Questions Asked…..
- What do my soil sample results mean? (25 Seconds)
- What type of pricing options do you offer? (1 min)
- Can you just sample the excavation instead of remediating? (2 min)
- Is the subsurface evaluator included in the price? (2:52)
- If we go with open ended contract, you will just come out and start digging? (3 min)
- How often does groundwater get contaminated? (3:30)
- How much does it cost to investigate the soils for a fixed price? (5:30)
Episode 13 Transcript
Announcer: Welcome to Tank Talk with Pete, a podcast talking all things related to residential oil tanks. You have questions, Pete has answers
Pete: Hey, Chris, it's Pete from Simple Tank. How's it going?
Caller: It's going all right.
Pete: I, I got a chance to speak to your, uh, to your wife, I believe, right?
Caller: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so I got the news that, uh, the sample you guys took was above, uh, standard, uh.
Pete: Yeah, unfortunately, it is. Uh, it's, uh, the standard is five thousand one hundred, and I believe yours came in at twelve thousand six hundred.
Caller: Right.
Pete: So, you know, it tells us one thing. It tells us that yes, there's some contamination out there that's over the limits. What it doesn't tell us is how much is out there, and that's what ultimately drives the price. Um, and you know, a lot of times I have these where, I mean, I just like really high sample results, forty thousand, fifty thousand. And you would think, "Oh, this is gonna cost a fortune." But I go out there, and they only traveled a foot, so it, it was cheap to clean up. You know what I mean? So that's the only thing we don't know. We don't know the exact cost of what it will c- what it will be. So there's two options I was telling your wife. We have two options to go about this. One way is I can give you what's called an open-ended contract. The way that works is it's a starting price. It's about seventy-nine hundred bucks, and that doesn't include any soil. So, so the way it works is we come out there with an, a, a subsurface evaluator, and he will do oversight. He'll tell us where to dig, when to stop digging. So depending on how much soil we take out and replace, that'll drive up your, your, your total invoice. Typically, the eighty percent of the jobs we do range between about eighty-five hundred to fifteen thousand. That's a typical soil remediation range. That's one way to go about it. The other way, if you really are dead set about knowing exactly what the cost would be, we could come in there beforehand. I could drill around to determine how far this stuff traveled, and I'll know exactly what's in the ground, and I can provide you with a fixed price to do the job.
Caller: Mm-hmm. Okay. And what about… I'm reading on your site that you can come out and probe and send those samples?
Pete: Well, yeah. So that's the– So all right. So there's… Uh, which part of the site are you on? Are you referencing?
Caller: Soil investigation, um, coming out, probing around to grab six samples from the previous tank excavation. They're gonna be sent to a state-certified lab.
Pete: Okay. So yeah, that option unfortunately is not available to us. So if you had your results that ca- If your lab result came back under a thousand, then I would say, okay, you have two options. One option is I could come out there and just sample it, and as long as all six are below, then you're good. But when you have one, the first initial sample, when that's over the limits, then we only have one option, and that's to remediate. Oh, oh, I
Caller: got you. Okay. All right. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. And the subs, um, the, uh, subsurface evaluator, is, is that price included?
Pete: In the, in the contract that we quoted, that I sent out, yes, that's, that's included. The– everything is, a hundred percent is included. The only thing that's not included is a four hundred dollar review fee that gets paid to the state, uh, at the end. Right. So that's the on– you know, that's a direct cost to the state.
Caller: Gotcha. Four hundred dollar review fee, come out, initial contract. So if we did the open contract, you just come out and you start digging right away?
Pete: Exactly. And typically, you know, we clean these up anywhere between one to three truckloads. That's an average cleanup, and that's where, you know, you fall within that eighty-five hundred to, you know, fifteen thousand typically.
Caller: Right. Right. Right. And, uh, what about the– How often does water get contaminated?
Pete: So that's a good question. Um, uh, now you're in Cranford, right?
Caller: Yeah.
Pete: So do you have a– Are– Do you guys have, uh, some pump in your basement? Like, tell me what's, uh- No,
Caller: we don't, we don't, we don't have a basement. No.
Pete: Okay. No
Caller: basement. There was a little bit of water when he… at the bottom of the tank.
Pete: Okay. So the way that groundwater works is when we come out to do our excavation and we dig out the contamination-
Caller: Yeah
Pete: um, we are gonna dig until we get clean soil. Once we get to that clean soil, let's say it's at nine feet deep, okay? Right. Once I'm at nine feet, our geologist, our subsurface geologist will take a sample of the soil, and then he's gonna tell us to dig an additional two feet excavation. And we do that to see if we're gonna encounter groundwater. If groundwater is within that two-feet section, which we'll know because it'll start filling up the hole, just like it does at the beach when you dig a hole, uh- Right. Right.
