4 ms·

Where do you think things go once they get in the soil? Contaminated groundwater is as bad as sending it down to a river. It just takes longer to get there.

by Kye 4y ago

brewdad 4y ago
Probably 40 years ago, my dad used to dump his oil in a spot in the yard. Years later I realized that spot is about 100 feet from his well. Somehow, we are all still alive. (He did stop doing that eventually).
- kbelder 4y ago
  Yeah, when I was a kid we had the 'oil bush' behind the garage. The bush my dad spent twenty years trying to kill by dumping old oil on it.
actionfromafar 4y ago
How bad it is depends on a few major factors: is there a well nearby? how is the soil layering and composition? microbial activity? how deep is the water table? is there a body of water nearby? (where the drain water runs) is the drain water treated in a plant? (is the treatment biological or chemical) and so and so forth The results can range from "no problem at all, the oil will sit undisturbed for hundreds of years and clean it self up" to "end up straight where it kills somethings". Anyway, it occurred to me that oil change is probably on its way to become a historical footnote. Barring specalised applications, all motor vehicals will be electric probably, adoption seems to have reached a tipping point.
- oceanplexian 4y ago
  It’s kind of dumb to stick oil in the ground anyway. Used oil is still valuable, when you “recycle” it most people don’t realize it’s going to be burned by a recycling facility. But if you have a diesel engine, or a diesel heater, you can actually use it as fuel.
- aksss 4y ago
  > all motor vehicles will be electric I guess I’m one of the crazies who would bet against this happening in my lifetime at least. The problems with grid capacity for scaling up electric vehicles, their unsuitability for long uninterrupted trips, lack of towing performance, etc., seem well-covered enough that the notion of no new ice vehicles seems like a bright-eyed futurist pipe dream at this point. Could it happen some day? Sure, but the futurist’s problem is all about timing, not direction.
  - ryukafalz 4y ago
    100% may be unlikely but certainly most. The vast majority of trips aren't long uninterrupted ones beyond the range of even current EVs nor do they require towing performance. Grid capacity maybe. It would help if people stopped buying massively oversized vehicles for their actual everyday use in general. (But overall I'm fairly optimistic that EVs can be accounted for.)
    - aksss 4y ago
      > majority of trips Majority of trips don’t exceed the capabilities of a Smart car. My CPU goes mostly unused. We don’t size for even the mean, but the realistically conceivable max (capability or capacity). > Grid capacity We struggle to support the demand for air conditioning and actively ask people to reduce their demand on the grid. Increasing demand by orders of magnitude seems inconceivable without a radical increase in generating capacity, which imposes a huge time constraint at the very least. Again, I’m not arguing the direction, mostly just that the timeframe which to me seems a lot, lot longer than the popular representations.
      - ryukafalz 4y ago
        > Majority of trips don’t exceed the capabilities of a Smart car. Correct, that's why I drive a Smart car.
    - lelanthran 4y ago
      > The vast majority of trips aren't long uninterrupted ones beyond the range of even current EVs nor do they require towing performance. Buyers tend to buy for multiple uses. Their vast majority of trips may be in the range of current EVs, but they still wouldn't purchase a car that can't do 1 trip out of every 30.
opwieurposiu 4y ago
When you put oil into dirt it is slowly eaten by hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria and fungi. This process takes a long time, years for a typical backyard. This natural process can cope with small amounts of oil like a drip here and there but if you dump an entire car's worth you are gonna have a problem. If the dirt becomes saturated with oil it could wash into your neighbor's yard in the next rain storm. https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Oil-Eating_Bacteria:_A_Tool_for_Bioremediation https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Oil-Eating_Bacteria...

Where do you think things go once they get in the soil? Contaminated groundwater is as bad as sending it down to a river. It just takes longer to get there.

by Kye 4y ago

Where do you think things go once they get in the soil? Contaminated groundwater is as bad as sending it down to a river. It just takes longer to get there.

brewdad 4y ago

Probably 40 years ago, my dad used to dump his oil in a spot in the yard. Years later I realized that spot is about 100 feet from his well. Somehow, we are all still alive. (He did stop doing that eventually).

kbelder 4y ago
Yeah, when I was a kid we had the 'oil bush' behind the garage. The bush my dad spent twenty years trying to kill by dumping old oil on it.

actionfromafar 4y ago

How bad it is depends on a few major factors: is there a well nearby? how is the soil layering and composition? microbial activity? how deep is the water table? is there a body of water nearby? (where the drain water runs) is the drain water treated in a plant? (is the treatment biological or chemical) and so and so forth The results can range from "no problem at all, the oil will sit undisturbed for hundreds of years and clean it self up" to "end up straight where it kills somethings". Anyway, it occurred to me that oil change is probably on its way to become a historical footnote. Barring specalised applications, all motor vehicals will be electric probably, adoption seems to have reached a tipping point.

oceanplexian 4y ago
It’s kind of dumb to stick oil in the ground anyway. Used oil is still valuable, when you “recycle” it most people don’t realize it’s going to be burned by a recycling facility. But if you have a diesel engine, or a diesel heater, you can actually use it as fuel.
aksss 4y ago
> all motor vehicles will be electric I guess I’m one of the crazies who would bet against this happening in my lifetime at least. The problems with grid capacity for scaling up electric vehicles, their unsuitability for long uninterrupted trips, lack of towing performance, etc., seem well-covered enough that the notion of no new ice vehicles seems like a bright-eyed futurist pipe dream at this point. Could it happen some day? Sure, but the futurist’s problem is all about timing, not direction.
- ryukafalz 4y ago
  100% may be unlikely but certainly most. The vast majority of trips aren't long uninterrupted ones beyond the range of even current EVs nor do they require towing performance. Grid capacity maybe. It would help if people stopped buying massively oversized vehicles for their actual everyday use in general. (But overall I'm fairly optimistic that EVs can be accounted for.)
  - aksss 4y ago
    > majority of trips Majority of trips don’t exceed the capabilities of a Smart car. My CPU goes mostly unused. We don’t size for even the mean, but the realistically conceivable max (capability or capacity). > Grid capacity We struggle to support the demand for air conditioning and actively ask people to reduce their demand on the grid. Increasing demand by orders of magnitude seems inconceivable without a radical increase in generating capacity, which imposes a huge time constraint at the very least. Again, I’m not arguing the direction, mostly just that the timeframe which to me seems a lot, lot longer than the popular representations.
    - ryukafalz 4y ago
      > Majority of trips don’t exceed the capabilities of a Smart car. Correct, that's why I drive a Smart car.
  - lelanthran 4y ago
    > The vast majority of trips aren't long uninterrupted ones beyond the range of even current EVs nor do they require towing performance. Buyers tend to buy for multiple uses. Their vast majority of trips may be in the range of current EVs, but they still wouldn't purchase a car that can't do 1 trip out of every 30.

opwieurposiu 4y ago

When you put oil into dirt it is slowly eaten by hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria and fungi. This process takes a long time, years for a typical backyard. This natural process can cope with small amounts of oil like a drip here and there but if you dump an entire car's worth you are gonna have a problem. If the dirt becomes saturated with oil it could wash into your neighbor's yard in the next rain storm. https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Oil-Eating_Bacteria:_A_Tool_for_Bioremediation https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Oil-Eating_Bacteria...