Our History

Our History

In early 1992, TesTank was registered, in business, and operated out of Midland, TX. In November of 1996, TesTank, Inc. was incorporated as a “C” corporation in Texas.

EPA regulations 40 CFR 280

In 1989, EPA regulations 40 CFR 280 became effective. This set of “clean water” associated EPA rules led to a new subdivision of our US Commerce Energy Sector. More specifically, private industries that were part of the United States Motor Fuel Distribution System chain were tasked with proving that their now “regulated” underground storage tank systems were in compliance. “Tightness Testing” was mandated at various trigger dates (oldest systems first) and then at future intervals for specific portions of these UST systems. In the fall of 1991, less than 2 years after the promulgation of the new laws, TesTank’s founder, Dwaine Saltkill, was performing the mandated testing regimens of this young subdivision of commerce. Since 1992, our first company motto and training dictum has been and remains “We are tightness-testers, not leak finders.”

Kindness, Encouragement, and Integrity

At the end of 1991, Dwaine was under the supervision of Mr. Bob Lyle, owner of ULTRA TEST, also a start-up UST systems testing company in the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX area. Consultation with and encouragement from Mr. Lyle aided in the decision to pursue and form TesTank. Mr. Lyle was completely aware that he was encouraging a new entity that would become a direct competitor. (Bob, if you are checking out our website all these years later, thank you again for the kindness and encouragement you gave us to move ahead.)

Our website is certainly an appropriate place to express gratitude to God for his direct help throughout the years of this endeavor. We honor God in our work by recognizing that God created work. We openly encourage those within the sphere of our influence to honor God by performing with integrity in every relational position, including every area of commerce.

Mr. Arthur L. (Salty) Saltkill

We honor Dwaine’s Father, Mr. Arthur L. (Salty) Saltkill. During our start-up days, Salty was Director of Environment and Maintenance at FFP Marketing Co., Inc., an AMEX-listed, 424 facility C-store chain with headquarters in Ft Worth, Texas. Mr. Saltkill trusted TesTank but was also comfortable and confident about the new state-of-the-art testing equipment we utilized. After taking the initiative and time to get certified to test tanks himself through our same tank tightness testing Equipment Manufacturer, he had a real understanding of and confidence in the new ultrasonic technology we were operating with. Just 5 years into our business history and 66 years into his life, Dwaine’s father was killed in a vehicle accident while performing his job. TesTank, Inc. remained a trusted vendor of the UST compliance team at FFP until they closed in the mid-2000s. Before moving on we wish to express our gratitude to the corporate leaders at FFP; Mr. John H. Harvison, Mr. J. D. St. Clair, Mr. Robert (Bob) J. Byrnes and to the environmental department leaders Mr. Dale Roberts, Mr. Jerry Moser, Mrs. Penny Maynard for the confidence they placed in our group from our beginning and continued to display during our 15-year association with them.

West Texas Gas Fuels

West Texas Gas Fuels was our second customer. A relationship that began in 1993 under the direction of Mr. Larry Mills and continues today under the direction of Mr. Al Bartz makes this Midland, TX, headquartered company our longest continuous business relationship. WTGF’s chain of some 140 facilities in our records, which included UNCLE'S C-Stores and GASCARD-branded fleet fueling cardlock facilities, is where we first saw ourselves on a trajectory toward performing compliance testing services during over 40,000 customer facility visits. ARKO acquired most of the WTGF fueling facilities in 2023, but the Facilities they did not obtain, we are still testing.

REGAL OIL, San Angelo, TX

Our third customer was REGAL OIL of San Angelo, TX. This Texaco/Shell Fuel Distributor was headed by Mr. John Phillips, President, with Mr. Dan Baker, his Son-in-Law, as Treasurer, and Operations, including UST Compliance oversight. With their 20+ c-store facilities in our database, REGAL remained a loyal customer of TesTank Inc. from 1993 until they were acquired at the end of 2020 by Majors Management LLC out of Georgia. Twenty-seven years after our relationship with Regal began, Dwain and Son-in-Law, Mr. Rob Cook, were privileged to be present when the Majors' acquisition was funded. We congratulated Regal Oil on their sale and wished Mr. Phillips a happy retirement. Mr. Pillips, Mr. Pillip’s Son, and Grandson, along with Mr. Baker, stayed together and continued their long-term trusted fuels and lubricants distribution services entity.

Proven Character

We have used appropriate space to discuss the fact that TesTank’s leadership was in place early in our industry’s growth, to remember our beginnings, to present a few of our earliest customers and long-term relationships with them. Our 33-year customers know these things about us. Our associates prove each day that they agree with us. This webpage is our way of informing potential new clients and employees that our services will continue to be performed under the original EPA 40 CFR 280 directive. “Tightness Testing” with the regulation implied caveat “by Tightness Testers” will remain our primary focus and inform our attitude that our client’s systems are first to be respected as TIGHT. From the start, we committed to partnering with testing candidates whose thinking about integrity aligned with ours. Although we can’t be certain of character at the beginning of a new employee’s training, this policy has been enforced. It remains at maximum strength: “No testing integrity- No integrity testing”. To be clear, we believe in second chances and have recommended former employees, based on their capabilities, to inquiring employers for other types of work.

Fort Worth, TX.

