Let’s be honest, staying organized is tough. When it comes to running a business, your day to day list of things to do can be endless. Taking the time to neatly organize your paperwork and maintain a clear filing system may not be on the top of your list. But, when it comes to operating a regulated storage tank facility, organization of your records becomes essential. Records associated with a storage tank facility are about as important as they come. Many of these documents fall under the scrutiny of the regulating authorities as much as the tank system itself!

Just think of the last time you were looking for a document that you could not find; perhaps something as simple as a receipt from a recent purchase, or a bill that you had been meaning to pay. Frustrated with the fact that you didn’t take the time appropriately file it previously? Now replace that document with leak detection report that you printed from your tank monitoring system five months ago.  And a state inspector is the one who is frustrated with the fact that it cannot be found. What do you do? Well, to put it simply, you’d better find it. If not, you may be facing bigger problems like violations, fines, or even being shut down.

Without documentation of the various activities that come along with operating a regulated tank system, they may as well have never happened. In a state inspector’s mind, if you can’t find last month’s inventory reconciliation, then you didn’t do it. If you can’t find this year’s line leak detector test report, then it wasn’t done.

On the other hand, if you maintain a neat, well organized filing system of all your tank system records, inspectors will be impressed. Often times inspectors will look at your tank system records before even checking out the equipment. If your records are in tip-top shape, you will be starting the inspection off on the right foot. If not, well… good luck.

So, next time you toss an important piece of paper aside thinking it is not worth taking the time to ensure it is properly filed, stop and think about what it is really worth.

-Troy Dickens, Field Services Technician