Manual Tank Gauging

Manual Tank Gauging MANUAL TANK GAUGING: only for smaller tanks. Tanks holding 1000 g or less can use this method alone. Tanks from 1001 - 2000 g can only use this method in conjunction with tank tightness testing. Not for use with tanks larger than 2000 g.

Requires 4 liquid level measurements per week. The first 2 are made at the beginning of the week, the last 2 after at least 36 hours during which product has been neither removed nor added to the tank. The average of the 2 consecutive end measurements are subtracted from the average of the 2 beginning measurements to calculate the change in stored product volume.

Weekly calculated change in tank volume is compared to the standards in the following table. If the calculated change exceeds the weekly standard, the storage system may be leaking. Monthly averages of the weekly tests must also be compared to monthly standards.


CAPACITY (gallons)WEEKLY STANDARD
(1 test, gallons)
MONTHLY STANDARD
(4 test average)
MIN. TIME OF TEST (hours)
up to 55010536
when largest tank is 64" X 73"
551 - 10009444
if tank is 48" X 128"
100012658
if combined with tank tightness testing
1001 - 2000261336

REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

  1. Liquid level measurements must be taken with a gauge stick that is incremented to one-eighth of an inch.

  2. If tank capacity is greater than 1000 gallons, must combine manual testing with tightness testing.

  3. Manual testing can't be used for tanks larger than 2000 gallons.
COSTS

Manual tank gauging is inexpensive and can be performed by yourself. For tanks under 1001 gallons the only cost is the gauging stick, and perhaps some product-finding paste. The total cost is less than $200.

For tanks between 1001 and 2000 gallons there is the additional cost of the tank tightness testing. These test costs are highly variable, ranging from $250 to over $1000 for each test.

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