ulyssesBy an edhat reader
I wanted to ask for advice and suggestions on what to do about a car with an oil leak that is frequently parked on the street near where I live. The car is usually parked late at night on weekends and is left for a couple of days, but never over 72 hours.
It does not belong to any neighbors on the street that I am aware of. The driver of this car is dropped off and picked up by someone driving a second car. The driver of the car is aware of the oil leak as he has been asked to not park on a nearby adjacent street recently as the car had leaked oil there.
Is there a law against this type of thing? Is this a city water quality issue? Asking the driver to park somewhere else will only move the problem elsewhere and annoy someone else. I would like to know if there are better solutions. Thanks.
I had a pick up truck that liked to leave it’s mark, much like old Harleys do. But I sure didn’t have the $1200+ to get it fixed and when I did it cost me twice that coz I first took it to Ayer’s where they “fixed” everything but the leak… but I digress. The point is that nobody leaves the oil leak valve open on purpose and hassling a stranger over a bit of spotting on the roadway is no way to make friends and influence people. And as for this being a contributor to pollution on the par with the Exxon Valdez oil spill… I call “bull$#i1”.
From Massachussets Water Quality folks, “Oil that leaks from our cars onto roads and driveways is washed into storm drains, and then usually flows directly into a lake or stream. Used motor oil is the largest single source of oil pollution in lakes, streams, and rivers. Americans spill 180 million gallons of used oil each year into the nation’s waters. This is 16 times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska!” Since we use 377 million gallons a day, that is 0.13% of the total, or a pretty small amount. So could be reasonable. Let science be your friend.
Public street. The car owner is adhering to the laws. Only thing you can do is find a different hobby.
I would call the City water quality people. They were called when a neighbor was dumping their sump water into the street and they went out and talked to the guy and he stopped. If they can see a car parked there and dripping oil, I think they can help. They used to say that oil washing off into the oceans each year accounts for more pollution that was spilled from Exxon Valdez. The street cleaning they do is part of addressing the ocean pollution problem.
How about realizing that THIS IS A PUBLIC STREET AND PEOPLE CAN PARK THEIR CARS THERE IF THEY WANT TO AND THAT A LITTLE OIL ISN’T GOING TO HURT ANYONE? I swear, I have really had it with people in Santa Barbara who think they OWN the street. You DON’T. We have a new neighbor that bought the house next door. He tells us constantly that he doesn’t want people parking in front of “his property”. Well, guess what, you entitled twit, it’s a PUBLIC STREET and any member of the public can park there.