The Silent Menace that Government Agencies Can No
Longer Ignore
Wayne D. King
Every day in the United
States - and beyond - government agencies, fleet managers, auto mechanics, gas
and service stations and hundreds of thousands of consumers violate US
hazardous waste laws by throwing clay-based oil spill cleanup products into the
trash, bound for a landfill where it will contribute to the pollution of
aquifers and underground water resources when it sheds its oil the moment it
comes into contact with water.
Distributed under various
trade names the companies manufacturing clay-based products for cleaning up oil are among the most ardent of
green washers, clinging to the fact that clay is a “natural product” assiduously
avoiding the fact that the mining of clay is no more sustainable than the
drilling of oil or any other finite resource. But the more serious problem with clay comes not before but
after it has been used to clean up oil. Contrary to what the manufacturers of
these products would like you to think, clay does not absorb oil. Oil clings to
the surface of clay. The manufacturers engage in a little sly CYA (cover your
assets) by including in their labeling a misleading (but apparently legal) statement
that users should check their local waste disposal laws before disposing of the
clay mix after it is used to pick up oil. This allows them to avoid the
decidedly less desireable alternative of stating that Clay products do not meet US EPA Guidelines for solid waste disposal –
UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES – and therefore are required to be treated as a
hazardous waste. In fact they
rely on the ignorance of consumers and the shameful blind-eye avoidance of
local, state and even federal agencies. After all, if these agencies were to
crack down on end users of clay-based products – requiring them to dispose of
the saturated product properly,
they themselves would have to do
the same or they would have to switch to a sustainable solution and getting
state agencies to do that would surely shake up some important good ol’ boy
relationships.
While it would still be
distasteful if these agencies were doing this because there was no alternative,
it would at least be understandable. The cost of hazardous waste disposal is
huge. But the truth is that there are alternatives available and those
alternatives will hold the oil long enough for it to biodegrade without being
released into the environment. This means that those alternative methods can
be disposed as solid waste in a landfill – though that is still not the
preferable or sustainable approach.
Our cMOP, Maximum Oil Pickup, absorbent made from recycled products
using hydroelectric energy lays claim to the most sustainable of those products
- but is by no means the only alternative. It’s even less expensive and far
less bulky than the clay products, Yet today Clay-based products remain the
choice of businesses and agencies for no other reason than we continue to
ignore and whitewash their rampant misuse.
This cannot continue. This
MUST NOT CONTINUE. For all of those who watched in horror as events unfolded in
the Gulf of Mexico spill, consider this: Every day the equivalent of a day’s
spill from the Macondo Well is going into trash containers and dumpsters –
contrary to Federal EPA Law – headed for a landfill or left on the roadside or
in the driveway where the first rainstorm will wash it into the water table.
Since Water is generally considered to be polluted with oil once it has
about 10 mg/L of oil in it ,
one gallon of oil or gasoline will pollute 100,000 gallons of water – some
insist that the figure is more accurately a million gallons. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to
figure out that the collective actions of consumers and local, state and
federal agencies threatens the water quality of the entire nation – needlessly.
If we could
count on Agencies and enforcement entities to do the right thing and encourage
the use of sustainable alternatives while requiring hazardous waste treatment
for use of clay-based cleanup agents, it would not be necessary to ban
clay-based products entirely. Unfortunately, it seems that we can’t. The only
sure way to protect against this silent menace is to make the use of clay for
the absorption of Oil, illegal.
The adverse economic
impact of such a ban will be minimal where the companies selling it are
concerned because there are plenty of viable markets for the product – and in
fact some very promising research being done by companies – including ours -
indicate that there are some very promising uses for certain clay compounds in
the area of bioremediation of oil spills and of course cat litter alone
represents a huge market for clay miners. The economic impact of doing nothing,
however, could be devastating. The cost to remediate polluted water, once oil
or gas are introduced, is astronomical. The health implications, the loss of
value to property, all these are
reasons enough for states to ban clay as a means for cleaning up spilled oil or
gas.
Now I am not a Pollyanna
where it comes to moving government to do the right thing, this change will
need to begin with a few conscientious legislators and community leaders, but
eventually it will take hold and it will happen out of enlightened self
interest . . . because doing nothing will cost far more at every level. In the
meantime, it falls to us to begin the process.
Ask the owner of the garage
that works on your car or truck what they use to clean up their spilled oil. If
they continue to use clay ask them to change and if they persist, change your
mechanic. dddfddddfAsk your legislators to make the appropriate inquiries of
state agencies and municipal officials to make the same inquiry of local
agencies.
Ask you legislator to
sponsor or co-sponsor a ban on the use of clay-based products for oil spill
cleanup and to require manufacturers to include a label that properly makes it
clear that Hazardous Waste Disposal is Required for Clay-based absorbents.
When you buy oil spill
cleanup products for your own household, make sure that you are purchasing
sustainable products containing no clay or chemicals. Through the moral
authority of our example we can create a ripple of change that will eventually
become a tsunami.
If properly disposed at a
hazardous waste facility, the cost of clay will be up to 10 times more than
other alternatives. As citizens we can strike a blow for the environment and our respective wallets by
boycotting clay-based products right now and demand that state and local
governments themselves come into compliance with the law.
For our part, we are
planning to raise sufficient funds to commission a national survey of states to
determine the full extent of clay use by State and local government agencies.
Clay is fine for cats, NOT
for oil. while there are more sustainable solutions to using clay in the cat
box as well, we don’t worry about pollution from the cat litter box. Oil
contamination is another matter entirely.
Its time to ban kitty litter
as a solution to oil cleanup.
About the Author
Wayne King is the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions,
Inc. He has been on every side of
these policy discussions - as a NH State Senator and Chair of the NH Senate
Environment Committee as well as Editor of several publications including Heart of New Hampshire magazine and Going Green Magazine. MOP Environmental Solutions, Inc.
(MOPN) is a publicly traded company engaged in finding solutions to some of
the worlds most challenging
environmental problems. MOP Manufactures consumer sized oil-spill absorbents as
well as commercial size products.
King lives in Rumney NH, the Rock Climbing mecca of
the eastern US, with his wife Alice, son Zachary and his loyal hounds Boof and Molly.
He is of Iroquois, Abenaki and Pilgrim decent and flys both the Iroquois and
American flags proudly at his home on the Stinson Lake Road.
MOPÒ is an
aggressive oleophillic and hydrophobic (oil attracting and water repelling)
sorbent made from recycled and fully biodegradable materials, manufactured
using small-scale hydroelectric green energy. MOPÒ’s
properties are such that it can effectively deal with an oil spill the size of
the Exxon Valdez in a 24 hour period, but is just as effective at cleaning up
the spill off a garage floor.
Twitter: twitter.com/MOPSolutions
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