Spillage...
You haven’t been running WVO long if you haven’t had an oil spill. Whether collecting behind Happy Garden or pumping in your garage, odds are you’ll have a slip an error of greasy proportions. “Holy Shit, shut off the pump”, “my God NO, this can't be happening”, Sure, we can take precautions like having spill containment devices, carrying around an armful of towels etc. But, nothing is going to prevent the un-preventable. It happens to all of us, whether a sloppy Joe or an anal retentive Al, and it has happened to me.
One of my most shocking spills was back 2yrs ago. I had my filtering station in a 10x20ft red metal shipping container, the kind that ride atop those monster diesel shipping vessels. There were a bunch of these arranged in a storage lot. I was visiting my station to harness some of my cold-filtered oil on a sunny, relatively quiet Saturday afternoon, seizing the brief opportunity to get something done while my 2yr old was napping in my truck. I pulled in, unlocked my container and began to fill some cubies with clean, filtered oil, leaving my snoozing boy a few feet away in the car with windows down. I had a circular oil pan under the cubies to collect any oil that spilled. I opened the valve and let gravity fill up the cubie, pouring out of my 275 gallon tote. It took a few minutes for the cubie to fill, so I would just move oil around or change filters while I waited. Next thing I know there is the loudest racket of death metal bearing down on the area. This character in a small pickup truck had the back seat stacked with bass and amps proliferating chugging guitars and gruff voices of destruction down upon the entire block neighborhood. The angel of death proceeded right past my sleeping toddler, gracing his sleeping being with sounds of demonic destruction. The dude proceeded to park and open up both car doors to amp up the deadly sounds while he accessed his storage unit. I ran out, noticed my son stirring and kept a glimmer of hope that he would return to sleep if I could temporarily halt the noise. I approached the hellacious fellow and asked that he turn down the music so my son can sleep. He thought about for a second and then proceeded to ask me a favor to move my vehicle so he could have more room to work. I obliged while begging my now awake son to return to sleep. It went from loud death metal to the death cry of a toddler, in a fit from being woken up.
Did you forget about the oil filling the cubie? I did. I leisurely strolled back to my storage unit after consoling my son only to then realize that I had made a huge mistake. It wasn’t possible. Oh it was. I quick jumped over and shut off the valve, splashing in the 10 or so gallons of oil that had overflowed on the floor. Nowwwww, what do I do? My first reaction was to question whether I want to run vegetable oil in my vehicles anymore. Second reaction was to bust out the cat litter and rags, to try and sop up the mess. As much as I tried to blame the Angel of Death for this one, I really had to own up to my responsibility and learn from this mistake. I promised to never leave the cubie while being filled, no matter what. I eventually connected a pump, hoses and fuel nozzle to the tank outlet, so I could fill up directly into vehicles. A lesson learned, yep. A bad thing turned good, yep. But no, I’m still uncomfortable with death metal.
My advice to you? Pay attention. Make things idiot proof, albeit you may not be an idiot, we all are prone to acting like one from time to time. Cat litter is an effective way to clean oil spills. And, don’t process oil where a spill will create significant damage or danger.
What about you? What was your worst grease spill? How many gallons?
-Jason Jelonek
