Burning dirt

R

rlp in Co.

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

A guy has a rental house where the renter dumped or spilled 5 or 10 gallons of diesel on the ground. He wants me to take my backhoe and dig it up and burn the dirt and put it back. I have a hand held propane weed burner. Any suggestions on how to do it?

 

R

redforlife

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

If you gonna do it right, according to EPA rules, etc., dig up contaimenated dirt and replace it with different dirt. Haul contaminated dirt to a qualified location to except it.

Otherwise, just burn what you can at the surface and call it good. No need in doing all the digging around if your not going to do it right.

 

D

danofarming

Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

Run Away. Quickly

 

M

Michael Soldan

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

5 to 10 gallons is not a catastrophic spill . I searched the net and some theorize that evaporation will be a large part of the clean up. One such expert claims tree planting will absorb and dispurse remains of the fuel over time. I would not hesitate to light it up , rake it around and let as much burn off as possible. Small spills will be absorbed by the soil , so how far down will 5 gallons go 2-3 feet, area of 10 square feet ? A couple of bucket loads with a loader ought to get it all , then light it , spread it around and let it burn out.

 

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fastfarmall

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

Just burn in right where it is,if you can, Where they refuel the train engines, and do clean up work, i think they put the same dirt back, but it's a complex unit they run it threw to burn out the fuel !

 

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Steve@Advance

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

I'm thinking you'll have a hard time getting it to burn.

It's probably already soaked in and started evaporating on the surface.

Maybe scoop it up, turn it over a few times. A few days in the sun should take care of it.

As long as it wasn't in close vicinity to a shallow well it shouldn't be a big problem unless the owner wants to turn it into one. Could be a can of worms he wished he'd left the lid on!

 

J

john in la

Well-known Member

Location

What part of in La do you not understand

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

It takes a incinerator to fully burn diesel out of dirt.

I would say a homeowner has two choices if they want to handle it inhouse.

1) till the soil and add a bunch of compost.
Till it several times a year to put oxygen into the soil
The microbes in the soil will remove the diesel in 2 or 3 years

2) A quicker way is to get some "Oil solutions Step 1 & Step 2 Liquid"
The quart size should be way more than enough for a 10 gallon spill.
It cost less than $25

 

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fixerupper

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

Do you have a loader on the front of the backhoe? If you do go to his place with a bucket full of fresh dirt, dig out the soaked soil and dump the fresh dirt in the hole. I doubt if you have to dig it all out to get grass to grow again. I did that where a drain valve on a diesel barrel split and drained the fuel in the grass over a 10'x50' area, maybe longer, it's been awhile since. I skimmed the dead sod off with the loader, skimmed fresh sod off another location and re-sodded the soaked area. The new sod took well and by the end of the summer it wasn't visible anymore. This is in heavy black Iowa soil which is probably different from your Colorado soil and climate but the idea is the same.

 

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paul

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

Not sure you will get much to burn.

The way they do it here is to spread the oiled dirt on a farm field, so it?s less than 4 inches deep, and just use it like the rest of the field. The microbes in the top few inches eat it out in a couple years. What doesn?t go away is anything soaked in deeper, where the common microbes don?t get to.

Paul

 

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Billy Shafer

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

I wouldn't touch it. The way things are in today's world. You could open yourself up to some real trouble. Not like it was when I was a kid.

 

kcm.MN

Well-known Member

Location

NW Minnesota

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

Someone camped out on our place after we bought it, but before we moved here. They made a campfire by using diesel. The burn spot lasted for several years before I finally dug it up and replaced.

"Just burning" won't work.

 

A

Adirondack case guy

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

I would stay far clear of that project. You could open yourself up to all kinds of fines etc for doing that.
Loren

 

C

Case Nutty 1660

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

All you have to do to get it leached up and out of the soil is work it up and disc it every week, do it three times thats all they do here in the landfill in the fuel contaminated soils area,, they then load it out with a scraper spread it on compacted garbage and plant it to grass, oh yea they charge BIG time to take the stuff hauled in

 

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Stephen Newell

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

If it were me I would just dispose of the top few inches and put fresh dirt on top.

 

1

1948CaseVAI

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

I pour that much diesel around every spring just to kill brush. Just disk it or spread it out and forget it.

 

5

504

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

About 5 years back the coop had a line break between their tank farm and the gas station. #2 ran down the grader ditch at least a 1/4 mile and then under the state highway then across the corn field. This was late fall, killed the grass and you could track the spill almost a mile total,the next spring it looked like fertilizer had been spilled. No sign of a leak at all. (I really do not think anybody called DNR either,no clean up no dirt moved)

 

K

K Effective

Well-known Member

• Apr 13, 2019

• #1

I agree with those who say to turn the job down- IF you are a contractor and get caught doing the clean up incorrectly, you'll certainly wish you had.

 

OP

OP

R

rlp in Co.

Well-known Member

• Apr 14, 2019

• #1

Thanks for the suggestions! Maybe I'll turn down this job.

 

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Texasmark1

Well-known Member

• Apr 14, 2019

• #1

Rule I read was that anything over 1 quart, or maybe it was a gallon......not much.......of haz mat material is reportable. On diesel as fertilizer I have seen the results mentioned here. Don't ask me about the chemical process where plants like petroleum products.....well N comes from natural gas as I recall.....maybe there is a correlation.