Caller: Exactly.
Pete: Yeah. If that happens, then the state will require us to come back out afterwards and done at a different time to test the groundwater. And what we do is we would put it in a well, which is basically a PVC pipe. We would drill it down, and then the geologist would suck the water out. Now, groundwater is– it, it sounds scary, but as long as I get the source out, which is the soil, that's what's gonna- Yeah … that's what's gonna clean up your groundwater. So, and that's what the state wants us to prove that, yes, we got the source out and the groundwater is not contaminated.
Caller: All right. Yeah, 'cause that's, that's the nightmare that I've been hearing about.
Pete: And so it can be a nightmare, but if you get all the, the source out, it's really just a, a, it's a, it's, it's a process that you have to go through. Um, but it, it, you know, if it's contaminated and let's say… Okay, I'll give you a scenario. Let's say I can't get all the contamination out. Let's say I have to leave some behind because it's impacted by utilities or it's going under a structure. Uh, so I have to sample it and let's say, okay, yeah, it, it's, it's under the state standards for soil criteria, but it's gonna continue to contaminate my groundwater. And that's where it becomes an issue. Uh, and that's where we have to repeatedly test the groundwater and try to clean it up. But if I get the source out and I'll know that day when I do the remediation, I'll be able to tell you with confidence, yes, I got the source. There's nothing left behind. Then nine out of ten times, my groundwater sample is gonna be clean.
Caller: Okay. Okay. And I'm sorry, you may have said this, but, but for you to come out and to, and to do that, uh, the, not the open-ended contract, but to come out first and to drill, how much is that to start?
Pete: So we charge six hundred for that investigation, and then we would roll that fee into the fixed price contract if you decide to go that way. And, and you're not obligated. So let's say, hey, in fact, I come out there, and this happens a lot where, you know, it's– you spend the six hundred, we go out there and we find that it's not that bad of a leak and it didn't travel far. We always give our clients the option to go with the open-ended contract or the fixed price at that time once they know the number. 'Cause a lot of times you could save money. If it's minimal, you'll save money by going with the open-ended contract 'cause You're paying a premium with a fixed price contract because it's like an insurance thing. You know what I mean? Like you're, you're- Yeah. -you're sure that it's not gonna go over a certain number. So, but on the- Yeah. And you guys
Caller: have to protect, you guys have to protect your side too. Yeah.
Pete: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So if it's a minor cleanup, a lot of times I'll also let my clients know after that investigation, I'll say, "Okay, here are the results. This is what we found. Here's my recommendation. I think you should go with the open-ended contract. You'll save probably two thousand or whatever." Uh, or I'll come back and say, "You know what? It's a pretty big cleanup. You know, this is, uh, I would recommend going with the fixed price because you, you'll be safe knowing that it's not gonna morph into something crazy, you know?"
Caller: Oh, okay. Okay. That makes sense. Okay. And how, how soon could you come out and do the, that drilling? I think I might go with that.
Pete: So let me look real quick, um, let me look at the calendar. I would say we'd be able to get out there within the next, uh, you know, couple days. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of next week. We already have a mark out- Yeah. -all cleared. So yeah, I could get out there, uh, within the next couple of days. I could get you squeezed in for sure.
Caller: And how long do those, uh, those samples take to process? Is that like another week?
Pete: So no, we don't need any more samples because we already have the one that's showing us that it's over the limits. Oh. So what we need to do now- Yeah. -is we need to figure out how far it traveled, and that's what we're gonna know. So I'll be able to tell you, hypothetically, if my guy comes out on Monday, uh, he'll put his notes in the file, and I'll call you, and I'll let you know, "Okay, here's our findings. Here's what we think." And we'll be able to tell you at that time too if we think groundwater is impacted- Yeah, yeah, yeah. -'cause we'll be able to drill down to see where the impact is, and I'll be able to tell you at that time if I think groundwater is gonna be an issue. So you'll definitely have a lot more data at that time.
Caller: All right. Yeah. Let's, let's do that then.
Pete: Okay, cool. So I'm gonna send you a, a proposal the same as last time. It's electronic proposal. Just e-sign it, and then I'll get you scheduled in, and we'll call you to confirm what day it's gonna be.
Caller: All right. That's great.
Pete: All right. Thanks a lot, Chris.
Caller: All right. Thank you. Bye. Take
Pete: care. All right, bye.