On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:18:44 GMT, "Jim"
wrote:



| Only two gallons of just one year old gas? Dump it into your car's gas
| tank and get new gas for the mower. The gas is not that old in the
| first place and there's not enough of it to cause a problem to your
| auto in the second place. Please don't dump it on the ground or use it
| for weed killer, as this is environmentally damaging. In my state,
| it's illegal. People get caught and fined for doing it.
|
| Exactly right!
|
| Please -do not- dump fossil fuel on the ground, you can add that much to
| your car tank and never notice a difference in performance.....if you dump
| that much on the ground, you will kill everything in the soil that's close
| by -and- some fish in your nearest body of water.
|
| Use it up first next year you bogart!
|
| Runoff of this can be a problem environmentally. If spreadout along a
| fenceline, yes it kills everything for that growing season on that
| fenceline. And much less likely to runoff if dumped in one location.
| Typically the next growing season, the soil has recovered enough by breaking
| down the gasoline to usable or benign components. 2 to 3 years, one would
| think fertilizer was dropped there instead by growth appearances. Used
| engine oil is similar. Would have second thoughts on synthetic oil or
| petroleum based oil with additive product added to the oil by the consumer.
|
| Dumping laws were directed at chemicals, oil products that were dumped with
| no attention to the environment. A common invisible example is an
| underground gasoline storage tank that has leaks due to age. The contents
| get into the water table. The environmental laws apply to all. Even though
| some conscientious individual could dispense a given amount of petroleum
| waste without any immediate and subsequent impact except the location its
| dumped. A gallon of "bad" gasoline doesn't go to far spread out on a
| fenceline. Most of it evaporates.


Overview

Each year, American consumers accidentally spill more than 9 million
gallons of gasoline, largely in attempts to fill small engine machines
like lawn mowers, chain saws, generators and outboard motors and
through improper disposal of excess or old gasoline. The Alliance for
Proper Gasoline Handling is a unique public-private partnership
helping to reduce the significant environmental harm caused by
millions of these small, accidental spills.

A typical portable fuel container, also called a gas can, emits about
8 pounds of hydrocarbons through spills and evaporation each year.

Compared to a new car, a typical portable fuel container emits twice
the amount of hydrocarbons each year.

There are about 78 million portable fuel containers in the United
States. In total, portable fuel containers emit about 621 million
pounds, or 310,000 tons, of hydrocarbons each year.

A rough estimate of hydrocarbon emissions from gasoline spillage alone
is approximately 28,000 tons per year nationwide.

About one tenth of a gallon of gasoline is spilled per portable fuel
container each year during typical use and handling.

These releases contribute, at least in part, to the United States
Geologic Society (USGS) estimate that more than 40 million people use
groundwater that contains at least one volatile organic compound, many
of which are components of gasoline.