Quote:
Originally Posted by Seahawk
That is a must, as well as a complete survey of the property and a plat of all prior oil exploration activity. Also, all encumbrances, claims, legal stuff that can get you in irons needs to be understood by someone who has experience in this area.
I made the mistake of not doing a detailed survey of my farm when we bought it over 30 years ago. The plat was current for the mortgage so I thought we were good.
Unfortunately, there were two in-ground tanks, one diesel the other gas, that I was unaware of until we wanted to upgrade on of the old barns adjacent to the tanks.
It wasn't cheap fixing the problem. I cannot imagine what could be found on oil property.
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Did the tanks just require soil mediation, meaning excavation around and beyond the tanks a certain distance, or something greater? Many old gas stations in the Bay Area, and a lumber yard I knew the owners of had to install a bunch of perforated pipes with a drain rock around them and a significant piece of equipment to recover the petroleum residue. The unit would create a vacuum on the perf pipe pulling the fumes out, separate them and ultimately have a propane fired burner that would burn off the residue 5 or 6 times a day. Imagine a reverse septic tank. Cost the lumberyard over a million dollars for the entire process that took like 3 years. There were 2" sampling wells all over the property that were monitored regularly by the firm doing the cleanup.
Might have broke the lumber yard if had it not been in the heart of Silicon Valley and the property being worth multi, multi-millions of $$.