The giant oil spill taking place in the Gulf of Mexico is a reminder of how damaging hydrocarbon spills are to the environment. High concentrations of oil are flat out toxic to life and low levels of oil contamination cause subtle long term damage like retarded plant and animal growth and poor animal reproduction. These effects start at the top of the food chain and cascade all the way down to our dinner table. Interested in having some gulf coast shrimp right now?
The media has really placed this environmental tragedy to the forefront of the minds of Americans but this tragic contamination is happening daily at an individual level. People are still pouring waste motor oil down the sewer!
I think there is a mentality that the storm sewers go off to some treatment facility but the reality basically all storm sewers run to a local stream, lake, river, onto the ocean. Everything you put on your lawn that doesn’t immediately absorb runs off on the next rain. Everything spilled on our driveways washes down to the storm sewer and off to a local waterway.
US Bureau of Transit Statistics for 2006 estimated about 251 million vehicles on the road in the use. Say on average these vehicles change 5 quarts of oil every 6 months. That creates 628 million gallons of waste oil per year in the US.
Motor oil circulates through your engine and picks up heavy metals and other contaminants like arsenic lead cadmium copper zinc chromium benzene and other very nasty poisons. These contaminants are known to cause problems in mammals and upset the delicate ecosystems of our waterways.
Have you ever seen how far one drop of oil spreads on the surface of a bucket of water. A fraction of a percent of 628 million gallons of waste oil is a enough to do the dramatic damage taking place. The small amount we spill ends up on the ground or in the sewer is poisoning the environment.
To fight this you can make sure you collect all of your waste oil and deliver to the auto-parts store where you bought your oil. Make sure your engine is not leaking motor oil or any other lubricants. You can also consider synthetic motor oils for extended drain intervals to drastically reduce the amount of waste oil you produce.
Other interesting articles to check out:
- pesky oilspill? grab a hairmat! – so there’s this san francisco non-profit called matter of trust, which, as one of its many projects, collects human hair from thousands of salons across the country and sends it to georgia to be woven into mats. …
- Climate for Action: Reducing your Carbon Footprint on the Road – You should also change air filters regularly and use the recommended motor oil. Having a well tuned engine can reduce fuel consumption. Regularly checking the amount of air in your tires can also decrease your fuel consumption, …
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