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Post by rockpickerforever on Jun 21, 2013 10:59:20 GMT -5
No, I didn't spill it. Yesterday, the company that picks up my next door neighbor's trash (different company than mine), had a hydraulic line blow out on their trash truck. The truck was in front of the neighbor's house, but the hydraulic fluid was under a lot of pressure, and it went everywhere! It must have shot very high into the air, as it is even on the roof of a shed in my backyard. This is behind my house, at least 50 - 60 feet from the street. It's on the fascia boards in front A lot of the mess went into their front yard (no plants, mostly concrete and brick), but it also is all over my front yard, my trailer (fortunately, neither of our trucks was home at the time), and my cactus - can't be good for it. It's even on the rocks in the pots of cactus. Guess those will have to come out and get the oil washed off them, not just sprayed off and washed INTO the container. Here's the mess on my trailer. Granted, it was pretty dirty, but it did not have hydraulic oil all over it!! On the solar panel on the roof I spoke with my neighbor, and she called the company around 5:30 last night. They said they are going to hire a professional crew to come out and clean it up today. We are both pissed because, although we saw the broken down trash truck, and the driver that had to wait hours for someone to come and fix his truck, no one ever bothered to come and tell either of us about the spill, or that they'd come and clean it up. My first thought when I saw the oil was that a plane (yes, I'm in the flight path for Lindbergh Field) had dropped something. But after speaking to another neighbor, we put two and two together, and figured out what had happened. My first question is, should they not have contacted Hazmat or some other county entity (environmental services?) about the spill, and not just pretended it didn't happen? Were they planning on sweeping this whole mess under the rug? I'm wondering if the hydraulic fluid is going to eat the paint on my trailer, or worse, eat through the membrane that is on the roof? You are not supposed to let any kind of petroleum product touch it, or it will start to dissolve. And if nothing happens to it now, does that mean that nothing will happen in a year, two years from now because of this? I am concerend that they will do more damage when they try to take the oil off. Anyone ever have to deal with something like this before? So, I'm stuck here this morning until I hear from them. Fact is, I'm probably going to be stuck here all day, as I definitely want to be here to watch them when they do the cleanup. I do have other things I need to do today, and the longer I have to sit here, the more pissed off I am getting about this whole situation. Jean
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Post by helens on Jun 21, 2013 11:22:42 GMT -5
Ouch. Hope they can help you resolve it... I just had a somewhat similar experience with my under sink leak, which could possibly relate to your situation too. My under sink Reverse Osmosis unit blew a leak at the main tie in, and because the RO takes up the entire under sink area and the leak was way in the back where no one would look, it leaked for some time before I noticed it. Long story short, the company sent out a plumber at their own expense (immediate mitigation), then told me to call my HomeOwners and their insurance would work it out with my insurance to repair the damage it caused.
It may work that way for you too, they come clean up the majority of the damage, but for any major damage to your personal property, you are supposed to call your HomeOwners Insurance, tell them what happened, and they split the bill with the company's insurance company to fix your personal property.
For me, it happened nearly a month ago, and I'm STILL waiting for resolution... the Insurance cut the check 3 weeks ago, but to both my mortgage company and us... it's the mortgage company who is slow as turtles re-releasing the funds. This may take a while for you to resolve too if they can't clean it up well. Hopefully your property isn't very damaged and won't require dealing with insurance at all if they clean it up fast... that can take a long time, as I'm finding with mine.
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bushmanbilly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2008
Posts: 4,719
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Post by bushmanbilly on Jun 21, 2013 13:03:49 GMT -5
Ouch! that looks nasty Jean. I feel for ya. Hydraulic oil is nasty stuff. Any refined oil is bad due to the additives.
The driver should have had a spill kit in the truck.
When they come to clean it up make sure they lay down oil absorbent tampons. Refined oil will make your soil steril. And may have to be replaced Good luck and stand your ground and don't take any shit from them. They are in the wrong not you.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jun 21, 2013 15:35:49 GMT -5
They should probably replace your solar panel, if the transparent surface is something other than glass. The anti wear additives in hydraulic oil will cause problems with most plastics, esp acrylics. A guy I work with took a shortcut over a 2500 psi line and busted off a gauge mounted on a 3/8 nipple, causing oil to hit him square in the crotch. He was soprano for awhile.
