Diesel in the fresh water tank

[John Hudson]

Hello,

It appears that someone has put diesel in the fresh water tank on my narrow boat. What are my options?  My boat is moored on the bridge water canal. 

[Neil Smith]

Is it a built in tank with inspection hatch, if so it will be easier to scrub out. If it's a remote one ie stainless or plastic I would suggest draining it out but not in the cut then fill with a strong bleach solution and let it soak, and repeat until all traces of diesel have gone, or use a degreaser first then bleach. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Neil

Edited March 10, 2017 by Neil Smith

[rusty69]

Sorry to hear that.

Just a few thoughts Empty the tank from the filler pipe into containers with a cheap pump so you don't contaminate the rest of the system. Then clean/rinse/repeat as above. 

If it is really bad perhaps contact your insurance Co. 

Not tried it, Mr Google found this:-

 

 

http://www.travena.co.uk/biomagic-water-tank-cleaner/

Edited March 10, 2017 by rusty69

[mross]

Remove the water first, from the bottom of the tank using a pump and dip tube as the water is easier to dispose of.  You can use a Mr Filter to separate water from diesel.

[Flyboy]

29 minutes ago, mross said:

Remove the water first, from the bottom of the tank using a pump and dip tube as the water is easier to dispose of.  You can use a Mr Filter to separate water from diesel.

I would do it the other way round. As the diesel will be at the top of the tank I would suck it off the surface first. Doing this would reduce the diesel contamination on the tank walls as you drain the water when the level goes down. This way will reduce the amount of cleaning required.

[mross]

Any diesel remaining on the walls of the tank will run down and coat the bit that was under water so it won't make a lot of difference.  Maybe a diesel bug company could do the job?  They have the pumps, tanks, filters and separators.

4 hours ago, John Hudson said:

Hello,

It appears that someone has put diesel in the fresh water tank on my narrow boat. What are my options?  My boat is moored on the bridge water canal. 

 

How did it happen?  Roughly how much water and diesel is in the tank?

[Flyboy]

11 minutes ago, mross said:

Any diesel remaining on the walls of the tank will run down and coat the bit that was under water so it won't make a lot of difference.  

I disagree, if you have say 1/2" of diesel floating at the top and you remove it there will only be 1/2" of residue left on the tank wall. Draining the bottom first will contaminate the whole tank wall which may be say 24" deep,so you would have 48 times more residue. Not an insignificant amount when it comes to removing diesel from a water supply.

[Chewbacka]

The first thing you need to tell us is do you think someone has put in a small amount - say less than a bucket full or are we talking about 200 Litres?

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, Chewbacka said:

The first thing you need to tell us is do you think someone has put in a small amount - say less than a bucket full or are we talking about 200 Litres?

I would suggest that the only person likely to put in '200 litres' is the owner.

You'd need to be pretty P-eed off with the boat owner to carry 10 jerry-cans to a bot and tip them into the water tank - never mind he £200 (ish) cost.

Maybe a 500ml 'coke-bottle' full - it does go along way when you spill even a couple of 'drops' when re-fuelling. The tank will need totally emptying and steam cleaning (maybe several times) as the taste and 'rainbows' will be there for years otherwise.

[Chewbacka]

3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I would suggest that the only person likely to put in '200 litres' is the owner.

You'd need to be pretty P-eed off with the boat owner to carry 10 jerry-cans to a bot and tip them into the water tank - never mind he £200 (ish) cost.

Maybe a 500ml 'coke-bottle' full - it does go along way when you spill even a couple of 'drops' when re-fuelling. The tank will need totally emptying and steam cleaning (maybe several times) as the taste and 'rainbows' will be there for years otherwise.

I agree it is probably only a cupful or so, but before discussing how to remove it, it does help to know how much is involved.

[bizzard]

If you drink any you will have to pay the £10 pollution charge to go into London.

[Flyboy]

22 minutes ago, bizzard said:

If you drink any you will have to pay the £10 pollution charge to go into London.

[bizzard]

He could even be escorted to an MOT station to have his emissions checked. It must hurt when the probe is inserted.

Edited March 10, 2017 by bizzard

[8 Hairy Feet]

15 minutes ago, bizzard said:

He could even be escorted to an MOT station to have his emissions checked. It hurts when the probe is inserted.

How do you know this?
 

[Chewbacka]

9 minutes ago, 8 Hairy Feet said:

How do you know this?
 

To ask that questions means you have never suffered an alien abduction.

[bizzard]

13 minutes ago, 8 Hairy Feet said:

How do you know this?
 

I don't. I missed out ''must''. Corrected now.

[Neil2]

My first question would be how do you know there is diesel in the tank?  

If you have an inspection hatch the job is a lot easier you should be able to just skim the diesel off the top with a wet vac.

If it's not an integral tank why not  just fill it (with water) then catch the polluted water as it comes out of the overflow(s). You would be able to tell when the water runs clear.

[Neil Smith]

No news from the op yet, i wonder if he has sorted it yet.

Neil

[MtB]

I too am curious to hear if this was sabotage, in which case it is probably just a cupful and I doubt it would be apparent unless they are drinking the tank water. 

The more likely scenario I'd say is a boat yard or fuel boat filling what they thought was the diesel tank but it wasn't. In which case the whole lot needs pumping out and disposing of professionally and the tank steam cleaned. 

[rusty69]

22 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

The more likely scenario I'd say is a boat yard or fuel boat filling what they thought was the diesel tank but it wasn't. In which case the whole lot needs pumping out and disposing of professionally and the tank steam cleaned. 

If this is the case, I would expect the boatyard to put things right at their expense. 

[Alan de Enfield]

Well - the OP has not 'signed back in' since posting his question.

Hopefully he will come back with 'suggestions' as to how / what actually happened.

Maybe, it is a new (to him) boat and he did it by mistake, but is embarrassed to admit it - if that is the case then remember the old saying "the man that never made a mistake, never made anything"

[MtB]

On 11/03/2017 at 09:00, Alan de Enfield said:

Well - the OP has not 'signed back in' since posting his question.

Hopefully he will come back with 'suggestions' as to how / what actually happened.

Maybe, it is a new (to him) boat and he did it by mistake, but is embarrassed to admit it - if that is the case then remember the old saying "the man that never made a mistake, never made anything"

 

One doesn't have to log in the read the replies to one's thread. He could well have seen everything posted so far.

[Guest]

If it is sabotage, I would be worried that it would happen again after cleaning the tank out. I am intrigued as to why, there could be a back story here.

[Liam]

6 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

The more likely scenario I'd say is a boat yard or fuel boat filling what they thought was the diesel tank but it wasn't.

Definitely wasn't me!

[Ex Brummie]

As it is posted in the New to Boating section, I wonder if the OP has a new (to him) boat that has had a water tank painted before he bought it. Bituminous paint of the wrong spec will seem like diesel.