No Oil. Only Rain Down The Drain

Only Rain Down The Drain

(A slogan of Chester County and other counties in PA)

(Reproduced from: http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/publicworks/stormwater.)

I - Reducing pollution from Parking Lots

According to Nancy Rabalais, member National Research Council on “Oil in the sea III Input, fate and Effects, 2003, Nonpoint pollution, not oil spills, is the largest source, and reducing it will require coordinated efforts on a number of fronts.[1]

According to the author, “When it rains, it pours”—or so a motorist caught in a sudden storm might think while sliding into another vehicle. It is not merely the reduced visibility and the frenetic behavior of drivers in the rain that foster such mishaps; the streets also are slicker just after the rain begins to fall. Why? Because the oil and grease that are dripped, spewed, or otherwise inadvertently deposited by motor vehicles onto roadways are among the first materials to be lifted off by the rain, thereby literally lubricating the surface.” It is estimated that at least 16 million gallons of oil is from such non-point sources and the volume of oil from the highway roads and car parks is equally large.

You cannot stop the flow of rain water entering the drain, but you can try to pre-treat the flowing water to reduce the oil content in the water using bioremediation product such as VaporRemed. We have tested the effectiveness of VaporRemed on the sheen of oil entering the storm water after a down pour. VaporRemed has also been tested immediately after snow melt carrying oil from the parking lots and we have also used even when it was snowing. VaporRemed justifies the slogan “Carry wherever you go, in Rain or in Snow”. It is the objective of our company to reduce the non-point oil pollution entering our rivers, streams and finally oceans. Please visit the following videos to see effectiveness of VaporRemed.

It is not difficult to reduce the volume of oil entering the drain and thereby reducing the volume of oil entering the ocean. It can be simply achieved by collective effort of both the environmentalists and private public organizations. This include individual apartment owners, parking garages, parking lots in Malls, strip malls, public owned parking lots maintained by the cities and counties, banks, large office buildings and the list is endless. It is the next step after public educations and awareness program of the State regulatory bodies. The time to do is now. Many States are already charging or ready to charge the tax payer for maintaining a pollution free release (http://www.hampdentownship.us/stormwater-utility/).

Every baby step counts.  

[1] Rabalais, Nancy. "Oil in the Sea." Issues in Science and Technology 20, no. 1 (Fall 2003).