XPost: misc.consumers, misc.consumers.house   
   From: pdcorc@excite.com   
      
   On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 01:35:52 -0500, Shawn Hearn    
   wrote:   
      
   >On the way home from dinner with friends tonight, I heard on the radio   
   >(KYW in Philadelphia) that an heating oil company accidentally delivered   
   >heating oil to a home that had converted from oil to gas heating. As a   
   >result, the oil flooded the basement of this home. The home's occupants   
   >were not there at the time. The news story said another company made the   
   >same mistake a few weeks ago.   
   >   
   >This got me wondering about something. I might be wrong, but I seem to   
   >remember that when my parents converted their oil heating to gas, they   
   >had the plumber weld the gas pipe shut on the outside end so no one   
   >could take the cap off and make the same mistake. My parents were also   
   >concerned that pranksters could not pour anything down the pipe into the   
   >basement. This took the plumber only a few minutes to do and I assumed   
   >everyone who got rid of oil heating did the same thing, but apparently   
   >not. My parents' gas heater conversion was done by a close family friend   
   >so maybe their got special treatment, but I am curious why all people do   
   >not have the cap welded shut on their oil pipe or just remove the pipe   
   >entirely.   
      
   Perhaps people don't weld it shut because they don't think of the   
   possibility of mistaken deliveries.  Sealing or removing the pipe   
   should be part of the plumbing code or whatever other code the gas   
   heat installers are supposed to be using.  Even if people don't   
   convert to gas, they should upgrade the tank-to-boiler feed line,   
   which is where leaks usually happen, to a double-walled pipe.   
      
   Oil spills in basements are not just an inconvenience.  Most of the   
   work I do (environmental assessment and remediation in Mass. and R.I.,   
   sometimes in N.H., Vt. or Conn.) involves oil or gasoline   
   contamination in soil and groundwater, a good deal of the oil problems   
   is residential.  Even if the house can be saved, assessment and   
   cleanups (even putting aside attorney's fees) can run into the 10s of   
   thousands and even over a 100k if there is a lot of groundwater   
   contamination and it's gotten into bedrock, flowed under a neighboring   
   property, or if private or public wells are located anywhere nearby.   
   And even if it is cleaned up to whatever the state environmental   
   agency finds acceptable, you're still going to have a difficult time   
   selling the property later on.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)