Technical Waste Oil

The closest one to me would be have been the one Terminal at the recycling depot but I see they dont accept used oil anymore either. Making a special trip out to Richmond from North Van to dump 5 gallons of used oil is insane. The one Arbutus is about the closest.

 

Holy hell, this thread got featured. That's three in a row for me.

You guys are making me feel like a friggin' rock star.


If you guys need me, I'll be down at the record shop signing autographs from 1pm 'til security ushers me out.

 

From 1989 up to 2000 my family operated a auto repair business out of a old service station that had been there since the 40s .There where many stories of past owners abusing the property.
Coating logging equipment with diesel fuel before steam cleaning-breaking batteries open to get the lead out to make fishing weights- stuff like that.
Our family really wanted to buy the property and grow the business but the bank told us it would cost more to clean the site up than it was worth and wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. It sits abandoned to this day.
In 2000 we found a lot in a industrial park to move our business to each lot had a 10,000$ environmental survey performed on it because it had previously been a industrial site. It was all clean. The bank didn’t like that 5 years had gone by since the environmental survey was done so we had to pay a environmental expert to say that the original survey was still valid.

We bought the property in 2000and built our shop and the city made us spend about 50,000 dollars on in ground oil separators in the shops water run- off ,one also for the parking lot. Waste oil has to be stored in approved steel double walled oil receivers. The antifreeze and used oil filters has to be stored in 45 gallon drums that sit on a concrete pad with a small concrete wall around it to contain leakage
The point is anyone who pollutes their OWN property may live to regret it. Banks want nothing to do with a property that has any potential of contamination and if a future owner finds a mess you left behind you could be on the hook for expensive clean up.

 

While I agree with most here that environmentalists have gone a bit over board. I also agree with them to a point.
I know that “Mr lube” franchise up here pop up just about everywhere.
The reason for that is the building and parking lot are installed over essentially a giant Tupperware container.
So any contamination is contained and cleaned up easily if the franchise where to ever move.

I worked at a shop right downtown Toronto in the middle of a ultra tourist location.
That shop was a service station since the 20’s. Then Mr transmission bought the property in the 60’s
When the shop was finally shuttered and closed in the early 2010’s they plowed it over and turned it into a parking lot.
This is prime Main Street corner lot property. Worth in the millions easy.
But I’m guessing chasing that oil around the neighborhood is a no way no how losing battle.
Also knew the guy that sold racing fuel in Mississauga.
Built subdivisions all around him and a few other shops.
Landloard jacked up the rent crazy to push them out so he could sell.
That was 20 years ago, land is still vacant.
Polluted land is a huge no go for most folks.
Even though getting rid of it is possibly no big deal
Doing it “environmentally “ is expensive.
Ever price out getting asbestos removed from your home

 

5 gallon buckets, autozone.
Town I used to live in, the transmission shop had a waste oil burner, good reason to stop by and talk with the owner, usually around closing time.

 

It’s all about the money !
Sorry,,,but it’s true .

Tommy

 

Pretty darn good recycling options in Oregon. My old oil goes into gallon jugs and out to the transfer station after a couple of oil changes. No big deal. I don’t like it setting around long.

Gotta say, however, some of this conversation is pretty disturbing.

 

The things done back at the turn of the century, the previous century , show us how crazy things were then and what they did. People worry about a five gallon bucket of oil! Really. There’s a post card here in Muskogee , back in the oil boom days where they dug out a spot and dammed up a low area and it’s titled a “ lake of oil” that’s how they stored oil back then! A fuckin lake! It was about a forty acre lake of oil! They eventually pumped it all or most all of it out and sold it. That was done all over Oklahoma back in the twenties. No one really knows exactly where the lake in the post card was near our city, but there are no forty acre bald spots, so I guess it didn’t hurt anything. ThereARE bad spots out in the Oklahoma oil fields that are being cleaned up, but they are a result of poor practices in the same spot for over a seventy year period. Moderation my friends moderation!



Edit: go to Ebay and put in “ Muskogee , Oklahoma lake of oil” it will show you that post card.






Bones

 

Yes they stored oil in earthen tanks in south Arkansas. That was the first step in the refining process. in the bottom of those lakes where several feet of water. the dirt and grit in the crude settled to the bottom thru the water and the (clean) crude floated on top. Today there are pine tree plantations where those tanks of oil where .

