Underground oil tank in Newton NJ

[Konstantin Boubev]

I bought a single family house in Newton NJ at  action.com. After I completed the sale, I found out that there is an underground oil tank. I contacted EPA Environmental ( private contractor) to remove the oil tank. They asked for $1700 to remove the tank. After removing the tank, they pointed out that there are 8 holes on the tank and sent me a proposal for soil remediation for total cost of $8900. They said, will require to remove the contaminated soil having a subsurface evaluator look at it , taking six samples and sending them to the lab. Once EP has the results from the lab I should be  able to receive a no further action letter to close out the remediation.

I need an advice what to do. Any information will be appreciated. 

[Nik Moushon]

You really have no options. When it comes to the EPA you really only have the courts that allow you to go around them....after YEARS of legal battles. 

Underground oils tanks kill soooooo many deals. There is a reason gas stations sit empty for decades and never get redeveloped. The cost to remediate and remove is extremely high. If you are only out that ~11k then I would say you are lucky. Hopefully just the clean up on the first try goes well enough otherwise they can make you do more and then you have to decide to either finish paying and get it all done or try to sell and cover some of your losses. 

There are a lot of risks when buying property from websites like auction.com. You really have to know how to do your homework and do your digging. Even then some things just never get found out until you dig it up.