ewwwww.....

[Pete M]

So, let's say hypothetically that I was to find a few oil filters in a pile in the woods on my parent's property. And by few, I mean a few dozen. And by in the woods, I mean 5 feet past the first bushes right next to the kid tree house. And by hypothetically, I mean I just filled up a tub with the nasty things and there's a heap of contaminated soil and god knows what else left.

What would you do? :mad:

 

 

[BLHTAZ]

I would really hope that I could prove who did it and let the proper authorities take care of them.

 

As far as the soil...not much you can do other than dig it up and take it to a hazardous waste disposal facility I guess... :dunno:

[jtdesigns]

Looks like itd be a great spot for a pool..... Cause Taz is right your going to have to dig the bad stuff up..

[CEThomas]

Put some top soil over it and plant some grass :D

 

Do anything else with it and the EPA will come out, you will have to pay for a EPA approved Co to dig it up and take care of it, and so on and so on.

 

Where I used to work at, we leased some land to a garage. After it closed shop, the EPA came out 12 years after to check on the under ground tanks and tell us we had to remove them. They found where an old oil tank had leaked and we had to pay to do the clean up. They took out 18 55gal drums and the clean up guys told us that we would always own the drums and that they just stored them for us :nuts: Today they are in a salt mine under Lake Erie :hmm:

[jaekl]

Reminds me of when my brother-in-law thought it was a good idea to drain his oil over a grond hog hole. Never mentioned that he ever dropped the plug.

 

How much oil is involved? A couple of quarts? Highly unlikely it made it to any water supply. Mostly all natural stuff there, oil, carbon, etc. Oil comes from the ground. We have been pouring oil on the ground for years. I wouldn't make a big deal out of it unless you know who is responsible. Time for Sgt Schultz "I see nothing, I hear nothing" This could easily get bigger than it needs to be.

Options: Dig it and fling it all over (don't let anybody see you)

Plant some grass and fertilize, nature will clean it up.

There is a fungus that eats oil.

[Darren]

Put some leafs over it and sell the house.

[maddzz1]

Dig it up, pit it in a few garbage bags and drop them out front of the nearest jiffy lube late at night.

[deziped]

Where you see oil on the ground, as said previously just dig it up and throw the dirt over your shoulder in all directions as far as you can. Its probeally no more than a few inches deep in the ground. Find some fresh dirt and fillin. It will come back as a weed patch in short time. The stuff you throw around in the woods isn't going to be doing any significant damage. It'll purge it self eventually.

[Pete M]

Put some leafs over it and sell the house.

 

 

Worked for the previous owner right? Not exactly. As I understand it, if the EPA gets involved in stuff like this they will track him down for the fines and costs. I'm willing to put some labor into this, but I'm not spending a dime on this cleanup if it comes to that.

 

 

Don't know how much oil is there. This pile looks like it had been collecting for a while now. Just a rough guess, but there are probably two or three 50 gal drums worth of contaminated soil. I can only guess that the oil is just from the filters. He could have been dumping it too. Could be far worse under there. :( It's a huge mess. I wonder what else might be lurking in the leaf litter... :shake:

[summerinmaine]

Isn't there also an enzyme/catalyst mixture available commercially that will degrade the oil into harmless, easily biodegradable components over a short period of time?

 

I seem to remember reading about it, but didn't find it on the InterWeb.

 

Edit: Wait, I found one: http://www.oilspillrem.com/

 

Look under Motor Oil Remediation.

[HKB3]

looks like a good location for a fire pit :idea:

[ejndssn]

I would see if the previous owner would consider assisting and helping you may want to mention about you where considering contacting EPA and let them handle and say hey i have found some stuff thanks to a friend " summerinmaine" that may work and do the job and they may be willing to keep from being fined another option is to check the local laws about fire and see if by burning that area up some would it clean it up :idea:

goodluck Pete

[djag12]

In PA when selling your house you have to fill out a non disclosure form. If you can prove they lied on it you can get them that way. Tuff part is proving it.

[Sir Sam]

In PA when selling your house you have to fill out a non disclosure form. If you can prove they lied on it you can get them that way. Tuff part is proving it.

 

I think thats pretty much true everywhere.

[DirtyComanche]

Got an incinerator? That or the bacterial cleaner. Otherwise, I wouldn't offer you a proper solution. If it was a smaller quantity I might just bag it and take it to the local dump, which isn't really right but would work fine. If you get the EPA involved there will be a huge legal hassle...

[Pete M]

Yeah, I don't really want to get the authorities involved if I don't have to. But I also want to take care of this in a proper manner. Looks like I'll be calling a few numbers to get some info on what landfills near me will take contaminated soil and how much that costs.

[ejndssn]

Pete you don't think that a fire or the stuff that summerinmaine suggest would work I am more incline to think that the fire would work best especially if you can burn stuff in the open and the hot coals should draw the oils and burn that stuff up too. is the area big enough for a bonfire :brows:

[Pete M]

only if I want to burn the forest down. :D Also, god help me if my mom found out I was burning a pool of used oil on her property. It's not way out back, it's next to the house (only 17 feet from the treehouse).

[summerinmaine]

only if I want to burn the forest down. :D Also, god help me if my mom found out I was burning a pool of used oil on her property. It's not way out back, it's next to the house (only 17 feet from the treehouse).

 

Not to mention that an open fire would simply transfer the pollution into the air. :no: AFAIK it would not get hot enough to complete the task of cracking the hydrocarbons. You'd need a blast furnace for that.

 

Remediation, baby! :clapping:

[jared]

i would honestly not realy worry about it that much. its not a huge area. i would dig up some and take it to a land fill, then add clean dirt on top and let it be.

[Lemmon714]

Hypothetically speaking, the process of remediation of the soil is called Thermal Desorption. The contaminated dirt is loaded into a rotary kiln, it is heated (1000F or higher), and the petroleum products are then oxidized or incinerated separate from the soil. The clean soil is them stockpiled and used as base soil for road construction. If the process is done at the "Site," it is typically returned to the same location.

 

In the Northeast, we typically do a lot of trash to steam incineration. If the soil went out in the trash and went to a trash to steam facility instead of a traditional landfill, the soil would be "clean enough" to pass a RCRA test for hydrocarbons.

 

You as a "Homeowner" are excluded from the Hazardous waste regulations that corporations are required to follow. Basically you can throw anything in the trash. Your waste hauler can however enforce Hazardous waste regulations and not pick up your trash. This is a very fine line to follow.

 

I know there are some facilities in Michigan for Hazardous waste, but you would be jumping through hoops to try and get a small quantity into a facility, let alone schedule a pickup. I don't know if there are any facilities that perform thermal desorption. You should be exempt from a Waste manifest, but you may have a tough time proving you are a Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator.

 

Probably more information than you wanted, but a typical rule of thumb was 5 quarts of used oil can contaminate 1,000,000 gallons of clean water. Personally, I would have no issues in sending contaminated soil to a trash to steam plant- all of my trash goes there though the hauler.

[tazjeeper]

Here where I live if the pile is there its a good thing. do not look at this as bad. here if it is their you get to add to the pile. you can not add oil or anything to clean ground but if its already wait spot you could build a unk if you want.

if it was me I would cover it up and put a tree on it.

or a big barrel so you can burn other garbage in it. But hay thats only here in Canada where I live. If I was to make a call to see what could be done as others have said you will pay through the nose to have it cleand.

[Pete M]

The mess is in Georgia. If it was in michigan I'd know where to take it (I live in the town with the landfill). Down here I need to find someplace. The "dump" that gets the regular trash isn't set up for a mess like this.