 

Kinda funny isn’t it! Now I’m not for going back to those practices and I’m glad they have cleaned up the air.But sometimes those environment guys kinda go off the deep end if the stories I hear are true. Just like the guys back in the twenties went off the opposite deep end!

Guys back in the seventies in industrial states , would get paid for taking the chemical waste from companies and drive all over the US with it leaking out of their trucks. They would drive towards rain storms and slowly or some times not so slowly dump their load! If slowly dumped , it scattered it and diluted it to the point it may have not been that harmful!??!..... But I glad it didn’t happen in my state! ......or did it???








Bones

 

Desoto291hemi summed it up perfectly when he said “it’s all about the money”

You have to imagine some guy or gal environmentalist who went to dirt university for 10 years running around with a beaker testing dirt and measuring everything in parts per million.
Doesn’t that sound scary and expensive?

 

Oil floats on water unless its wipped into a froth. Water in a crankcase makes the oil milky because of the wipping of the crankshaft and the oil pump circulating it. My farm tractors get water in the transmissions and bull gear housings from condensation. I crack the drain plugs and let it out. That water don't mix with the gear oil. Oil poured on the ground breaks down the rain carries it away and oil eating bacteria consume it. I place green cow pattys on the oil and grease on my concrete. and that cow manure has ammonia and bacteria that eats it. the concrete turns white. given time the planet recycles everything. Every single thing on the entire planet from the cars we drive to the human body when broken down to the final stage is nothing but mud. Dirt and water. Evaporate that water and its all just dust in the wind.

 

Tines beach Mo. they spread transformer oil on the streets to keep down dust, the some folks got cancer so they blamed the oil. The government bought all the houses. dug up the streets and stored the stuff in big tanks. Except for one hard headed old guy. He refused the buy out. Had a key to the gate and refused to leave. Lived there grew a garden in what was the street and never got cancer. lived to be very old.

 

A lot of it is someone justifying their job and getting promoted! But I don’t want to live there...... just saying! Lol








Bones

 

"I have just about quit changing oil here at home. I can go to a Jiffy lube and get it done cheaper and not have to worry about the used oil."

But then you have to worry about those numbskulls stripping the threads on your drain plug. I was talking to a friend this morning who had this done to his car on the second oil change. I have heard it many times, including from the worker's side when he was trying to avoid getting fired because of repeatedly stripping drain plugs.

Yes you have to be pretty stupid, or malicious to consistently strip and/or cross thread drain pan oil plugs, but it seems common.

 

You can build one for less than forty bucks, barrel, steel line valve. Most guys have that junk laying around. Get your friends to bring their oil to you! Easy! It turns one ric of firewood into two or three!






Bones

 

If they screw up your car, they are responsible for it. I know of a truck stop shop that ended up buying a truck engine because the guy left the plug loose, it fell out, oil got dumped out and the engine seized before the driver noticed it didn’t have oil pressure.

 

check craigslist farm and garden some times they show up for a $100. https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/grd/d/beaumont-fuel-tank/7025934536.html

 

When you discover the threads are buggered and that's why the car is leaving drips everywhere, you complain to the Quicky-Lube, but sometimes they say it wasn't them.

Tough to prove, if the plug is still in it, but just screwed up. My friend "just" had to get a new oil pan, cheaper than litigation.

 

At least you don't have a new plastic ecoboost pan. After 2 oil changes Ford has had to replace the pan both times.

 

I disagree, if the threads were damaged before they did the last oil change they would, or should have noted that was the case on the work ticket and without that notation they are liable IMHO! And that could be handled in small claims court for a minimal fee!

 

Yea Right. Say you took your vehicle to the local wal mart and they striped the plug here in my town. the small claims court judge's younger brother is the local attorney that represents Wal Mart. Those judges and lawyers are all buddys and they are all compromised. Never trust any Lawyer or judge farther than you can throw them. Ive not had anything good happen dealing with lawyers. Oh did I tell you my eldest son is a Lawyer. He was money ahead to just buy a new oil pan.

 

When I started in the heavy equipment repair business back in the early 80's, out here in So Cal, the usual practice out in the field when draining fluids out of a machine was to just dump in on the ground. Seriously. Back in those days, when an excavating company went in to a new jobsite, the spreads were huge, thousands of acres. They'd basically take an area with gently rolling hills and level it with bulldozers ripping up the rock and trains of scrapers moving the material from the high spots to the low spots, with sheep's foot compactors compacting it all to spec. At night all the equipment got lined up in a row, and when it was time to do a service the oilers would start at one end of the line and pull all the drain plugs and let the oil go onto the ground. When they got to the end of the line they went back to the beginning and put the plugs back in and filled 'em up, and worked their way down the line. The next day all that dirt got excavated and spread out anyway.

