Leak Detection Testing

There are approximately 200,000 retail locations in the US selling different kinds of fuel. In addition there are whole sale locations where the fuel is transferred to the retail locations, and large fuel centers at airports. Municipal, state and federal governments also have their own facilities.

These facilities are regulated by the EPA and state governments. The facilities are responsible for making sure there are no fuel leaks. To comply with the EPA and the state governments, these facilities need to have an accounting system that shows no leak is occurring. For this, they contract leak detection companies to keep a check on their fuel. The contract companies report to the facilities’ manager on a monthly basis about how each underground storage tank containing fuel is performing and that none of their individual tanks is leaking.

The EPA mandates that before these leak detecting agencies are permitted to operate, they must show their system, which includes both software and hardware, is capable of detecting leaks of a certain size.

This is where a third party tester, such as our agency, comes into the picture. We test both the hardware and the software of the leak detecting agencies to ensure their system is capable of detecting leaks. After they successfully pass our test, the result of this testing is emailed to the National Work Group on Leak Detection Evaluations (NWGLDE) to approve their certification. The NWGLDE is composed of several regulators from different states and from the EPA. After they receive their certification, they are permitted to operate in the US. Other countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia, among others have similar regulations and often follow US/EPA protocols. Some elect to have their testing performed in the US for operating in their respective country or in the US.

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