Armor Shield Tank Services Announces Double-Wall Tank Repair and Upgrade Program

Armor Shield Tank Services uses their expertise as the oldest and largest tank lining and repair network in North America to deliver emergency repair services to owners of double wall-steel tanks. As double-wall steel tanks, such as the STiP-3 design, grow older they can develop corrosion-based permeations through their primary containment shell into the interstitial space. The result is product in the interstitial space, with the probability of an alarm occurrence. This is an easily corrected condition that can be repaired with the Armor Shield processes, which also guard against further internal corrosion problems. Contact Armor Shield customer service at (888) 839-0373 for further information. http://www.armorshieldlining.com

Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 4, 2004 --When the United States Congress enacted CFR 280 in late 1988, it gave the owners of most single wall bare steel underground storage tanks used for gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, bulk fuel oil and petro-chemical products ten years to comply with the new, stringent regulations. It was the intension of the new EPA corrosion protection regulation portion of CFR 280 to protect against these products leaking and contaminating the ground and groundwater. During the ten year window for compliance many tank owners, including national petroleum companies, chose to comply with the new corrosion protection regulations by the use of approved tank lining and/or cathodic protection methods.

Many others complied by replacing their single-wall bare steel tanks with double-wall steel tanks with external coatings and sacrificial anodes, such as the STiP-3 D/W, to protect against external corrosion. Others installed steel tanks with secondary containment made from polyethylene or resin plastics, such as the Plasteel and Highland Tank designs. All of these replacement tanks shared one basic similarity -- the primary containment vessel, or inside tank, was bare steel. Their designs were very effective for preventing stored products from leaking into the environment. This was the intension of CFR-280, and the mandate was well met. By their design, monitoring of the annular space between the primary and secondary tanks allowed tank owners to have notice if a tank wall had permeated, before the stored product could leak into the environment.

With the external coatings, sacrificial anodes, and secondary wrap technologies, the outer tanks had relatively few failures, based on the 150,000 plus steel primary containment design double-walls in use. But another phenomenon did unexpectedly occur in some of these tanks beginning as early as ten to twelve years of service -- corrosion permeations from the steel interior tank to the annular monitored space. The environment was protected, but the double-wall tank was rendered useless because it no longer provided secondary containment, and did not comply with state and Federal regulations.

With expensive investments in UST tank fields, sometimes as new as ten years in service, many tank owners turned to Armor Shield for answers," reports Jeff Colner of Armor Shield Tank Services and the Armor Shield Applicator Network.

He further stated, Working with the tank owners and the tank manufacturers, we were able to establish several key points. The first was that in most all cases of product migration to the interstitial space, the overall structural integrity of the interior steel tank was good. This was verified by extensive studies of these tanks with ultrasonic thickness testing equipment. Other then an isolated permeation problem, the tanks were sound. After being repaired, and corrosion lined, they could be safely returned to service. "

When questioned about what was the cause of the internal leakage, Jeff Colner pointed out that, The problems were found to be in several specific categories, not always to be blamed on the manufacturer. The most prevalent causes have been found to be dissimilar metal reactions from weld points causing corrosion, microbial actions from sludge deposits at the tank bottom, excessive water left in the tank causing corrosion, and gauging stick holes off the striker plates caused by a slight rotation of the tank on installation. In addition we have found cases of seam welds that had excessive grinding at the factory, causing weeping after a period of time, and several cases of no striker plate at the fill port. All of these causes can be repaired, and the vast majority of further occurrences can be prevented by internal corrosion services at the time of the repair. The repair process does not require the entire tank to be uncovered and the location majority disrupted, as a small square concrete or asphalt cut and excavation gives our techs the access they need. Tanks without factory manways can have regulation manways installed by our techs during the process. Usually, one tank shows a problem, and we repair that one tank and put it back in service in 24 to 48 hours after we arrive on location. In other cases, we have been requested to repair the problem tank and enter and corrosion protect the other tanks on location at the same time. Its a judgment call the tank owner makes."

The Armor Shield Tank applicator network has lined over 100,000 tanks since 1968 for major oil companies, regional distributors and independent facility owners. It is the oldest continuously operating tank lining and repair organization in the United States.            

To get more information on the Armor Shield process, log on to www.armorshieldlining.com, or call toll-free 1-888-839-0373.