Times have changed - thank goodness!

[Lin]

Note the source - given the date, I assume this is legit. After all it came from the dirt, didn't it?:highly_amused:
I expect this was done a lot. Used coolant too!

Lin

 

[Rob Glasgow]

We used to spread used oil on the dirt roads around the farm to control dust. That seemed to make sense back then. I wonder what we are doing now, for all the right reasons, that will appear to be less than wise in 20 years????

 

[GregW]

I wonder if you put a chicken egg in the gravel just before the oil, will you hatch a dinosaur?

 

[HealeyRick]

Sad to say did that all the time as a kid.

 

[Deleted member 8987]

I can tell you this (but not how I know it) that old motor oil in the ground does NOT pollute...turns to petrocrete. Petroleum Concrete. As in, pickaxe to break it up.

Many years ago (10? 15?) in the Garden Railroad hobby, we noticed the lack of NiCads...because the Brits were complaining about environmental issues with them in landfills (who pitches them and not recycles them anyway) and a Brit Garden Railway magazine had an article about the same time on keeping weeds down along fenceline by dribbling crankcase oil on them.

Duplicitous.

Anti-Freeze? Down the terlet, if you are NOT on septic. More than 20 gallons? Call the sewage disposal plant and let them know to add more bacteria or whatever they do. THAT was from State EPA.

 

[John Turney]

I can tell you this (but not how I know it) that old motor oil in the ground does NOT pollute...turns to petrocrete. Petroleum Concrete. As in, pickaxe to break it up.

....

You mean I got paid to clean up groundwater with motor oil in it for nothing?

 

[RAC68]

Hi All,

Keep in mind that if it werent for ground water concerns, bottled watter would not be a multi-billion dollar industry. And not for plastic bottles, another multi-billion dollar industry. So, what multi-billion dollar opportunity is next???

Ray(64BJ8P1)

 

[glemon]

Yes, I must admit I dumped in a couple feet between our garage and the neighbors to help keep the weeds down, have seen period ads an articles about this kind of stuff before, times do change. I still won't buy bottled water unless I have no other choice (airports come to mind, but I can wait for the flight usually).

 

[Michael Oritt]

I spent several winters aboard a boat in the Abacos, Bahamas 1980-1982 which had a single Cat 3306-T that took about 10.5 gallons of oil and by the time I changed engine, transmission and genset oil there was 15 gallons of stuff to dispose of. As per Bob in post #3 the owners of the Conch Inn marina in Marsh Harbour encouraged folks to bring used engine oil to them so they could pour it onto the graded roads.

 

[Editor_Reid]

My paternal grandfather operated a service station ("Trummel's Gas & Oil") in St. Maries, Idaho, for many years; '40s into the '60s. My two uncles, Boyd and Jack, also worked there. They saved the oil from oil changes and spread it on the dirt streets of the town as a public service. Funny thing, I never heard of anybody growing up there with one eye in the center of their forehead or six fingered-hands or hair all falling out by adolescence or anything at all unusual. And the gas had lead in it. Makes me wonder.

 

[Deleted member 8987]

And....there is a big difference between new refined oil and crankcase oil.

One thing most folks who work on cars should know....get old oils and such on your clothing whilst working on your motor vehicle....Tide usually takes it right out.

Spill a half quart of new stuff down the front of your coveralls.....and you'll be looking for something to try to get it out.

At least that's my experience.

Pour any of it on top of a non-porous surface, you have a problem.

MOST of the big cleanup issues are products more refined than motor oils.

Like, diesel, gasoline, kerosene, solvents, dry cleaning solutions...stuff like that.

But, since this thread began with old crankcase oils......

 

[twas_brillig]

My background is pipelines. About 20 years back, I was on-site for a 48 inch line (c/w six inches of concrete coating; the Cat sidebooms were nose to tail and bouncing slightly with Cat 245 backhoes hovering with their buckets just above the counterweights in case.... If something failed, then the whole line of sidebooms flip over and people die, unless the sidebooms can keep them from flipping. Not fun, but good risk preventative). And I'm a 50 year old engineer, BS'ing with one of the operators (about 500 pounds, no teeth): "Yup, broke out in '48. 'figure them environmentalist types have gone overboard, but we sure did a lot of stupid f*ing things back then." Like changing engine oil by dumping the old stuff on the ground. Brightened my day: he couldn't agree with everything that was happening, but he'd sure bought into the environment as being important. Doug

 

[Rob Glasgow]

I've been thinking about my original question of things we are doing now that will seem outrageous in the future and the one thing that jumps out is our use of plastic packaging. I am amazed when I purchase a small item that is encased in a huge blister pack that is many times the size of the product. I'm sure future generations will scratch their heads wondering what we were thinking.

 

[Editor_Reid]

I've been thinking about my original question of things we are doing now that will seem outrageous in the future and the one thing that jumps out is our use of plastic packaging. I am amazed when I purchase a small item that is encased in a huge blister pack that is many times the size of the product. I'm sure future generations will scratch their heads wondering what we were thinking.

Reminds me of a guy who came into the McDonald's where I worked for a time during my high school years. This would probably have been 1968 and the guy was "a long-hair," a hippie type. He asked for his food to be handed to him - no paper wrappers (this was pre-styrofoam). He wanted the food just placed in his hands. We humored him. Fortunately he didn't order a beverage.