Oil Spill Blog

The official blog of Oil Gone Easy

Reduce Storm Water Pollution and Save Our Precious Resource!

April 30, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spill Cleanups, Oil Spills

Storm water pollution is undoubtedly a serious cause of concern. But very few of us realize that we contribute to this kind of pollution. There are several factors, such as tipping of litter, chemical pollution, and natural pollution that lead to storm water pollution. It is the duty of each one of us to take measures to keep our waters free from pollution.

Prevention of storm water pollution can be kicked off right from your garage. The most common of all pollutants that pollute storm water is oil spills and oil leaks. It is vital that you check your car or bike, machinery and other oil run equipment for leaks or oil spills often.

Also ensure that you avoid the use of harmful chemicals or detergents for cleaning up oil spill from your garage. Instead use environmentally friendly oil spill cleaners to remove oil spills from the driveway. Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200, an eco-friendly biodegradable product will help you with this tiring task of oil spill cleanup. Used oil or fluids can be recycled. So avoid dumping into trash or in the storm water drain.

When it comes to your lawn and garden, you have to be careful with the amount of pesticides and fertilizers that you use. Recycling your yard waste and avoiding over watering your plants can help reduce storm water pollution to some extent.

While you begin with your home repair, it is better that you take care of the disposal of the construction residual. There are possibilities of spills and leakages of liquids and oils on the construction site. Making sure that the oil spills are cleaned up immediately is essential.

Storm water pollution by driveway oil spills and domestic fuel tank spills are increasingly high, thus efficient oil spill cleaner should always be at hand. Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200 is the perfect and safe solution to prevent the disastrous consequences of oil spills.

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Dealing with Nonpoint Source Pollution

April 28, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spills

When we talk of urban pollution, our mind conjures images of toxic factory dumps and oil spills and leaks from industrial pipes. However, according to studies, that may not be the main cause of water pollution. It’s the little things that occur in routine and daily public life that really contribute to pollution. This is called nonpoint source pollution. When rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation water flows across public areas, residential spaces such as garages and parking lots, and forests, the water picks up several contaminants and pollutants.

Nonpoint source pollutants comprise of soil particles and sediments, oil and grease molecules, pesticides, heavy metals constituents, and toxic chemicals. Surprisingly, all these substances could be the result of simple, careless actions of people. Improper disposal of batteries, overfilling your gas tank, and painting a house without minding the usage of harmful paints and varnishes can all lead to nonpoint source pollution due to surface water runoff.

You could certainly make a difference by avoiding these mistakes. Also, you could do your bit for the environment by putting in that additional effort. You can make use of a bio-degradable product such as the Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200. This product helps in oil stain removal and cleans up driveway oil stains and concrete oil stains.

In addition to that, this oil stain remover is not harmful to have around children and pets as well. You can also contribute to a safer marine environment by safely disposing of your boat’s bilge. Here again, the Oil Gone Easy Marine S-200 comes to your aid. Just a bottle is enough to eliminate bilge oil for up to two months! It acts as an oil absorbent and prevents your boat from discharging the contaminated fuel-water mixture into the waters. Also, you can do small things such as making use of tarps to catch any spillage of paint or varnish during a paint job and using natural and environment-friendly products for washing your car.

While calamities such as unintentional oil spills cannot be avoided, nonpoint source pollution is an issue that is within your control and can be effectively addressed.

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Oil spill Cleaners – Treat Spills the Greener Way

April 26, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spills

Many tend to overlook the dangerous fact about what an oil spill can do. It is easily taken for granted and at times left unattended. An oil spill need not necessarily be on a vast ocean to create a huge damage to the environment. A small spill on your driveway or small spill in your home can create equal amount of havoc.

An old car of yours or carelessly maintained jalopy of your teenage son is sure to leave its oil mark on the driveway. Or the oily bilge water that is discharged from the boat is as harmful as the oil spill itself. It is wise to carefully treat these oil spills with efficient mechanisms and prevent any further harm to the environment.

