Hello this is Ben Thomas and I’m with UST training. Are you confused about leak detection test requirements as an owner or operator for your underground storage tank system. We at UST training want you to be tank savvy so let’s help you learn these things. This is important to know not all leak tests are the same they differ depending on your UST system. Operator training laws require that you know the difference between a number of different leak tests 0.1 gallon per hour 0.2 gallon per hour 3 gallon per hour what’s the difference. It can be confusing since there’s so many different types of tests and so many different leak rates. We can help you make that easier let’s learn about each test what the test is, where the test occurs inside the UST system, what device does the test and what size leak it can find. You’ll see the acronym GPH that means gallons per hour that’s typically associated with leak rates that we’ll talk about. If you are looking for a leak inside the inner tank, you’re looking for a leak of 0.2 gallons per hour. The leak is coming from inside the primary tank typically out into the environment. This is using an automatic tank gauge as the device to measure the leak rate test. 0.2 gallons per hour equals about two coke cans an hour and there is our leak. If you are looking for a leak in between the inner and the outer tank, meaning you have double wall tank with interstitial monitoring you are in theory finding any leak it’s not a volume it’s just the presence or the absence of liquid where it’s not supposed to be. In this case the leak is in the interstitial space of the double wall tank this is called tank interstitial monitoring and there is our leak. If you’re looking for a leak in the low point between the inner and the outer pipe i.e. the containment sump again, you’re looking for any type a size of leak but that is in the double wall piping, so it is right there we look for the leak. Again, piping interstitial monitoring is what we’re doing, and we found the leak. If you are looking for a leak inside the inner pressurized pipe you are looking for a three gallon per hour leak if you have a mechanical line leak detector. It finds a leak in the primary pipe. The signal it gives you is called slow flow if you have a mechanical line leak detector and that’s a big leak that’s a three gallon per hour leak and there’s our big leak. Now if you’re looking for a leak inside the inner pressurized piping and you have what’s called an electronic line leak detector that can look for three different leak amounts three gallons per hour 0.2 gallons per hour and .1 gallon per
hour and the signal is it gives you no flow the pump quits working. Here’s where our electronic line leak detector is found and again it can find a three gallon per hour leak a 0.2 gallon per hour leak and a 0.1 gallon per hour leak the electronic line leak detector does it all and there is our leak. To summarize you can find a 0.2 gallon per hour leak inside the inner tank with an automatic tank gauge you can theoretically find any leak in between the inner and outer tank with a tank interstitial sensor you can also find any leak in between the inner and outer pipe with a piping sump sensor. If you have an electronic line leak detector you can find a three gallon per hour leak in the inner pressurized piping and if you have an electronic line leak detector you can find a 3 gallon per hour leak a 0.2 gallon per hour leak and a 0.1 gallon per hour leak if you have an electronic line leak detector. This is Ben Thomas, and I hope you can learn more as a class A B UST operator. Come visit us at www.ustraining.com for more information.
