15K-Gallon Oil Tank Likely to be Sold, Says Town Official

The 15,000-gallon oil tank that was scheduled to be buried at Fairfield Woods Middle School likely will be sold by the town, according to the chairman of the Fairfield Woods Building Committee.

The middle school on Fairfield Woods Road is undergoing a $24.2 million expansion and renovation, and the big oil tank was originally planned to be buried on the school's property to provide "dual fuel" to the building in case a gas line was broken.

But the town's Board of Selectmen, after approving $100,000 to remove Holland Hill School's oil tank and replace it with a much smaller, above-ground tank, decided Fairfield should no longer bury huge oil tanks on school properties. The selectmen instead wanted much smaller oil tanks, from 275 gallons to 330 gallons, to be installed above ground.

The only problem with the selectmen's decision earlier this month was that the 15,000-gallon oil tank planned at Fairfield Woods already was en route and its delivery couldn't be stopped.

William Sapone, the building committee's chairman, said Monday that the town likely would sell the giant oil tank and that it cost roughly $34,000. "We're probably going to sell it. There doesn't seem to be a use for it in town," he said.

Town conservation officials thought the big oil tank might be of use as a water source at the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, which is scheduled to occupy two acres on the Hoyden's Hill Open Space. The town and FOTF are working on a lease that would allow the organic teaching farm to occupy part of the 58.5-acre, town-owned open space.

Thomas Steinke, director of the town's Conservation Department, said Friday that a well exists near the farm's proposed location and that water could be pumped into the big oil tank and then drained from the tank to irrigate crops.

"The working storage tank we now have is no bigger than this desk," Steinke said in his office, adding that its capacity was 40 to 50 gallons. "With the farming activities, I thought there would be a need for increased water storage."

Steinke said he believed some sort of water storage tank would be needed for irrigation at the proposed farm. "If you had to irrigate a row of vegetables, you'd be hard put to do it because the well would be working all the time and could never recover," he said.

Steinke said the well itself was in pretty good shape and that the pump had been serviced about seven years ago.

But Sapone said any town use of the big oil tank requires that the building committee be reimbursed for its cost since the cost is coming out of the building committee's budget. Sapone said he didn't think the Conservation Department had money in its budget to pay for the oil tank.

The location of the big oil tank was somewhat of a mystery Monday afternoon.

Town officials thought it was at Lake Mohegan, but town Parks and Recreation Department employees who were checking seasonal passes at the lake on Monday afternoon said the tank had recently been moved after sitting in the parking lot for a few weeks. DPW officials weren't immediately sure where the big oil tank went.

Something that resembles a big oil tank was at Fairfield Woods Middle School on Friday afternoon, next to a huge hole in the ground. Construction workers at the middle school around 4 p.m. said the big object looked like an oil tank to them, but they couldn't say for certain that's what it was.

Town Purchasing Director Twig Holland was on vacation Monday and employees in the town's Purchasing Department weren't sure what the town planned to do with the big oil tank. Selling it would require approval from the Representative Town Meeting.

During the selectmen's meeting last month, the oil tank was identified at 10,000 gallons. But Sapone said Monday that the 10,000-gallon figure was incorrect and that the tank was actually 15,000 gallons.

Underground oil tanks that have a capacity of 10,000 gallons were buried by McKinley School and Burr Elementary School, but the tank for Fairfield Woods Middle School was a little larger, Sapone said.