[kathy and al]

Originally Posted by Villages PL

I don't want to bother mailing them a letter so I'm hoping the Villages Car Guys will fill in for Tom and Ray to answer the following urgent question:

Dear Tom and Ray,

It has suddenly come to my attention that 3 nearby Shell stations periodically pump all of their underground tanks dry. They seem to do it every couple of months. The last time I went to one of the stations for gas, about half of the pumps were already shut down - dry.

I think it's safe to assume that the other pumps were in the process of dredging out the dregs from the bottoms of their tanks. Possibly, moisture gets in in the process of being refilled by tanker trucks and whatever else.

In your opinion, what was the risk, if any, of getting gas at that time? There was another Shell station nearby with a higher price per gallon. Would I have been better off to go to the other station and pay a little more?

Thanks, VPL.

First of all it is impossible to "pump all of their underground tanks dry" because the underground tank is designed to stop pumping at a point where at least 500 approx. gallons (and sometimes more depending on the storage tank size) are remaining in the underground tank. They will never reach a "dry" level.
As for moisture and condensation there is a "measuring stick" that measures the amount of product in the tank and moisture paste applied to the end of this measuring stick will reveal any moisture in the product. Most stations do this daily and if excess moisture is prevalent then it can be removed by companies that have the equipment to do so.