An access and monitoring system that secures the operation of an actuator that opens or closes a valve to a storage vessel. The access and monitoring system has an on-site system having a valve, an actuator, a camera, a control panel with a keypad and signaling device, and a communication control unit that communicates with the valve actuator, the control panel and an off-site information processing unit. The on-site system communicates with the off-site information processing unit through a secure website residing on a server within the information processing unit. The access and monitoring system verifies and records the identity of all valve users that add samples to or remove samples from an on-site storage tank in a historical database.