OMAHA, Nebraska –
Defense Logistics Agency Energy worked with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District to demolish a fuel tank damaged by the unprecedented and historical March 2019 flooding in the Missouri and Platte River basins.
The following story is written by Gregory Etter, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Fueling Systems Mandatory Center of Expertise program manager. It was published in the January 2021 issue of the USACE Fueling Systems POL-MCX newsletter.
Tank 11 was a small aboveground fuel storage tank constructed in 1958 at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, and held 210,000 gallons of jet fuel. Around 2015 the tank was cleaned, decommissioned, and sat waiting to be demolished.
Then in the Spring of 2019 unprecedented, unregulated levels of runoff across the Midwest infiltrated portions of Offutt AFB including its fueling storage and distribution system where the waters lifted Tank 11 off its foundation and tipped it onto its side. The Offutt community came to refer to it as “Sleepy Tank” because of the way it rested on the containment wall.
In October 2020 the USACE POL-MCX completed the demolition of the “Sleepy Tank” under a commercial services contract with A-Zone Environmental. Mr. Adam Little, POL-MCX Project Manager, noted that the demolition of Tank 11 went very smoothly.
“It’s not often we demolish a tank with such a wild story,” Little said. “DLA-Energy and Air Force were terrific partners, and our team really knocked it out of the park. Having a tank that was already decommissioned and vapor free really sped things up.”
Demolition of the “Sleepy Tank” occurred after USACE POL-MCX had completed time-critical repair actions on the Offutt AFB fueling system in response to the 2019 floods. On June 11, 2020 all repairs were completed and the fueling system was turned over to Offutt AFB. You can read more about this project in the July 2020 POL-MCX newsletter.