Environmental Enlightenment #113
By Ami Adini - Reissued April 30, 2010
This
is a SHORT, LIGHT and SIMPLE newsletter. Its purpose is to rekindle in
the initiated terminology they have once learned, and enlighten the
uninitiated on terms they may have heard but never known the meaning of. |
Exploding Grounds
A
street widening project. A section of a property along the street has
been acquired by the City and a new sidewalk is being constructed. The
construction crew encounters a buried 1.5” steel pipe running across
the intended side walk.
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Using
an electric saw they start cutting. The sawed side of the pipe emits a
puff of smoke and six feet away a crater opens up with a volcanic blast
throwing dirt and rock. By sheer luck, nobody gets injured. |
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We
are called upon to investigate. We find two historical 500 gallon
gasoline tanks buried underground with piping running to the locations
of historical pumps some 30 feet away. The tank that connects to the
sawed pipe is the one that exploded. Its end is ripped open. The sawed
pipe used to be a vent line. |
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Moral
First - safety: Never perform hot work on abandoned buried piping until it
has been traced to its origin. As a minimum, sniff the interior
atmosphere and determine if it is explosive. |
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Second - real estate transaction: A qualified environmental assessor
conducting the Phase One Environmental Site Assessment process would
have been likely to find historical evidence of the tanks.
Investigation of old building permits, business permits, fire insurance
maps, aerial photography, etc., would have had a good probability of
locating data pointing to the historical tanks. Our after-the-fact
interview of the site occupant revealed his detailed knowledge of the
historic installation. |
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You can find past issues of our "Environmental Enlightenment" at www.amiadini.com:
Wealth of information about environmental site assessments in the real
estate transactions and issues concerning assessment and cleanup of
contamination in the subsurface soil and groundwater. |
Call me if you have questions. There are no obligations.
Ami Adini
Ami Adini & Associates, Inc.
Environmental Consultants
Underground Storage Tank Experts
323-913-4073; 323-667-2336 fax
mail@amiadini.com
www.amiadini.com
Ami Adini is a mechanical engineer, California Registered Environmental
Assessor, Level II, and president of AMI ADINI & ASSOCIATES, INC.
(AA&A), an environmental consulting firm specializing in all phases
of environmental site assessments, rehabilitation of contaminated sites
and upgrading of underground storage tank facilities. AA&A
supplies practical solutions to environmental concerns using the
highest standards of ethics and integrity while providing its clients
with maximum return on their investments.
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