First, there is the cost of the fuel that was paid for but never sold because it’s in the ground, and then there is the cost of fixing the tank, and finally, the cost of cleaning up leaking fuel http://www.epa.gov/oust/cat/index.htm. Bottom line – it is quantifiably expensive to have a leak in your tank, but what about losses that can be more difficult to measure? What about the impact on your reputation in the community? How do you place a value on lost customers?

So what is the industry doing about this? There are daily and monthly BIR reports that can capture leaks, but the tolerance to identify a volume level that is a leak and not an anomaly like temperature correction may allow a constant leak to go undetected. There are SIR reports, but the time it takes to compile the SIR results could result in days, weeks or months of fuel being lost - compounding your costs. Not to mention that much of these “daily values” are entered in by hand and can be plagued with errors.

Companies now are looking to cumulative tolerances to identify and correct smaller daily leaks. Maybe 100 gallons missing doesn’t raise the flag on the daily BIR but 400 gallons leaked over 4 days will. Identifying and responding to the leak as quickly as possible is the key to reducing costs.

When it comes to environmental compliance http://www.fuelquest.com/products-services/alarm-management-services there is no choice but to find a way to achieve compliance because sooner or later a violation will be found and the party responsible will be fined. Many state and local governments are looking at these violations as a source of revenue for ailing local economies. Is that where you want your hard earned money to go?