Yellowknife (July 12/06) - For more than 50 years, Yellowknife resident Adolf Duesterhus' trusty fuel tank has done its job, storing and supplying heating oil to his home furnace.

But last March, Duesterhus was informed by his fuel supplier, Midnight Petroleum, that he would have to replace it.

"If they can prove the tank is unsafe then I'll replace it, but who's going to prove it?" asked Duesterhus. "I want to know who made the rules and I want to know why."

At the time of Duesterhus' last fill up, he was presented with an itemized list of problems that needed to be addressed. These included the tank itself (his is uncertified), tank supports (his are wooden but need to be concrete or metal) the lack of a gauge, vent alarm, vent pipe and fill pipe. All these are required under the building code.

"This tank being that old belies (these requirements) as they've filled it for 36 years," Duesterhus insists.

However, Marc Miltenberger, operations manager for Midnight Petroleum, says the onus is on both fuel suppliers and customers to meet these regulations.

"Let's not make us out as the bad guys here. We're being responsible corporate citizens," Miltenberger said. "This is an industry driven standard to install fuel tanks to current building codes and to current tank standards."

What is driving these tank upgrades in the Northwest Territories, according to Miltenberger, is the environmental impacts and clean-up costs of spilt fuel; financial ramifications for the insurers and liability issues for suppliers.

"If Adolf's tank fails and we're putting fuel in it knowing that it doesn't meet the standards, we're liable," added Miltenberger. "So we're obligated to ensure we are in full compliance with all applicable codes, federal, local, fire code, building code and oil code."

Miltenberger also notes that the NWT is "lagging behind" other jurisdictions in the country and Midnight Petroleum is in the slow process of upgrading its customers' fuel tanks in Yellowknife, Fort Simpson and Hay River.

Mark Harris, a broker for Norland Insurance Ltd., says insurance companies' home policies are behind the push to bring fuel tanks up to code.

"The way basic homeowner policies work is they're based on an all-risk assessment, meaning everything is covered unless it specifically states it won't be," he explained.

Harris says clean-up costs of fuel leaks from compromised tanks are something covered under most such policies.

"It's not a cash grab, it's a legitimate way of eliminating potential loss. From an insurance standpoint the more you can limit loss at the end of the day it will keep premiums down," said Harris. "From the retailers' perspective, their concern is if they fill a tank not properly labelled and up to the guidelines, if it ever lets go then they'll get drawn into a lawsuit. It's the typical story of once the lawyers get involved everybody is passing the buck here and it sort of filters on down the line."

The cost of replacing a 300 gallon tank, a typical size for home fuel storage, is between $1,500 to $2,000.