/or clothing, it should be rinsed as quickly as possible.
If you see spilt oil on the ground, it needs to be cleaned up immediately with absorbent materials as home heating oil is damaging to the environment. Try to absorb any spillage with sand, cat litter or use an oil spill kit which will contain highly absorbent pads.
It’s important to try and prevent the flow from spreading and reaching any nearby buildings or watercourses. Check to see if any leaked fuel has migrated from your property and impacted your neighbours’ land, and if the heating oil leak has contaminated controlled waters such as streams, ponds or lakes, you will need to contact the Environment Agency on their 24-hour emergency pollution hotline on 0800 80 70 60. Never wash any spoilt oil away into drains or into the ground as oil can cause serious pollution of rivers, streams and groundwater.
If oil has soaked into the ground, you will need to act quickly to prevent it from soaking further into the ground and reaching building foundations or water supplies. Try to determine how much fuel has been lost – if a large amount of domestic heating oil has leaked into the environment, you will need to contact a professional company as soon as possible. They can clean up all remnants of oil and dispose of any waste safely and legally.
Get to know your oil tank
Quite often it’s possible to prevent home heating oil tanks leaking through proper regular maintenance. Ensuring your heating oil tank is well maintained by way of regular tank inspections can help spot potential problems before they arise and before they can escalate into a major issue.
Remember that your insurance provider won’t cover tanks or pipes that haven’t been properly maintained so we’d advise you to carry out a regular visual inspection, say on a monthly basis. Look for signs of wear and tear such as rust, splits or cracks, bulging, subsidence on the base, gauges not working or any unusual smell of oil. In addition, your OFTEC registered oil heating engineer will check your tank at your annual boiler service.
It’s also a good idea to check the amount of heating oil in your tank regularly. This can be made easy with our OilFox Smart Monitor which is an simple and reliable way to keep an eye on your home heating oil level. The OilFox has a tank transmitter called FoxRadar which constantly monitors your oil level and makes readings available to you in real time. And if your oil level suddenly drops due to a leak (or theft) it will send an alert to your phone via the app.
We’d advise you to keep a bucket or bag of sand close to your tank in case of emergencies – a good precautionary measure. Alternatively purchase a spill kit.
If you are concerned about your heating oil tank, would like advice on maintenance, or you're thinking of replacing your central heating oil tank, we’re here to help. Give us a call on 01423 770 666 or read our blog for further information on how to look after your heating oil tank.
And one final tip - we would always recommend you check with your insurance company that you have adequate insurance in place to cover any costs associated with all aspects of a heating oil spill, i.e. the cost of replacing the oil, of replacing your oil storage tank should you need to, as well as to cover the cost of the clean-up itself.
Read More: The future of HVO - an alternative greener fuel choice coming soon!