Oil pollution in pond

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Oil pollution in pond
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vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 9:11 am Post subject: Re: Oil pollution in pond

Foghorn wrote:

Hello,

A neighbour has managed to deposit a quantity of heating oil (kerosene I believe), into our pond, via an old drain. Does anyone have any ideas about how to remove this oil? I'm tempted to just toss a match over my shoulder onto the surface of the water, while walking coolly away, in the best traditions of the action film. But there must be safer/more reliable methods? Mustn't there...?

The pillock shouldn't be dumping oil down the drain. Definitely a hanging offence and EA should be told about it.

crofter

Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 2252

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 10:21 am Post subject:

Foghorn wrote:

It's about 5 yards by about 15

Could be less than a litre of oil. But not easy to remove once it is spread out.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 10:36 am Post subject:
Before you get too irate bear in mind the neighbour might not know they have spilled any oil. For example it could be a slow leaking tap dripping into a surface drain or a minor spill from their last fill, from their point of view it's just the same old tank that smells of oil just as it always has and one litre out of the tank is almost imperceptible.

Foghorn

Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 49
Location: Barcombe, E Sussex

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 1:18 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the replies, folks - glad to get some moral support!

For info, the spillage is probably of the order of 10 - 100 litres, and it probably happened due to a leak, that the neighbour may not have known anything about. However, he is being a bit of an arse now by denying it had anything to do with him (a day after he had his oil tank repaired).

Enivornment Agency were pretty uninterested, I guess because it occurred on private land.

It may be worth doing some skimming to reduce the amount of pollution - any practical advice about how to do this (in the absence of a very large spoon...)?

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 1:27 pm Post subject:
How about sheets of cardboard or layers of paper to soak it up?

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 1:40 pm Post subject:
Does the pond have an overflow - raise the water level until the fule runs off?

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 2:20 pm Post subject:
Best to remove the oil sooner rather than later, as it will prevent the water being aerated which will not only kill off wildlife there, but also cause nasty blue-green algal blooms. Use paper towels or old rags to get the worst off the surface so that some air can get through.

crofter

Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 2252

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 2:35 pm Post subject:

Behemoth wrote:

Does the pond have an overflow - raise the water level until the fule runs off?

This is not a good idea. It will just move the oil somewhere else and you would then be responsible for causing pollution to the rest of the watercourse. Cleaning up oil properly is expensive and (I'm guessing) your neighbour is denying responsibility because he does not want to pay for this. Ideally you need a boom to contain the oil in a limited area and absorbent material to soak up the oil and/or large volume storage for oily water. You really need to contact a specialist company to do this properly, but if you just want to do as much as you can yourself what about those absorbent pads for "mopping up" small spills from workshop floors?

https://www.absorbentsonline.com/oilonlypadsrolls.htm

Kerosene is light oil and will disperse naturally reasonably quickly, especially if it is agitated by the wind.

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 3:11 pm Post subject:
Sorry, I'll rephrase, if possible do it in a controlled manner and don't be a pillock. A bucket or something and then down the dump for oil/fuel disposal.

crofter

Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 2252

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 4:40 pm Post subject:

Behemoth wrote:

Sorry, I'll rephrase, if possible do it in a controlled manner and don't be a pillock. A bucket or something and then down the dump for oil/fuel disposal.

Although you could try a raindance!

Foghorn

Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 49
Location: Barcombe, E Sussex

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 09 8:29 pm Post subject:

The cavalry has arrived!

Scratch what I said earlier about the Environment Agency - apparently, their customer contact centre (why do they bother with these?) made a slight error when they said it was not really their business.

Someone turned up and they are investigating the source of the spill as well as assessing the clean up operation. They will do it apparently, and charge us (or neighbours!). Nice to have some professional help with this.

We went to sleep with the sound of dripping oil and awoke to the sound of enforcement powers being brandished!

<Blows smoke off gun barrel emoticon>

naturalsols

Joined: 14 Jan 2014
Posts: 1

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 14 8:57 am Post subject: Best course of action......Sorry it's late!

Sorry this is too late for your question but if someone else stumbles upon this with a similar problem it may help them!

The best course of action was to ring the environment agency immediately to report the spill. However you should have rung 0800 80 70 60 which is the incident hotline not the general number, incidental the reason the person who answered so so ill informed is due to budget cuts the EA can only hire temporary staff on 6 month contracts so it is likely the person who answered the phone was new to their job.

Presumably the EA cleaned up the spill and charged your neighbour for the privilege under the polluter pays principle (whoever IS RESPONSIBLE for the spill has to pay for clean up costs, which is usually very expensive). If you are looking to conduct the clean up operation yourself e.g. you had the spill into your own pond and may not be able to afford a professional spill responder or the EA then i would suggest using oil absorbents.

The lucky thing about oil spills into water (as opposed to chemical spills) is that oil floats meaning it will not emulsify and become a large toxic mess. As it floats clean up of oil is simplified as you can skim it off the surface, i would suggest an oil selective, hydrophobic oil absorbent which will absorb the oil but not the water. If you have one which floats on the surface e.g. https://naturalsols.co.uk/catalogue_0_3_zorb.html leave it for half an hour then skim off the surface with a fishing net/swimming pool net and the majority of the oil should be gone. Even if you clean up the oil yourself i would highly recommend informing the EA but letting them know you have dealt with the spill and let them decide whether to come and investigate.

Hope this helps

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 14 3:03 pm Post subject:

I worked for a large steel using company who had lots of booms in case anything should try to escape from the premises, we used lots of oils and all fairly toxic. It would be fairly simple to tie a boom across an area and pull it slowly across the polluted water and effectively skim any oil off. We had lots of exercises and they did the job. Any of the ppe type companies would supply, best of luck with the problem, then hang your neighbour!

camaro

Joined: 31 Mar 2010
Posts: 178
Location: N. Ireland

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 14 3:56 pm Post subject:
You can dump a load of straw on the surface, drag it round a bit - it'll absorb the oil. Then rake it out, let it dry, and burn it off... had to the same on my neighbour's pond when their tank leaked.

onemanband

Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 14 6:27 pm Post subject:
Some relevant information about when a tank should be bunded https://www.ciphe.org.uk/Global/Student%20Study%20Section/Oil%20storage%20regs.pdf

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