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This is a tale of our own experience of domestic heating oil pollution
The rubbish (see below) should be cleared shortly. Works are due to begin on the 8th May.
Our front drive Further update 2nd March 2001Now we are into March. Hooray, looks like something is about to happen! 29 January 2001 The oil has now been cleaned up but as yet, no restoration has been carried out. The front garden and drive are still ruined, as is the side of the house and part of the back garden. We cannot use our back door so still plenty of inconvenience. We await progress. THE BEGINNING Last Christmas Day (1999) we awoke to a strong smell of oil in our house. Outside it was just as bad and we wondered what had happened. Then, we heard our neighbour talking to someone about an oil leak. It turned out that during Christmas Eve, our neighbour's central heating oil tank had sprung a leak with hundreds of gallons of fuel oil disappearing onto our land and under our house as well as affecting their own garden. Ron explained to the Environment Agency the lie of the land, the water table and where the oil was likely to go and, as would be expected, this was indeed the case. We had no difficulties with our neighbours. They were very apologetic and we all thought everything would be sorted out and the land cleaned up under their insurance very quickly. 11 months later (!), the remedial operation is finally proceeding.
In the time that we and our neighbours have been waiting, the oil has spread much further than anticipated such that our drive and front garden, a large chunk of our back garden and the side of the house between us and our neighbour is ruined. Indeed, we now have a shared muddy swimming pool. Update 21.11.00 Backfilling outside progressing but still more digging and clean up to go. Had to have floorboards taken up and holes drilled into the foundations in the kitchen, dining room and my (Mary's) office to 'drill for oil', plus a large hatch in the utility room. Having checked under the house, it looks okay except under the utility room where instead of the target 50ppm we have 1600ppm! Oh, the mess and disruption inside and out - and all because of an old domestic oil fuel tank.
And the moral of the tale? Ensure your domestic central heating oil tank is up to the latest standards so this doesn't happen to you - or your neighbours. Pollution can strike even the most unsuspecting and the effects are long lasting. These pollution events are increasing, so don't get caught out. We'll keep you posted on how the rest of the remediation and restoration goes. |
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