When we would show up to do some major work on anything we'd do the same thing, dig a hole under the machine, maybe dig a trough, and pull the plug out of the engine or the trans or read ends, whatever, even the radiator, and just let it go, then cover it up later on. That was the standard practice that everybody in the business followed. Not any more. They'll throw you in jail and throw away the key if you just think about it today.

 

The local judge made a bad ruling against me. and later in court I knew I was gonna lose again. So in open court from the stand I told him my definition of a lawyer was someone who you pay money to for them to protect your assets from your enemies and he steals them for himself. Boy did he ever get upset. I could have reported him to the board. However I decided to let KARMA take care of it. And it did not take long. His Trophy wife lost here elected seat in the state legislature. then she abscoundered with a 1/2 million dollars. then they divorced. the money disappeared. then he was disbarred for tampering with their divorce court records. then he a caught practicing law without a licence. then his ex wife was found murdered. and that Saga is still unfolding.

 

And that didn't hurt anything. That oil came from the ground in the first place. The little town of Ravenden springs had a small waste water treatment plant . no solids are in it just the gray water. Every day a sack of Urea is dumped in it to hasten the breakdown of detergents and oils ect. Urea is concentrated cow manure. the treated water is eventually piped to a nearby stream. Its relatively new plant. The got a government grant to build bathrooms with toilets and install a cement pump out at the residences that where still using outdoor privys. So its a boon to those poverty stricken folks. Anything they can flush down the toilet is flushed. Including used motor oil. That oil stays on top and floats down to the treatment plant.

 

It’s all about the concentration of the offending chemicals. In every house hold in the nation offending chemicals are probably flushed down the toilet or sink. You can go to any plumbing store and get some acid to clear drains that has skull and crossbones on it! But when diluted sufficiently it becomes harmless. I won’t use it at my house because I have a septic system and the concentration would be to great.
But, don’t get me wrong, I still do not believe in polluting our planet! Period! But I sometimes disagree on what pollution is! Our ranch is green and lush in the Summer and has apparently suffered no ill effects of our past, questionable practices. We have changed our practices on the ranch to almost line up with the “Greenies” , twenty years ago. ( we still cut down trees for firewood)
I now take most of my vehicles to the oil change place, just so I don’t have to deal with the oil.But I have one of our race car drivers working there and he takes care of me!






Bones

 

A hoarder friend of mine lives in town. There has been vehicles and stuff on that acre right in town since before he was born. Well the city tried to force hin to comply with their ExPost Facto Ordanance. When that didn't work the sicked the EPA on him. Judge fined hin $20,000 and so much per day until the junk was removed. He refused to pay so they Locked him up. He told the jailer Heck pay $20000 or do a year in county jail I will do the time. Rent my house & shop and save 100% of my social Security check. And Im not working for my keep and Ive got health problems so you gotta take me to the doctor and hospital and pay the bill. They let him loose the next day. I think they are just gonna wait until he dies.

 

Old Wolf, that guy show them that it wasn’t about what was “ right” ! It was about the money! We had a similar thing with one of our friends, she had a horse farm and was a CPA. The gambling bug bit her, ( that’s what Cansinos will do for your state) , she lost everything, when to jail, turned into a crackhead! After several years I went with her and her boyfriend to a hearing, she was out on bail from new charges, to help them! She had a broken leg and was sick at the hearing. Her lawyer told us how much money we needed to keep her out of jail. Her boyfriend said he was broke, I said I wasn’t paying anything, take her! Five minutes later he came back with a piece of paper and said take her home! Justice? No,MONEY!

That’s just how things are, for the folks, that have actually been there!






Bones

 

Wow, I can't understand this train of thought! First off crude oil comes out of the ground not derivatives of it due to refining. Secondly I think old Ma Nature might be a wee bit pissed if you dumped your waste oil so it pollutes an aquifer, a fish bearing river/stream, the local swimming pool, etc. How about pouring it into your morning tea or coffee?

I do agree with the "conservation of matter" part however but we have to be responsible when it comes to our planet which we are finding out a little late in the game. Global warming, the change in our climate not weather, is a fact. And yes we have gone through a number of ice ages and the planet warmed up again but the rate of change is significantly greater today.