Use of chemicals, such as benzene in cleaning up oil spills is more prevalent but many hardly know the ill effects of these substances and the toxic gases they produce. Benzene fumes are toxic and are classified as carcinogens. Inhaling a few droplets of these fumes is sure a health hazard. Care should be exercised in oil spill cleanup, as using chemicals while cleaning up oil spills might themselves might pose a great environmental hazard. Use of detergents for oil spill cleanup should also be avoided as detergent mixed with oily bilge water forms complex compounds and pollutes even more. Hence, it is always recommended to use green certified products, Be it your boat’s bilge or engine oil leaks on the driveway.

The basic idea behind an oil spill cleaner is to separate oil from water or sand or any other mixture for that matter. An oil spill cleaner that only removes the traces of oil is not enough. An oil spill cleaner that effectively cleans an oil spill while maintaining the integrity of the surroundings is what one should look for.

One way to treat any oil spill is to use a biodegradable product, such as Oil Gone Easy S-200. This product does not release toxic gases nor does it leave behind harmful residues.

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Cleaning Engine Oil Leaks – The Greener Way

April 21, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spill Cleanups, Oil Spills

It can be really frustrating when your car leaves oily stains on the driveway. Not only do these oil stains look unsightly, but they can also pose a hazard to people and the environment. Engine oil leaks are something that cannot be taken lightly. Even though they may seem small, they are likely to affect your car, your wallet, as well as the environment.

Old cars are subject to engine oil leakage more often than the usual. A regular check on the vehicle condition is the best way to prevent oil spills. Forgetting to replace the oil drain plug or not making it tight enough after an oil change are some of the common causes of engine oil leaks. It is advisable to take your vehicle to the mechanic as early as possible to avoid further deterioration. Regular maintenance of cars is also called for to ensure that you don’t have the task of oil stain removal at hand.

Despite all the measures, if engine oil leaks do occur then don’t panic you have a safe and effective solution, Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200 at hand. It can be a daunting task to remove oil stains from the driveway and recreate the old look. Postponing the cleaning is as bad as the spill itself. The more it is procrastinated the harder it becomes to clean.

As it is engine oil spills are hazardous to environment, but the process of cleaning using chemical substances may prove more harmful than the spill itself. But Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200 is one eco-friendly product that helps effective oil spill cleanup without causing any further harm. This product works virtually on any surface, including concrete, asphalt, or cement and just has to left on the stain and requires no further cleaning or washing. It is completely biodegradable hence completely safe for your family.

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Comply with the Clean Water Act and Protect your Marine Environment

February 12, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spill Cleanups

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is a federal law that was developed in 1972 to govern water pollution. The purpose of this law was to protect the navigable waterways and shorelines from being polluted and to maintain the quality of water.

According to CWA the common sources of pollution are from oil spills. The oil could be in any form, including petroleum, fuel oil, oil refuse, sludge, and oil mixed with wastes in addition to dredged spoil. Even though discharges, include spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping, it excludes discharges that have got the permit under section 1342. An individual, corporation, partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, or political subdivision of a state, or any interstate body discharging a pollutant into the waters of the U.S.A is required to comply with the Clean Water Act.

From identifying the causes of pollution to the cleanup of polluted areas, the Clean water Act provides guidelines and financial assistance for all. Initially, only the traditional point sources of pollution, such as municipal sewage plants and industrial facilities were focused. Only later were the nonpoint sources of pollution, such as oil runoff from land, studied and researched.

Oil runoff from land is one of the major sources of water pollution. Hence, it is essential for every individual to make sure that small leaks from cars or oil spills at home or garden, does not end in polluting the waterways. Use of eco-friendly oil spill cleaner, such as Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200 for removing oil from driveway and cleaning motor oil stains can prevent the oil from reaching the waterways.

Boating is another major cause of water pollution. Bilge disposal, sewage disposal, and fuel leakage are the common causes of water pollution from boating. Oil Gone Easy Marine S-200 will help you clean your bilge and protect the local marine environment.
In case of oil spills you can contact Oil Gone Easy S-200, which is on the approved list of federal onsite coordinators, authorized by Environmental Protection Agency in USA for oil spill cleanup.

