CGRS digs deep for business

Firm recovers underground fuel tanks

LA SALLE — Residents of this town can breathe a little easier today because a Fort Collins company has removed a leaking gas tank from their midst.

CGRS extracted the tank on Sept. 10 from the former Everyday convenience store at the southwest corner of U.S. Highway 85 and Second Street.

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The leak was found when the three tanks at the store were tested in late March. Duke & Long Distributing Co. of Delaware, owner of the store, hired CGRS to clean up the leak and remove the tanks.

CGRS specializes in providing compliance services for fueling facilities with underground and above ground tanks. The company also constructs new fueling facilities, upgrades equipment at existing facilities and repairs defective equipment. The environmental arm of the company investigates and limits the environmental risks of their clients.

According to company president Eric Hick, each of the three columns of the company work diligently to prevent clients from needing the other two.

“We provide most of our customer service on the compliance side of the company,” Hick said. “One of the goals of the compliance services division is to prevent our clients from being introduced to our environmental division.”

The company is the brainchild of Joby Adams, the director of operations, and Hick. Adams noticed the need for an independent company to help customers gain compliance under new regulations.

“A friend of mine, Joby Adams, came to me and mentioned these regulations that were coming up requiring underground storage tanks to be tested.” Hick said. “I thought ‘Wow, that sounds unique.'”

That was 1986 and before that moment, Hick said he never thought about where gas came from other than the nozzles that go into cars.

“Then I thought ‘Wow, underground storage tanks aren’t required to be tested now?’ I couldn’t believe that.” Hick said. “These tanks are sitting down in groundwater, and there is no accountability. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is a no-brainer. If the regs (regulations) are coming, this has got to happen.'”

Hick began researching current companies in the business, the technology involved and the initial fiscal investment. After an initial investment of $3,000 by his parents, Hick and Adams became partners in the company.

“The approach I took, which kind of set us apart in the long run, is that we really took a consulting approach to selling our work,” Hick said. “Coming in and saying, ‘OK, you have underground storage tanks, this is what’s coming.'”

The constant focus of the company is trying to improve on the process. Initially, testing was done out of an old 1979 Jeep Cherokee, and Hick would work off of an old table he lugged around.

“I just kept envisioning better ways to do it,” Hick said. “And, slowly but surely, one day I just stood back, it was like 2 a.m. in Colorado Springs. I was up on this hill, and the van was sitting there and it was collecting the data and everything was running smoothly. That’s when I realized I had achieved a vision that I had. Then I thought, ‘Ok, what’s the next vision. Where are we going from here?’ That’s kind of how the company’s grown.”

Last year CGRS saw gross revenues of $4.5 million and is projecting $6 million this year. The company has 35 employees and is expanding beyond the three divisions to include testing for cargo tanks on trucks and aviation fueling for airplanes.

“The compliance process for cargo tanks makes underground tank testing compliance look easy,´ said Tim Goodrich, a consultant for oil and public safety with CGRS.

One of the standard practices of CGRS is to try to outperform competitors. One way the

company has accomplished this is by being the only licensed affiliate of Tracer Research Corporation in Colorado.

Tracer has developed its Tracer Tight leak detection test to be the industry’s most sensitive and reliable test for underground and above ground tanks and piping. The testing can be done during the day without forcing a client to temporarily shut down operations.

This is why the city of Colorado Springs uses CGRS exclusively to perform its annual compliance services for utility department tanks.

“We’ve used them to test our underground tanks for the general city and the utilities department for nine years,´ said Dale Watts, senior environmental engineer for the city of Colorado Springs. “They always give us exceptional service and provide us special service in an emergency. We like their procedures. Tracer Tight doesn’t interfere with business operations, it doesn’t take a tank out.”