20,000+ barrels spilled over ND farmland

[LazyPrizm]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
But it's "natural", and doesn't have all of the additives (for perspective)

So is arsenic, but I'm bet none of you are willing to accept it in your drinking water. And I doubt those healthy natives were raising crops on land that bubbled oil, nor would they be drinking any water that obviously tasted fouled.

Yeah, the area is lucky none of it ended up in the water table, so really it's just between the farmer / company to iron out the cleanup and compensation.

Also, for a bit of perspective, 20,000 barrels is a shade over 800,000 gallons. That's a lotta black gold to park in your back yard.

 

[Mamala Bay]

Crude oil breaks down from microbes and fungi. In China they've discovered chicken manure can break down crude rather quickly.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090303102729.htm

I've said it before in organic growth, these fungi and microbes are powerful stuff...soil cleansers.

 

[GreeCguy]

Again, let's keep the comparisons the same. Arsenic is deadly, crude oil is not, (otherwise, thousands of people would die at every oil change).

And once again, we're not talking "back yard" size but seven acres out of what is probably a 1000 acre field.

On a positive note, it is localized. Compare that with the amount that drips out of countless motors and transmissions across the country, not to mention the amount of used oil that is simply dumped on the ground or in sewers after an oil change. Why don't we ever see that on the nightly news? Next time you have a chance, take a stroll across an apartment parking lot and check out the number of grease spots and stains on the pavement. Parking lots, roads and highways are designed to drain into streams and rivers. In my opinion, there's the real environmental disaster.

 

[GreeCguy]

Oh, and by the way, Oil Creek in Pa was named "Oil Creek" well before the discovery of oil. Pretty sure that native Americans pulled a lot of fish out of said creek for personal consumption.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Again, let's keep the comparisons the same. Arsenic is deadly, crude oil is not, (otherwise, thousands of people would die at every oil change).


Arsenic is most likely an essential trace nutrient, which is dangerous in large quantities...a bit like oil really...and not really sure what on Earth your oil change story has to do with anything.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Compare that with the amount that drips out of countless motors and transmissions across the country, not to mention the amount of used oil that is simply dumped on the ground or in sewers after an oil change. Why don't we ever see that on the nightly news? Next time you have a chance, take a stroll across an apartment parking lot and check out the number of grease spots and stains on the pavement. Parking lots, roads and highways are designed to drain into streams and rivers. In my opinion, there's the real environmental disaster.


The "countless drips" are the probably most benign, and get right back to your original point about oil being "natural"...they are dispersed, not concentrated, have a huge surface to volume ration, and are exposed to oxygen and sunlight, helping them to break down...like tyre dust isn't an issue, millions of pounds a day dispersed across millions of square miles.

 

[BituminousCoal]

[/quote]

I thought crude was often full of contaminants like lead, possibly mercury, and who knows what else. Maybe you could farm some no quality attached commodity crop like GMO corn or soy in a few years. (That corn would be perfectly fine for makin ethanol.) But surely no one with any conscience would be farming produce they sell at a farmers market or quality organic grains that are sure to end up directly as food some years later... I guess unless extensive soil tests show it is in perfect condition.

[/quote]

so is every bit of soil all around you.