Wakefield, MA pool owner is casualty of Memorial Day weekend oil spill.

CommTank is cleaning up the pool site after an oil spill elsewhere in the town..

2008-05-31, PR Works/ Steve Dubin

Posted by StevenVDubin 223 days ago (1)
Category: Environmental Services | Tags: comm tank oil tanks remediation

WAKEFIELD, MA…Imagine this scenario. It’s Saturday morning, the first day of a glorious Memorial Day weekend, and you’re preparing for a pool party when you notice an oil slick in your pool. That’s exactly what happened to a Wakefield homeowner last Saturday, May 24.

Kevin Hoag, President of CommTank in Wakefield, MA was contacted on Saturday to check out the situation. Hoag visited Farm Street in Wakefield and found that there really was an oil slick in the swimming pool. CommTank specializes in site remediation but according to Hoag, “This was one of the most unusual situations that we’ve ever encountered.”

The saga began on Friday night when CommTank was called to clean up an oil spill at Old Nahant Road in Wakefield. Apparently, a Lynnfield resident had a relative in Lynn who was having an oil tank removed. With ever increasing fuel prices, this enterprising individual thought he would go to Lynn and pick up the surplus oil to use at his own home.

To transport the oil, the Lynnfield resident disconnected his own oil tank and strapped it to a trailer. After filling his tank with the surplus oil from the relative’s home in Lynn, the spigot on the now full oil tank on the trailer broke off as he drove away, leaving a trail of oil behind on his journey.

With the tank continuing to drip oil, he then drove to his father’s house on Old Nahant Road in Wakefield where he proceeded to back up a 75-foot long driveway that was pitched at a 45-degree angle. As a result, what was once a trickle now became a flood of oil. CommTank was called to the scene by the Wakefield Police Department and Hoag estimates that about 75 gallons of oil was spilled at the site.

Shift back to the pool with the oil slick. The 13,000-gallon in-ground pool had been filled with water from a surface well, drawing water from the same aquifer that the oil had seeped into during the previous night’s spill, creating an environmental nightmare for an unsuspecting homeowner. Cleanup at the pool site will be ongoing for the next two weeks.

The moral of the story – don’t even think about transporting unused oil on your own, no matter how valuable you think it may be. As Hoag points out “This is why licensing and strict regulations are required for the transportation, disposal, or recycling of oil. It’s illegal and dangerous to attempt it on your own.”

About CommTank
CommTank, founded in 1994 and located at 84 New Salem Street in Wakefield, MA, specializes in the removal and installation of above and underground storage tanks and site remediation, i.e. emergency spill response, site assessment, laboratory analysis, excavation, and site closure.

CommTank’s services are available Monday through Saturday, with emergency service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. CommTank’s service area includes most areas of Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and Maine. For further information please visit www.commtank.com, or call 1-877-66 TANKS or 1-800-628-8260.