Empty and Purge Tank Farm

Lee’s Environmental is one of the few companies available in SEQ with the capabilities to perform the complex job request we received: A tank farm on an ex-council site held a 10,000L horizontal fuel tank containing fuel and vapors for removal. This job request presented multiple challenges due to:

  • Tight vehicle access to the back of the property due to buildings
  • The tank’s shape and access point prevented regular pump out of the fuel spread across the length of the tank.
  • Access restrictions and safety issues prevented the tank from being cut open

Our solutions-oriented team carefully planned the fuel removal with safety foremost, and successfully completed the job to the client’s satisfaction. We scheduled the work for Saturday to maximize safety and to ensure the job could be done as efficiently as possible.

We used a 20 tonne excavator to lift the end of the massive tank so the fuel would pool in the corner for complete pump out with our dangerous goods vehicle. Lifting fuel tanks out of the ground has its own risks especially with the fuel component adding additional safety hazards and our experienced team rigidly followed all health and safety procedures to mitigate the risks. We then pumped out the tank in our industry-leading dangerous goods truck which was both large enough to remove the high quantity of hazardous waste in minimal trips while still small enough to navigate the tight access.

Next, we purged all vapors from the tank and tested with a gas detector for LELs (low explosive limits). Our truck’s unique venting system also separates the fuel and vapour within our truck to ensure additional safety while transporting the waste to an approved disposal site. Once given the all-clear, the excavator was able to cut the tank up and load into a truck for recycling.

Finally, we performed our standard procedures to pump out the remaining tanks on the tank farm to ensure all tanks on site were safe for removal.

Please contact us if you have a project that requires dangerous goods removal or other liquid waste removal.