For those more familiar with dealing with the department of environment, i have some questions.

I have watched them at the local junk yard during the process of crushing cars , and they use a payloader with forks on the front to move the cars around , but they also use it to roll the vehicle over , and rip open the gas tank, the contents of which land directly on the bare ground.

My question is , how big of a taboo is this? the junkyard resides within a "wellfield protection zone" for the town, meaning it is located directly above the underground aquafer that the town draws it's drinking water from, although it is located in zone "c" , being the farthest from the well.


I don't really appreciate my drinking water being poisioned as such.

 

Junkyards, where they are allowed to operate and what they can and can't do is up to each individual municipality (and ultimately the EPA I suppose).

Outside storage, as it is defined in our local code does not mean you can dump oil and gas straight to the ground. I have been amazed over and over again at what I see in scrap and auto junk yards.

1) Guys burning WMO in a 55 gallon drum to burn the insulation off of wire.
2) A stream of Rainbow colored water running down towards a creek (oil).
3) Chiller flipped over and the freon line snapped dumping a whole lot of gas straight to the air.

They get away with MURDER around here. Thing is, these junkyards are very difficult to sell or transfer, the ground contamination goes with the property, the owner has no responsibility once it's not his/hers anymore.
The price of available (non-destroyed) M-1, or greater (heavy industrial, unlimited outside storage) property is amazing though.

 

If it bothers you that much. Grab your video camera, shoot some footage and mail it to your local nation news channel.

Works in America. On a slow news week, a local crime can become a national emergency.

 

All the scrap yards I haul to REQUIRE you to remove the gas tank, freon from refrigerators and compressors. They have a whole list of stuff that is taboo right at the entrance of the yard. I am not 100% sure but I bet it is a law or they would not care either. So I remove the gas, gas tank and have a pile of them, well maybe 5 gas tanks laying around here. The last one I had was sitting around for over a year, so I drove the truck over it a couple times and flattened it then hauled it off. I let them sit for a year or so then haul them in.

But as far as dumping the gas straight onto the ground......I bet that is way illegal, even having the gas tank on the car...I'd do some checking, that is if your feeling eager.

 

makes me sick each time the river comes up around here, runs right past a huge junk yard, and man that thing puts off a slick, sandy bottomed river, again feeding an aquifer, thing that kills me is that as you drive by on the highway, there is a sign reminding you that you are in a river sensitive area.... if we get all the rain we are supposed to, that yard will be in a few feet of standing water, would love to see em shut down............ I feel your pain brutha

 

I forgot to mention there IS a small river running through the back corner of this junk yard , thanks for bringing that up. I have not checked to see if their pollution is making it into the water stream , but it won't be hard for me to check, the same small river runs right through my back yard , but luckily i am up stream of the junk yard.

We also have a field directly beside this junk yard , so i might go do some "crop inspecting" with my camera ( capable of 48x zoom) once they start crushing, and send the pictures off that night to a few people who MIGHT be interested in seeing them , including new papers and television stations , as well as area environment people , if i can track the right ones down.

If you guys have any more ideas please let me know, if i get some good pictures/video i will post a few up for you to see this mess they make...

 

Id say contact the New Brunswick Department of the Environment

 

If you do take pictures please be careful. If they have no problem polluting the ground they might not have any problem taking care of someone trying to get them into trouble.

 

Ya think NB actually has one of those?!?!

Hopefully the guy who heads up the NB Ministry of Environment isn't the same guy that owns the wrecking yard.....

 

Nope , i know who owns the yard, lets just say he isn't the MOST liked person in the neighbourhood.... , he runs the junk yard , and a smal automotive repair business out of a shop at the front of the lot , and i mean small, one bay with a 4 post drive on hoist.

There is a dept of fisheries and oceans/ dept of environment office here in town, so i may anonymously drop in there with a CD full of pictures , and maybe a small video.

 

Nothing is against the law, if you don't get caught.

 

Pull a sample of the water and run a drinking water test but include a metal scan as part of the test. Alot of the those items will show up on the test results.

 

Well , a little update for everyone here , the crusher has been sitting in the front lot for a couple of weeks now , i assume because it has been raining non stop , and they didn't want to make an extreme mess of their own land.

I heard the distinct sound of a 2 stroke detroit start up yesterday , and run full throttle until about 5 pm, so i assume they have started crushing, i might go do a little "field work" next door to them this afternoon.