Ordinance prevents mistaken delivery of heating oil

A Nassau County health ordinance is in place to prevent mistaken deliveries of home heating oil, which happened at least twice in the past two weeks, coating basements with foul smelling fuel and forcing families out of their homes.

The ordinance requires abandoned oil fill pipes be capped or removed. But residents and contractors who ignore or are unaware of the law are a major reason such deliveries occur, officials and experts said.

"If people would just follow the ordinance, these incidents would not happen," Mary Ellen Laurain, a spokeswoman for the Nassau County Health Department, said of Article XI of the Nassau County Public Health Ordinance. Suffolk County has a similar code and in all municipalities where there is no such code, the state's code applies.

Bethpage homeowner Charles Garnar learned of the ordinance the hard way - after an oil-delivery truck on Wednesday pumped about 25 gallons of oil into his uncapped fill line, coating his basement floor.

"I never knew about that," Garnar said of the ordinance. Garnar said the home had a natural gas-heating system when he purchased it, nearly a decade ago.

"I didn't even know we had a fill pipe for an oil tank," he said.

Garnar reported the incident to Nassau County police. He said the oil truck left before he could see the company name. A police spokesman said the incident is being investigated.

On Jan. 27, Freeport resident Lance Leach said O'Connor Brothers Fuel of Freeport mistakenly delivered 75 gallons of heating oil to his home - again through an uncapped fill pipe - coating his basement.

At the time, Leach said last month he had converted his heating system from oil to gas about two years ago. A company spokesman said it cleaned the spill. He declined further comment.

Both families moved out of their homes after the spills. Breathing oil vapors can have adverse health effects, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Kevin Rooney, chief executive of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, a Hauppauge-based trade group, said such mishaps happen a half-dozen times each heating season.

"Every time it happens it is a disaster," Rooney said. "The frustration is that there are laws in place."

In Nassau County, where the two deliveries occurred, the health ordinance requires that when an oil tank is being abandoned or removed, the homeowner or the contractor must notify the county health department by application at least seven days in advance, Laurain said.

Once the old system is dismantled, the health department inspects the job, making sure tank removal or abandonment and fill pipe removal or capping complies with the ordinance, she said.

In the cases of Garnar and Leach, Laurain said, the Nassau County Health Department has no record of the homeowners or their contractors filing applications for oil-tank removal or capping fill lines.

Rooney said some homeowners and contractors, trying to hold down the cost of switching from one fuel to another, don't always do what's necessary with the old tank or line.Kerry O'Brien, owner of T.F. O'Brien, a New Hyde Park heating and cooling company, said he includes tank removal and fill-line capping in all of his gas conversions. The cost to the homeowner for proper removal, he said, adds between $300 and $600 to the overall project.

Garnar said he believes a previous homeowner handled his conversion. A spokeswoman for the Town of Oyster Bay said it had no record of permits for gas installation or oil-tank removal for Garnar's address.

In Leach's case, a permit was filed for the installation of the new gas heating system but not for abandonment or removal of the old oil tank.

Calls last week to Leach were not returned.

Having a permit for just a gas installation is one of the issues, Rooney said. A residence can have a gas-fired system installed without having the old oil system dismantled, he said. Once the new gas system is installed, a homeowner can then dismantle the old system and remove the tank, conceivably without a permit.

"People are trying to save money," he said, "so they cut corners."