National Tank Test Approvals

A tiny minority of countries set up their own schemes for approving tank tests, in spite of the internationally recognised ones.  The effect, however well meaning, is to lower standards and make pollution more likely.

Most internationally certified companies will not put their tests through national test programmes for the following reasons:

1. Legislation in these few countries does not recognise US EPA certification and vice versa. To operate worldwide serving the multinational oil companies, internationally certified testing companies need to have (and do have) certification to US EPA and they need to be listed by the NWGLDE.  Worldwide contracts with major oil companies like Exxon-Mobil, Shell, Chevron, Texaco require internationally certified testing companies to operate on several continents. Were any of these companies to need a test in one of the countries with no international test recognition, the client company would require it nevertheless to meet the above international requirements. If a certificate were needed for local law, it would have to have been approved by the local laboratory.  Virtually never does an internationally certified testing company take this step.
2. Most of MassTech International’s own testing is not required by law - it is leak-detective work for which we are well known.  Many of the internationally certified testing companies are used in the same manner.  It is oil companies who decide that they need to use testing companies and in general not governments. Certification or regulatory testing is for others - the low value end of the market.
3. There are 195 countries in the world.  It is just impractical for internationally certified testing companies to put each of their technologies through local testing (in MassTech International's case, 14 testing technologies).
4. National testing facilities and the protocols used for testing are rarely well thought through and do not carry the rigour of the major USA test houses, because they are far less experienced.  Some facilities do not use interred (backfilled) underground storage tanks for their tests.  They often use much smaller tanks than are used in the industry and they often do not use petroleum products. They may use leak simulation techniques which are inappropriate, fail to test at a variety of levels and for a variety of temperature change rates. This renders such tests totally irrelevant for the retail petroleum industry they purport to serve.  The result is that technologies, which work well in laboratories but poorly in practice, appear to pass national standards and practical tests may struggle so there may be a proliferation of copycat local tests and generally lowered standards.  Were MassTech International to opt for national test certification, we would have to use a weaker technology - this we are not prepared to do.
5. An effect of the less rigorous test standards is that is allows a great deal of competition that internationally-certified testing companies would never meet outside national borders.  Large numbers of inexperienced companies with weak technologies can only lower standards.  Price will drive the market until an environmental disaster changes it, suddenly and radically.

It is sad not to serve such markets and perhaps one day the above impasse will be resolved.