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Oil spill kit – An Absolute Necessity!

February 08, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spill Cleanups

You never know when you will come across an oil spill in your day to day life. Oil spills can happen just about anywhere in your home or office. Oil stains on the carpet in your office or on the kitchen slab are enough to get you worried. You could end up using ordinary oil stain removers, paper towels, or other such methods. Unfortunately, these methods don’t work well and your expensive rugs are just spoilt.

Most of us dread the tedious process of cleaning up oil spills in our garages and driveways. The labour involved in driveway oil spill cleanup with unsuitable cleaners is worse than anything. More than that, it just leaves you at the risk of being exposed to hazardous chemicals from the oil spills as well as the toxic oil stain removers. Even the children and pets at home run the risk of getting affected by the chemicals of these oil spill cleaners.

The size of an oil spill does matter. Small oil stains or oil spills are easy to manage, but unfortunately if a spill is huge paper towels or other such methods just won’t do the trick. Hence, oil spill kits are a must to protect yourself and others from the potential risk of an oil spill occurrence.

Oil spill kits may include a variety of tools, such as absorbent booms, absorbent mats, appropriate hand protection, and of course oil spill cleaners. Though, use of adsorbent booms and absorbent mats may seem like a good idea at the time, later disposing off these oil laden materials without any further harm can prove to be a problem. Hence, for cleaning up oil spills consider a handy, effective, safe, and eco friendly oil spill cleaner, such as Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200. This oil stain remover is designed to meet even the emergency needs. What’s more, it is safe on the environment as it makes use of environmentally friendly bioremediation technology. So, make this product a prime component of your oil spill kit!

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An Insight on Junkyard Waste Oil Spills

January 25, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spills

Oil spills are one of the most well-known sources of contamination. They are very hazardous to the environment and to the living organisms, such as plants and animals. Oil spilled or dumped in junkyards is a very serious issue. A Junkyard is a place that is used to store junk, wrecked and abandoned automobiles, trucks, and buses. Motor oils, automobile fluids, and other solid wastes from these junks are dumped into the yard. These oil spills can carry heavy metals and other toxic wastes that are considered to have deleterious effect on nature.

During heavy rain or by surface drains, the toxic chemicals and heavy metals from junkyards seep into the soil making cleaning difficult. Oil spill cleanup procedures are not only tedious but also quite expensive. There are several oil spill cleanup procedures followed by ecologists. They include bioremediation, booms, skimmers, sorbents, chemical dispersants, biological agents, and more.

Of the lot, the most effective and greener way to cleanup the oil spill is bioremediation. A product that makes use of this technology is Oil Gone Easy S-200. It is an eco-friendly oil stain remover that can be used to not only cleanup oil spills on a large scale but also to remove tough oil stains from driveways, garages, and more. Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200 oil stain remover can be used on different surfaces, such as concrete, flag stone, asphalt, brick, pavers, cobblestone, and soil. This oil stain remover is not only easy to use but also cost effective.

Some Tips in Oil Spill Management:

In order to prevent oil spills, outdoor storage facilities should have a permanent roof. It prevents precipitation and restricts sunlight entering the storage area.

Always store degreasers and solvents in a tightly covered container.

Rags contaminated with paint, solvents, grease, or oil must be sent to a recycling facility.

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Sources of Ground Water Contamination

January 22, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spills

Ground water is the natural elixir. In the absence of rain water, ground is the only eternal source of water. Due to massive industrialization and other human activities, the ground water resources are under threat. Oil storage systems, chemical tanks, septic tanks, landfills, and crude oil spills are the potential contaminants of ground water. Both the chemical and biological pollutants percolate the ground and mix with the ground water.

Ground water contamination due to crude oil spills have been a persistent problem and less attended to. Over the past years, gallons of fuel oils and motor oil have been spilled on the land and water sources without check. Since ground water is used as potable water in many regions, contamination of it would cause serious health hazards to human beings drinking it. There is less awareness about such contamination among government and non-government agencies.

