"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.com...
On Thu, 3 May 2007 07:04:26 +0100, R wrote:

Contamination is is a definate.
Taste it.

He's going to water plants with it not drink it.

If you like the taste of it then imagine it in your food...

The normal soil bacteria will deal with traces of oil that get to the soil
without any trouble.

As a secondary question, is this heating oil the same stuff as
paraffin?

It's low octane/grade diesel.

That depends on the "heating oil". Modern pressure jet boilers use 28sec
oil which is parrafin, kerosene etc. Diesel, gas oil, etc is 35sec and
less volatile than 28sec.

28sec can be used in "parrafin" lamps/heaters but the smell might not be
as nice as refined lamp oil or oil made for heaters.

Personally, I'd get rid of it and look around for a 1000l carboy made of
nylon/plastic and se that in place of it

The OP doesn't state if this is an old steel tank or a more recent plastic
one. If plastic I'd drain as much oil out as possible and use drawing
water off from low down. There may be a problem with the oil on the
surface depending on how the filling arrangements are done. Where is the
overflow water going to go? Can the surface layer flow back to the normal
drain, as it can with a normal down spout butt filler?

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

I agree with Dave, I used to work on Oil tankers and spent a lot of my time
washing oil tanks and filling them with ballast (sea water) in which could
be seen allsorts of life, fish etc, when pumped out (often into pristine
coral seas) there would be no trace of oil film, provided we had done our
job properly with the washing (using nothing but water) and provided we
always remembered if there was any residual oil it would be on the surface.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea