Receiving an inheritance isn’t always a good thing.

Mike Rieger, owner of J & M Precision Automotive at 425 N. College Ave. in Fort Collins, found that out recently when the City of Fort Collins bored on his business property to install fiber optic lines and hit an old underground storage tank (UST) he didn’t know existed. The City called in CGRS, which discovered another five USTs on the 0.13 acres. The Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS) and the Poudre Fire Protection District required Rieger to remove them all.

The land J & M inhabits was previously the site of a gas station, and Jake Hurlbut, CGRS project manager, estimated the USTs were buried there over 40 years ago. The property previously belonged to Rieger’s father and his partner, who purchased it in 1982. J & M has been in business for 35 years this year.

Not only did CGRS find and remove all of the tanks, but it also performed an environmental assessment and cleaned up the site as quickly as possible to allow the boring to recommence. J & M was also able to continue normal business operations as the tank pull took place over a week.

Per OPS requirements, CGRS assessed soils during the tank closure but did not encounter or sample groundwater during the initial investigation. Soil analyticals showed minor petroleum hydrocarbon impacts in soils at one of the tank’s locations, initiating a “confirmed release” of hydrocarbons with the OPS and a Site Characterization Report (SCR) due by October 10, 2018.

CGRS will also prepare and submit an original reimbursement application to the Petroleum Storage Tank Fund for an abandoned tank owner on Rieger’s behalf.

To establish Fund reimbursement eligibility as a tank owner, tank operator or property owner who bears no responsibility for the release when an orphaned or abandoned tank is involved, a tank owner must provide proof that he or she:

• Did not install petroleum storage tanks on the property;
• Never operated petroleum storage tanks on the property;
• Never leased petroleum storage tanks on the property to another person for operation;
• Had no reason to know a release had occurred on the site when the site was acquired;
• Discovered the petroleum contamination after December 22, 1988;
• Owns a property on which contamination originated from the orphan or abandoned petroleum storage tanks on the site;
• And had no reason to know that the petroleum storage tank existed on the site when the property was acquired.