Bemidji in Minnesota is one well studied crude oil spill site with contaminated ground water. The intensity of ground water poisoning depends greatly on the rate at which the hydrocarbon components disseminate. Natural biodegradation of oil leachates is more complex at the subsurface level due to the absence of oxygen. Crude oil spills should be controlled and the oil contaminated sites should be immediately subject to remedy.

Treatment of contaminated ground water can be done. But oil spill recovery is a tedious process. Purification can be done by pumping the underground water and filtered through the several stages for removal of contaminants. Augmentation of the hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms effectively into the underground water can help in speedy recovery of oil spills.

Oil Gone Easy 200 is an eco-friendly oil spill remover that is used to clean up the oil spills from land and marine waters. This oil spill remover can be sprayed on to the oil spilled site, which provides increased access to bacterial community thus bringing biodegradation of oil spills. Oil Gone Easy is a very good product in dealing home oil spills and drive away oil spills.

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Natural Methods of Oil Spill Cleanup

January 17, 2010 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spill Cleanups, Oil Spills

Oil spills occur due to leakage from improper oil tanks, offshore drilling, or faulty pipelines. Disorganized transportation of oil is another important factor that leads to oil spills. It is important to act fast to clean up an oil spill and prevent the oil from spreading to a bigger area. When it comes to oil spill cleanup, crude oil and their derivatives are the worst. Traditional oil spill cleanup methods such as incineration, used especially for crude oil spill cleanup, are expensive and are also considered extremely harmful to the environment. So, natural methods of oil spill cleanup are always sought after.

A group of scientists from the Department of Industrial Microbiology at University College, Dublin, conducted a research on the action of certain microbes in tackling with the pollutants in an oil spill. Their research showed the exceptionally diverse nature of these microbes. While some of the constituents of oil proved to be toxic to some of the bacteria, other bacteria were capable of using the oil compounds as food ultimately breaking them down.

According to researchers, simply adding microbes to the spilled oil or the oil stain will not work. Only specific bacteria work upon the oil components to break them down into harmless compounds. Choosing the most applicable bacteria will only help in cleaning up an oil spill. Manipulation and usage of natural microbial populations is necessary to break down the contaminants and bring back the environment to its original form.

Bioremediation has proven to be natural and effective process to gradually destroy the harmful pollutants in oil spills and remove oil stains. It only calls for the use of a specific set of bacteria that will work on any contaminated site. Oil Gone Easy S-200 is one such oil spill cleaner that makes use of the bioremediation technology effectively and cleans not just soil and marine oil spills, but also oil stains from any surface at home.

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Top 5 Reasons for Water Pollution

December 24, 2009 By: Michael Jones Category: Oil Spill Blog, Oil Spills

Water pollution is the contamination or adulteration of the water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and ground water by number of human activities. Since water is essential for all our basic needs, water pollution is a threat to us. Many communicable diseases spread through unclean water, which even results in death.

Although there are different factors that contribute to water pollution, listed below are the most dangerous causes of water pollution.

Factories and nuclear plants play a major role in polluting the water. Wastes from factories include toxins, such as lead, mercury, and other contaminants. These chemicals are very harmful and can lead to serious health hazards.

Nonpoint sources are one of the major causes of water pollution. Oil spills from cars, trucks, and other vehicles on land get mixed with rainwater and runoff into streams and lakes polluting them. These nonpoint sources are very difficult to monitor and control, so it falls on each individual to make sure that their vehicles used does not in any way contribute to further pollution. Proper maintenance of vehicles and oil spill cleanup using eco-friendly products, such as Oil Gone Easy S-200 will help to a great extent.

Fertilizers and pesticides used in agricultural farms, homeowners lawns, and roadsides are a threat to the natural water source. When runoff into local streams or rivers or when drained down into groundwater, they contaminate the water completely.

Mining is another major reason for water pollution. Heavy metals and sulfur components which are buried in the earth are exposed during mining and during rainfall these toxic chemicals are exposed, which ultimately result in “acid rain drainage”

Surprising though it may seem, air pollution is also a cause of water pollution. Pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitric acid, and mercury, when deposited out of air results in nutrient pollution and acidification of lakes.

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