Lee
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jun 21, 2013 15:43:52 GMT -5
Thanks, Lee. We were posting at the same time. Ouch for the guy you work with! The solar panel is glass. Thanks, Billy. The waste company sent a cleaning company out around 9:30 this morning. I spoke with the head man, and he basically said he could powerwash the oil off my trailer, the plants (one large aloe, in particular) he would not touch. He said he could powerwash the plant, but it most likely would die. They started in the neighbor's yard, powerwashing her cement/bricks. They were most of the way done there when they had an equipment failure or something. So they went to get another truck. They came back with a different truck after lunch, finished what they'd missed in the neighbor's yard, then washed my trailer. I need to go look inside and see if any water got in. It'll keep out rain, but when you shoot water UP at the windows, it sometimes has a problem. They had put their machine away and were about to leave, when I went out to check their progress. I noticed that he hadn't washed the railing on the chain link fence (which was covered in oil), like he said they would. So they brought it back out and washed off the railing. Oh, and they did lay down some tampons. Ouch! that looks nasty Jean. I feel for ya. Hydraulic oil is nasty stuff. Any refined oil is bad due to the additives. The driver should have had a spill kit in the truck. When they come to clean it up make sure they lay down oil absorbent tampons. Refined oil will make your soil steril. And may have to be replaced Good luck and stand your ground and don't take any shit from them. They are in the wrong not you. A spill kit in the truck? Now, there's a novel idea! I suspect they will be having some personnel meetings about proper protocol in the event of another mishap. So my neighbor has been talking to the guy at the waste company on the phone. She told him it would be more professional if he would personally come out and see the damages himself, and talk to me about how they are going to take care of this (the plants, mainly). It's probably not a good thing to leave the oil coating the aloe, but I don't want to do anything to it before he sees it. I am concerned about the soil, too. I wonder if they'll need to come out and scrape a 1/2" off the top and dispose of it? Well, we'll see what they're going to do to make it right. They've already told the neighbor they'd give her a couple months of service for free, but that isn't going to work for me. Will keep ya updated... Jean
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jun 21, 2013 16:09:38 GMT -5
I have hydrualic spills out in my pasture from 15 years ago.Nothing ever grew there.It is the most permanent plant killer i have ever seen Jean.Maybe the newer oils are not so poisionus.I have absolutly never seen any chemical stop growth like that.Treating polluted soil can cost $1000's per yard of soil.
Do not let this fact blow over. The damage is probably very long term.It will eventually go away with hopefully not too much damage to your hard goods.Most likely the soil will be a very expensive proposition. Absolutely a lawyer.He may involve the EPA.Look after yourself.1/2" NOT-deeper than that soaking deeper in your heat trust me.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jun 21, 2013 16:46:12 GMT -5
From what I've been told in some areas of Canada they use a veggie based oil in their hydraulics on snow plows. Spendy stuff, I was going to try some for cutting before I found this forum and learned that is goes rancid if it's not in a sealed system.
Lee
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2013 17:01:55 GMT -5
I once had a job in which the "hydraulics mechanic" took a liking to me. I used quotes because his real job title should have been "genius who can fix anything".
He told me the term "hydraulics" gets it's root - hydro - because the original machine fluids were water based. Looks to me like the oil industry out marketed the hose people lol
Imagine a world with all the parts stainless and all the fluids from the hose with a bottle of additive.
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grizman
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since July 2011
Posts: 878
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Post by grizman on Jun 21, 2013 17:54:00 GMT -5
For sure make the company head representative make a personal trip out for an inspection. If they even hesitate to agree to your demands, get a lawyer, quick! Also anything that is promised, make sure it is in writing. Being a biologist, I can tell you that the plants will suffer permanent damage at the very least, and most likely will die. The soil needs to be replaced to a minimum of 8" to12" due to the vapors that will move down into the soil. The longer they leave it there, the deeper it will travel, making the soil barren.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jun 21, 2013 18:16:04 GMT -5
I once had a job in which the "hydraulics mechanic" took a liking to me. I used quotes because his real job title should have been "genius who can fix anything". He told me the term "hydraulics" gets it's root - hydro - because the original machine fluids were water based. Looks to me like the oil industry out marketed the hose people lol Imagine a world with all the parts stainless and all the fluids from the hose with a bottle of additive. I have seen water soluble systems. One of them was a pressure-over setup powered by steam from a boiler. never did look into how it worked.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Jun 21, 2013 19:27:11 GMT -5
I agree Grizman.Poor Jean has suffered a blow.I would go get a lawyer anyway.I am not sue happy type person.The guy probably has insurance.Most likely the beef will be with the insurance and Jean/lawyer.Hell'the 2 gas stations up the road send a bit of oil at heavy rains and i let it go cause my plants are fine. www.clarkenvironmental.com/thermal-treatment
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jun 21, 2013 22:20:45 GMT -5
UPDATE - The guy from the company came out around 6:30 this evening. He was a nice guy, and he just wants to get this taken care of. He totally set my mind at ease when he told me that his company uses vegetable-based hydraulic fluid, not petroleum based. So there went most of my worries (about the trailer roof, the dirt, the coated aloe plant) out the window.
I told him what I was going to have to do - clean the aloe with Dawn (should be okay), remove all the rocks from two planters and soak them in Dawn to get the oil off (soaking now), then return them, and the biggy - will have to rewax the entire trailer. That is a several day job.
Like I said, he was a reasonable guy, and he will be paying me for the time it takes to get those things done. Whew! What next?
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Jean
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Post by Rockoonz on Jun 22, 2013 10:10:42 GMT -5
Yay for veggie hydraulics, wish everyone could use it.
Lee
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