Underground tank leak detection for stations and depots
Tank leak detection watches the two ways a tank's shell fails: fuel leaving through the shell or lines, and water getting in through a seal or manhole. Trakora reads the gauge on every reading, raises a leak alarm when volume falls with no dispensing and no delivery, and a high-water alarm when water at the tank bottom crosses its limit — so a problem shows on a screen, not on a neighbour's complaint.
Tank leak detection at a glance
- Rules it owns
- fuel_leak · fuel_high_water
- What it watches
- Fuel leaving the shell · water getting in
- Reads from
- The tank gauge (ATG probe)
- Leak threshold
- —1 set per tank
- Water threshold
- —1 set per tank
- Alarm lifecycle
- Raised · acknowledged · escalated
- Reporting output
- Wet-stock & compliance reports
- Regulatory framing
- EWURA petroleum operations
- Who it's for
- Fuel stations, depots and oil companies
Fuel out, water in
A tank shell fails in two directions, and a buyer thinks about them as one worry: is my tank still holding what it should. One rule watches product leaving; the other watches water arriving.
Volume is falling with no dispensing and no delivery
The gauge shows product dropping when the pumps are quiet and no tanker has delivered — the signature of fuel leaving through the shell or the lines rather than through a nozzle.
A leak alarm named to the tank, so a slow loss is a screen event tonight instead of a stock shortfall discovered at the end of the month.
Isolate the tank, investigate the lines, and act before EWURA, a neighbour or a contaminated water table forces the issue.
Water at the tank bottom crossed its limit
The water layer under the fuel rises past its threshold — ingress through a loose seal, an open manhole, or a wet delivery.
A high-water alarm before the water reaches the suction and the pumps start delivering dirty product to customers.
Draw off the water and find the ingress point, rather than fielding complaints about water in the fuel and losing the forecourt's reputation.
Two sides of one question
Leak and high-water are separated from theft and meter drift on purpose — those are "someone took it", these are "the tank itself failed". Keeping them together matches how an operator actually reasons about a tank.
Both read the same gauge
Leak and water alarms come off the same ATG probe that reads level and the water layer, so no extra sensor is needed to add the second alarm.
/ tank-monitoringCaught early, costed early
A slow leak or a rising water layer is cheapest to fix the day it starts. The value is in the days you save, not just the litres.
/ leak-alarmsSeparate from stock loss
If the loss is theft or meter drift instead of a leak, that is the reconciliation page's job — the two pages together cover every way litres go missing.
/ reports-complianceOn the record for EWURA
Every leak and high-water event lands in the tank history, so an environmental or safety query is answered from the record, not from memory.
/ reports-complianceSetting the alarms on a tank
The same gauge that meters your stock becomes a shell-integrity watch.
Read the gauge
The ATG probe already reports product level and the water layer; leak detection reads both on every reading through the Trakora gateway.
Set the thresholds per tank
The leak sensitivity and the water limit are configured for the tank's size and product — they are not one fixed default across a forecourt.
Watch fuel out and water in
A fall with no dispensing raises fuel_leak; a rising bottom water layer raises fuel_high_water — each acknowledged and escalated through the chain.
Keep the record
Every event is stamped into the tank history for the wet-stock and compliance reports an operator hands to EWURA.
What this cannot do
What to expect
- This flags a volume anomaly that looks like a leak. It is not a certified statutory tank tightness test and does not replace a formal precision test where the law or an insurer requires one.
- The leak sensitivity and water threshold are configured per tank and are marked as figures to be confirmed here — they are not fixed defaults in the module, and no leak-rate figure is quoted on this page.
- Detection depends on the gauge. A leak slow enough to sit under the tank's normal reading noise, or one masked by a delivery, may not trip an alarm — the honest limit of any gauge-based method.
- Leak detection reads the ATG probe, so it needs the gauging hardware in place. If the probe or gateway stops reporting, the fuel_device_offline rule flags it and no shell alarm can fire on a silent gauge.
- Readings report over GSM, so during a coverage gap they buffer and backfill with their original timestamps when signal returns.
Values marked — are figures to be confirmed: the leak sensitivity and the high-water threshold are configured per tank rather than shipped as module defaults, and detectable leak-rate figures depend on the gauge hardware and tank calibration. No leak-rate, threshold or detectable-volume value is stated as fact on this page.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know my underground tank is leaking?
When product falls with no dispensing and no delivery, the gauge sees it and a fuel_leak alarm fires — the loss shows on a screen before it shows in the ground or in the monthly stock.
Why does water in the tank matter?
Water corrodes the shell and reaches the pumps if it climbs, so customers get dirty fuel. fuel_high_water alarms when the bottom water layer crosses its limit, before it reaches the suction.
Is this a certified tank tightness test?
No. It flags a volume anomaly that looks like a leak. It does not replace a formal, certified precision tightness test where one is legally or contractually required.
What leak rate will it catch?
That depends on the gauge hardware and the tank, so it is shown as a figure to be confirmed rather than an invented number. A very slow leak masked by reading noise or a delivery can be missed.
Do I need extra sensors?
No. Leak and high-water both read the same ATG probe that already measures level and the water layer, so the second alarm needs no new hardware.
Is a leak the same as fuel theft?
No. Leak and water are the tank failing; theft and meter drift are someone taking it. Those are covered on the wet-stock reconciliation page, so together they cover every way litres go missing.
More in fuel management
Protect your tanks
Tell us how many tanks and sites you run and we will scope leak detection in TZS, with a TRA-EFD VAT invoice and Swahili support.