Above or Underground Oil Tanks?

Above or Underground Oil Tanks?

A far-reaching legal recommendation was made recently by a special master appointed by a Federal judge. This recommendation upholds the contention of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, that oil and gasoline tanks are safer above than underground.

The case itself is the outcome of a controversy between the oil companies and the city of Marysville, Ky. The Federal action was brought by the Standard Oil Company to restrain the city from enforcing an ordinance compelling the oil companies to place all of their oil, gasoline and kerosene storage tanks underground. Another group of companies carried their cases to the state courts and lost out in both the district and supreme court of Kentucky, which upheld the city’s ordinance. The Standard and Sinclair Companies, on the other hand, took their cases to the Federal court, with a plea for a restraining order. Experts were called by both sides, after the appointment of the special master, and these testified pro and eon as to the relative hazards of the tanks placed above and underground. The contention of the Standard Oil Company, which brought the suit, was that the underground tanks were more dangerous, in that a leak could not he readily discovered and that an explosion underground was apt to he more disastrous. This contention evidently was concurred in by the master, as he recommended the granting of the restraining injunction.