I enjoy dumping my used motor oil into the sewer, I don't think this has ANY effect on the Earth, prove me

Question

wrong

Answer 1

Have you ever seen a sewer system on fire? I have and the loss of life is too great a price to ask. Ask yourself-are you so indifferent to life that you will accept a death of another at your very hands?

Answer 2

In Ca it will have an effect on your pocketbook if you get caught, it is a huge fine.

Answer 3

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Probably so dumb that you're probably on a septic system and don't know it yet.

Answer 4

i can effect the earth and it can't effect the earth, depends on where the sewage leads to.

Answer 5

Well, for starters, let's dump you down into the sewer to follow your oil. If you are in a combined sewer, you will come out at the wastewater treatment plant and, with luck, most of the oil will be skimmed off and landfilled. The contaminants, such as metals,will continue through the system and get dumped into a stream, More modern systems have separate sewers for sewage and for runoff. These sewers dump directly to the nearest stream with no treatment, so you are likely to cause a fishkill, to say nothing of the animals the fish live on. In either event, you are likely to be contaminating the drinking water that is withdrawn from below the outfall.

Oh, yeah, while you're down there, give my best to Shredder.

Answer 6

Stargaze already pointed out the oil itself, so let me continue on the metal which is in the oil slurry:

Motor blocs to increase their performance receive some extra alloy builders in the steel and cast bloc. Some of these are made out of heavy metals.

The metallic particles from the abrasion are the reason why your oil becomes always darker and loses lubricant properties.

Well, so this goes into the soil from which you grow vegetables or whatever... in your food chain.

Employees in the mechanical industry are checked on a regular basis, mostly due to heavy metal concentrations.

Answer 7

I much rather use it to kill weeds in the drive way.   it saves on the cost of weed killer.

Answer 8

So long as you understand whatever you dump, you eat and drink. Crackheads are peeing into the same sewer, how do you like it? Who lives upstream from you?

Answer 9

I hear putting oil in sewage drains cures fish of Fish AID's. So, you're actually doing the fish a favor. Keep it up!

Answer 10

Well even the water treatment plant doesn't GCMS the finished watern (they should!!), so things like MTBE that were converted to less volatile, but still water miscible substances get chlorinated which makes them even worse for human health.

This is an interesting question.  Have you ever contemplated what happens to all the tons of oil leaked out of cars on the road??  Its basically the same as if you did what you sarcastically suggest.

I wish the green movement would turn its focus to mitigating HUMAN HEALTH HAZARDS instead of nebulous things like greenhouse gas emmisions.

One thing that drives me nuts is this obsession with CFL vs. incandescent.  Sure CFL reduces energy consumption, but at the cost of bigtime mercury pollution.  And hybrid/electric vehichles use lead/acid batteries.

Both heavy metals are an intense threat to human health, especially babies and children.

But they value more a baby seal 10 000 miles away.

Answer 11

The Earth will survive just fine.

The INHABITANTS of Earth, on the other hand, will have nice and tasty supplies of motor oil sludgy water to bathe in, cook with and drink from.

Yum!

Answer 12

Make sure you stuff some used paint from old paint cans!  LOL!

Answer 13

Used oil is classified as a hazardous waste under California law and must be recycled or disposed of properly. Placing used oil into household garbage or commercial dumpsters or pouring it into sewers or onto the ground is prohibited by law because it can pollute our environment.

One gallon of used motor oil can pollute one million gallons of drinking water - a year's supply for 50 people!

Do the research for yourself, why would you are anyone enjoy putting anything into the sewer ,knowing that you are going to end up drinking contaminated water???

Answer 14

there is no affect. you are fine. you are returning a fossil fuel to where it came from.

Answer 15

Get a glass of water.  Put a drop or two of used motor oil into it.   Drink.  Repeat.