Back From Another Oil Spill

On Wednesday of last week, I attended a site in Southeastern Ontario to assess and to delineate contamination resulting from a minor furnace oil leak.

It does not take much furnace oil (diesel fuel) to contaminate an abundance of soil and impact numerous building components.  In addition, if left untreated, fuel can migrate very quickly, finding its way into a nearby drinking water source, such as a well.

Most people do not realize that a single drop of oil in a well can render the water in the well unsafe for consumption.

In the event that a leak is discovered, a quick response may save hundreds of thousands of dollars by eliminating months of remedial work to restore a contaminated site.  

In this case, it looks like less than 10 litres of oil resulted in about $30,000 of restoration costs.  Imagine how much it could have cost if left unmitigated.