In 2001, we moved our headquarters to Fort Worth, TX. This was a strategic move to put us closer to our largest customer, FFP Marketing Co. Inc., and the headquarters of their 11-state, 424 C-store chain. This move to Ft Worth, Texas, also brought us closer to EE&G, Inc. Under the leadership of Mr. Mark Owens and Ms. Lisa Owens, this firm was the long-trusted Environmental Consulting and UST Compliance Monitoring firm of the largest 7-11 franchisee in America, Southwest Convenience Stores. Mr. Scott Prall was at that time the lead compliance director over SCS’s 300-plus facilities. Over our history and association with the EE&G, Inc., team and SCS’s Mr. Prall, this group of C-stores has been acquired by ALON, DELEK US, and recently, the Mexican giant FAMSA. In 2025, FAMSA’s U. S. locations are being rebranded under FAMSA’s very recognizable brand, OXXO. This Group of C-stores was ranked #27 in the top 100 list of the National Association of Convenience Stores Magazine in 2024. To their great credit, EE&G, Inc., now under Ms. Kim Millete, President and CEO, along with a team that still includes Mark and Lisa Owens, has remained the Environmental Consulting and UST Compliance Monitoring firm throughout this group's four different ownership changes. Mr. Prall has also provided long-term stability, remaining in his position, with his 4th compliance team at FAMSA. TesTank Inc has also been privileged to remain a trusted member of the UST regulatory compliance Teams throughout the transfer of ownership to each subsequent Owner.

Titan Management

In late 2004, Testank became allied with Titan Management. At the time, they had an office in Ft Worth, TX, and had become very important to FFP Inc.. Titan began providing FFP Marketing Company regulatory UST Compliance Management within Titan’s very forward-looking online system. This same Titan created, hosted, and provided storage space in their data systems for the first TesTank Inc. website. We needed an online presence to secure a relationship with a new Client, VALERO. They required us to have the capability to electronically disseminate PDFs of all testing documents through e-mail and then provide online storage of the documents while providing Valero personnel with 24/7 secure access to their testing information. Titan created an online electronic file cabinet for us. We still perform testing services for some Titan Cloud Management system clients and our clients on the TCM System. We also still have a relationship with TCM as they are the “rights holder” of one of our Tank and Line tightness testing methods created by Leighton O’brien.

Learning from mistakes (not always the best way to learn)

In 2007, we secured direct testing vendor status with AT&T in the Texas and Oklahoma region. From 2007 to 2010, we provided 396 certifications of annual and 3-year interval tests. We performed excellently on the AT&T requirement for a 24-hour turnaround of testing results paperwork. These tests were associated with UST and AST systems providing fuel supply to Critical Infrastructure Emergency back-up generators at 256 uniquely numbered AT&T facilities. Toward the end of 2010, we, as a company, left a vital valve closed after testing was completed. Because of this system’s potential critical need in the event of a national emergency, the AT&T position was zero tolerance for a mistake of this type. It was a hard lesson for us as they rightfully adhered to their zero-tolerance policy. We were eliminated from providing our services for several years. We are pleased to report that we have been reinstated and, for the past several years, have worked with one of AT&T’s national compliance vendors, Tait Environmental, and have now performed hundreds more tests at AT&T Facilities in TX, OK, and LA.

By March of 2012, for 7+ years, TesTank Inc. had been performing direct services as a compliance testing vendor for VALERO, which became CST Brands. Initially, we had been invited by and worked under Mr. Billy Hunt and Mr. Mike Umphress. These gentlemen retired, and Mr. George Gale became our direct Valero UST compliance Team contact. In late March 2012, Mr. Gale sent an informational e-mail explaining that one of their Oklahoma facilities had an incident where the dispenser fuel filters failed to stop water from making it into a customer vehicle. Valero’s policy was to have their testing vendors perform annual filter changes during annual testing site visits. We had been performing this filter change service for several years.

This Oklahoma facility was not on our list of annual testing sites or filter changeouts. George was proactively reminding all service vendors to diligently provide and install filters from the “Valero approved list” of Brands and models. A deep dive into our purchase records revealed that we, as a company, had inadvertently purchased and installed the wrong nomenclature filters during the previous cycle of annual service visits.

April 4, 2012, was the twentieth anniversary of TesTank. The humbling meeting in Mr. Gale's office that day is indelibly etched in our company memory. Mr. Gale accepted the explanation of our mistake and the filter replacement program we would immediately embark on to resolve this mistake. After this 2012 mistake and then the 2017 acquisition of the CST Brand C-stores by Couche Tard/Circle K, we continued to provide our annual testing services to Circle K at these facilities through the 2018 season. Although not currently providing annual testing services to Circle K, we are pleased to remain a trusted source for Circle K in the areas of backup testing, second opinion investigations, and troubleshooting services requested through their regional vendors.

Vigilance, Trust, and Integrity

Why spend any advertisement space acknowledging mistakes? Our associates all know that no one in this company has ever been fired over or asked to pay for honest mistakes associated with their testing activities. Avoidable incidents cost TesTank Inc. resources, and worse, can represent grounds for long-term customers to terminate their relationship with us. To our knowledge, our mistakes have never been the cause of a permanent loss of a customer relationship. In our quarterly training gatherings, we openly discuss the need for zero defects and are vigilant in reminding ourselves and our trusted associates of this goal. When immediately acknowledged, a mistake can remain a tolerable event for TesTank and our immediately informed customers, but the discovery of a purposely covered-up mistake becomes immediately intolerable to both.

In 2019, TesTank Inc. moved to Belton, Texas. We anticipate that this move to the “deep in the heart of Texas” area of Bell County is the final move of our business. Belton is more geographically centered in the five-state area our TesTank crews cover. This position also gives Dwaine and Lety Saltkill easy access to our two daughters, two Sons-in-Law, and five grandchildren.

Now, in 2025, we are pleased and grateful that our company has proved stable over more than three decades. Some years, our growth has been painfully slow, but for 33 years, we have compiled a list of loyal customers who will be happy to recommend our services to you. A new motto is emblazoned on this 2025 refreshed Website: "Systems integrity, verified by technicians who have it."