How HOAs Try to Prevent Oil Spills
Living in a community with a homeowners association has many perks. Homeowners Associations (or HOAs) are usually responsible for helping residents maintain their properties, as well as managing community amenities to make for a high-quality living environment. However, with an HOA comes rules. For example, most homeowners associations don’t allow residents to complete car maintenance on their property. This might seem like an inconvenience to homeowners who are accustomed to DIY fixes, but the reality of cleaning up potential oil stains can be a headache for both homeowners and HOAs.
Drawing from our experience, even with HOA rules in place to prevent oil spills on properties, mistakes can happen. Cars will often leak oil when they have a bad seal or gasket, and sometimes damaged car parts like a cracked oil pan might cause oil to leak. A car could even leak oil from sources other than engine oil. The color of the leaking fluid can often determine its source; if the fluid is clear, it may be coming from the vehicle’s AC system. Yellow or brown fluid means the leak is probably brake fluid, while black liquid is an oil leak. So, how exactly does this affect the environment, and how does it get cleaned up?
Environmental Impacts of a Residential Oil Spill
Based on our research, even the smallest oil spill can lead to environmental damage. The Environmental Protection Agency states that a spill from one oil change can contaminate as much as a million gallons of water or a year’s supply of water for 50 people. Changing your car’s oil in your own driveway may seem harmless initially, but oil from a residential oil spill can leak into the city’s municipal water supply and contaminate the water many neighborhoods rely on for recreation, commercial opportunities, and drinking water. If your driveway is slanted, you’re especially likely to leak oil off of your own property, which causes oil stains and problems for other homeowners in your neighborhood. Used motor oil can flow downhill, killing plants and harming animals in its path. Not to mention that motor oil can also leak into a storm drain and contaminate lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Additional negative consequences of a residential oil spill include harmful fumes inside properties and damaged landscaping and vegetation. Oil stains can even soak into the brick or stone of buildings and driveways, damaging the property’s aesthetic. Motor oil sticks to everything and doesn’t dissolve in water, which makes it very difficult to clean up, which is why stopping drips with ground cloths or drip pans is necessary if you’re aware of a leak.
Headache-Free Oil Stain Cleanup for HOAs and Residents
Clean up oil, petroleum, or grease spills easily and sustainably with OPG+. The ideal solution for HOAs, OPG+ can remove oil from a variety of surfaces including water, soil, sand, clay, asphalt, concrete, and more. The all-natural formula that OPG+ uses leaves only CO2 and water behind, making it a safe solution to use on residential properties so pets, people, and landscaping will not be harmed. OPG+ performs on-site cleaning, so all the hard work is completed by oil cleaning experts.
Oil Spill Cleanup with OPG+
OPG+ has oil spill solutions that are safe, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Using native bacteria and microbes, OPG+ oil spill solutions won’t introduce more toxins that could impact your neighborhood’s safety. To find out more about our emergency cleanup services, or request a demo today!
