Three Year Inspections – a waste of time and money,

or a best practice? 

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If everyone just did their job, we wouldn’t need all these regulations! A true statement, unfortunately we human beings are far from perfect and we do make mistakes . . .

 

There is a shortage of skilled tank service technicians across the country. Other than on the job training there is insufficient training available for tank service technicians. Even a well trained, experienced service technician will occasionally make a mistake on the job like in the photos below.

 

This is no different than drivers – crawling through a stop sign instead of making a full stop, or going a little too much over the posted speed limit, or being distracted on a phone while driving. Every year 30,000 people are killed in auto accidents - if we all just did our job!

 

Spills and overfills remain one of the most common petroleum releases. The three year inspection of overfill devices assists the industry in preventing this common problem.

 

A service tech conducting a three year overfill prevention inspection found the problem in these two photos below. The photos show the drop tubes and flapper valves (Automatic Shut off Devices).  The top of the drop tube is round and the bottom is cut off slanted. Note the direction of the flapper valve. These flapper valves were installed upside down.