Back in the pre-EPA days, it was fairly common to dump waste engine oil onto the ground. A circa 1925 image showing a Yankee Filling Station located on Wells Street next to the Park River in Hartford, CT. Oil drums visible point to were gas station employees dumped used oil and gear lube over the bank in two spots. Note the glistening appearance the oil adds to the rock retaining wall before it drains down into the river. The H.G. Murk & Co. next door was located at 25 Wells St. in the Capital City.

 

Lovely. Maybe we can bring back the good ol days.

 

There are places, especially Los Angeles, next to some schools too, that oil, asphalt, and other petroleum seep up to the surface. In some cases it is so flammable it can be lit on fire. All natural.

Of course now we have a much better understanding of water/chemical underground “plumes” and how years after the Air Force dumped all manner of chemicals into the ground, groundwater used for human consumption has become unfit for any animal. We have a few of those exact problems here in Sacramento.

Back in the “old” days, you could always find the carrier by spotting the trail of trash that was thrown overboard.

 

When I was young my father use to spray our waste oil along the tracks behind our house to keep the weeds down until.......my mother discovered wild asparagus on the hill. He found someone that would take it to burn in a waste oil heater.

 

You used to be able to tell the color paper the paper mills were making that day by the color of the Nashua river.

 

My father regularly dumped use oil in the sewer in front of our home in plain daylight, no one ever complained or thought it was odd.

 

Our harbor was polluted for many years. Clean up has been ongoing, but should be completed soon. The company doing the clean up spent a lot of $$ at my former place of employment. We did a lot of machine work, and some fabrication of parts and pieces for their equipment. When they broke something, they needed a repair or replacement fast!

Polluted River

 

I remember the Save The Bay campaigns as a kid growing up.

 

In my childhood neighbourhood we had homes explode from methane seeping underground from nearby dumps. Not good.

 

Lets us not forget leaded gas.
The real reason a lot of city kids had lead poisoning.