Fuelling your farms
Ooutbuildings and run machinery and equipment, as well as for heating and cooking in the farmhose.
The Oil Firing Technical Association (OFTEC) – the body representing the oil heating and cooking industry – is urging farm owners using oil to ensure that their storage tanks meet regional requirements which are designed to help reduce accidents in the unlikely event that a
spillage occurs.
OFTEC Director General Jeremy Hawksley said: “It is better to be safe than sorry. Simple precautions, like making sure your tank meets regulations will prevent unnecessary costs in the future.”
An oil tank, which is less than 3,500 litres, supplying a farmhouse (a domestic dwelling) in England and Wales, is covered under Part J of the building regulations. In Scotland, tanks which are less than 2,500 litres are covered by the Scottish Building Standards (section 3) which states that an assessment should be performed by your installer to see whether the tank poses a risk of pollution in the unlikely event of a spillage.
A bunded tank is basically a tank within a tank, known as an integral bund. You may also have secondary containment around an oil storage tank instead of the integral bund. A bunded tank should be used if it is:
• within 10m of ‘controlled water’ such as a stream, ditch, river, lake, natural pond, canal or coastal water.
• sited where any oil spillage could run into an open drain or loose fitting manhole cover.
• within 50m of a well, borehole or spring.
• sited over hard ground or hard surfaced ground that could allow spilled oil to reach ‘controlled water’.
• sited where the tank vent pipe outlet cannot be seen from the fill point.
Your installer can advise on any of these situations and can undertake a risk assessment for you.
In commercial situations, the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001 apply. Where more than 200 litres of oil is stored in tanks outside and above ground at commercial premises, like farms, tanks must be bunded.
In Scotland the above is covered by the Water Environment Oil Storage (Scotland) Regulations 2006. This requires all new oil storage tanks above 200 litres to be provided with secondary containment. Any existing tanks covered by the above regulations that are less than 10m away from any controlled water or less than 50m from a bore hole or spring will require secondary containment by April 1st 2008. All other existing tanks should comply by April 1st 2010.
In England and Wales storage tanks supplying fuel for vehicles such as tractors are covered by ‘The Control of Pollution (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) Regulations 1991’. Under these rules your oil tank must be bunded if it is above 1500L (single tank) or multiple tanks. Single tanks under 1500L do not have any regulations. This applies to new tanks installed after 1991.
Regular maintenance checks on oil storage and ancillary equipment are essential to help detect any potential problems before they occur. Although leakage is rare, looking after your oil storage facilities will help to reduce the risk of oil pollution and could save you cash on potentially wasted fuel and unnecessary clean up costs.
Help is at hand through OFTEC, which operates a Competent Persons Scheme and has a list of its members on its website. You can then rest assured that by going through the OFTEC website to find a tradesperson, your heating and plumbing engineer will be competent.
OFTEC has over 9,500 registered businesses and technicians throughout the UK and Ireland. They are qualified to government approved standards and hold appropriate insurance to work on your property. They can advise on the latest regulations for each individual situation and can also advise on energy efficiency.
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