At a place I used to work, the company encouraged people to bring in their used engine oil to help with dust in the parking lot. Poeple gladly obliged. Eventually the lot was paved with asphalt.

Years later, the company was selling the property that had the old parking lot. Current environmental regulations required core drills into the dirt to check for industrial pollution. The drillers struck oil at eight feet. The oil had filtered through the soil and was trapped on top of a clay layer. I also understand that they disturbed the clay layer with the core drill holes and that allowed some of the oil to transfer below the clay layers.

This turned into a very big expensive mess. They brought in a kiln sort of device and strip mined all of the dirt from the old parking lot, down to the clay, and the dirt had to be burned through that kiln to destroy the oil.

This is something to keep in mind if you have old engine oil, chemicals or even paint.

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