3 ms·

My father used to change the car oil on the lawn rather than the driveway. He would do this less than 100 ft from the well that supplied our drinking water. At

My father used to change the car oil on the lawn rather than the driveway. He would do this less than 100 ft from the well that supplied our drinking water. At some point he stopped but it certainly lasted through multiple vehicles.

toss1 3y ago
That well is probably contaminated still. Bought a new house in a semi-rural area, had only ever been farms, zero petrol stations ever existed within at least a 4-mile radius, and mostly downhill. Yet the water test found MTBE [0], Methyl tert-butyl ether, a gasoline additive. Had to maintain and replace an activated carbon filter in the water system ever since. The only possibility is some farmer decades ago dumping oil (IDK if it is in there, or gets in there from piston-ring blow-by) or leaking gasoline somewhere in the watershed. Awful. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_tert-butyl_ether https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_tert-butyl_ether
- peteradio 3y ago
  How deep are your wells there? It seems difficult for serious contamination to happen where I live outside of an poorly maintained well letting surface water down.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    Contamination of watersheds is easy - depending on which source you believe, a single drop can contaminate 100 to 600 liters of water. A single cigarette butt can contaminate 500 liters. And once the stuff is in the watershed/groundwater, it can be really really hard to get out of there, especially if the watershed is enclosed or doesn't have much outflow.
  - toss1 3y ago
    My well is 528 feet deep, and freshly drilled - this pollutant was in the first water test set and in every test set since for 15+ years, and there has been zero spills and good maintenance ever since. I agree that in this situation it seems very difficult and it is surprising that the pollutant would travel not only that far laterally but also that far down. Yet, there it is. "Water flowing underground ...." - it moves a lot more than we think!

toss1 3y ago

That well is probably contaminated still. Bought a new house in a semi-rural area, had only ever been farms, zero petrol stations ever existed within at least a 4-mile radius, and mostly downhill. Yet the water test found MTBE [0], Methyl tert-butyl ether, a gasoline additive. Had to maintain and replace an activated carbon filter in the water system ever since. The only possibility is some farmer decades ago dumping oil (IDK if it is in there, or gets in there from piston-ring blow-by) or leaking gasoline somewhere in the watershed. Awful. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_tert-butyl_ether https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_tert-butyl_ether

peteradio 3y ago
How deep are your wells there? It seems difficult for serious contamination to happen where I live outside of an poorly maintained well letting surface water down.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  Contamination of watersheds is easy - depending on which source you believe, a single drop can contaminate 100 to 600 liters of water. A single cigarette butt can contaminate 500 liters. And once the stuff is in the watershed/groundwater, it can be really really hard to get out of there, especially if the watershed is enclosed or doesn't have much outflow.
- toss1 3y ago
  My well is 528 feet deep, and freshly drilled - this pollutant was in the first water test set and in every test set since for 15+ years, and there has been zero spills and good maintenance ever since. I agree that in this situation it seems very difficult and it is surprising that the pollutant would travel not only that far laterally but also that far down. Yet, there it is. "Water flowing underground ...." - it moves a lot more than we think!