Posted on 03/19/2005 4:50:11 PM PST by The Grim Freeper
Today, my mother asked me to come see something in their Los Gatos back yard. She took me out to the corner of their large lot (large for Los Gatos, anyway), and she pointed out to me some black, shiny substance seeping out of the ground in patches, and along a line about 10 feet in length. The last heavy rain had made this substance come to the surface.
I said "It looks like oil," and she said she thought so, too. I stuck my finger in it, and it was black, slick, and after I'd rubbed it around to almost a drying point, a little bit gunky. Like crude oil.
We know my parent's property sits on a water table, because the last big earthquake, they weren't anxious to sit in the house, so they sat on the ground, and the ground was all wet (even though it hadn't rained in months).
Also, the heavy rains have caused a number of cracks to appear and/or widen in the brick work and driveway and porches and patios of my parents older home. We definitely are expecting a "big one." We just don't know when, of course. We weathered the Loma Prieta earthquake with a minimum of property damage and some major "rattled" nerves.
But all that is to say, has anyone here ever heard of such a thing? Could crude oil be seeping to the ground surface due to the heavy rains? Could it be something else? If it's oil, what do we do? Do we report it?
Also, watch out for "BURNS SLANT DRILLING CO." trucks next door.
Oil is lighter than rock, sand, and water. It naturally seaps up and pollutes the surface, that's why you have the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown Los Angeles, for instance.
Natural oil seapage is the world's largest polluter of crude; if you don't drill and remove the oil, eventually it winds up on the surface, polluting on its own.
Man I live in the middle of the east Texas oil field and I also worked in real estate for years and you will never get mineral rights on land around here. They have been seperated for decades, I would imagine that CA is the same since there is so much oil around southern California.
Yer gonna need some 'possum recipes.
Most people have surface rights only. Subsurface rights can be gotten, maybe.
BTW, check your deed for any strange "mineral rights" clauses-- a house I bought years ago for The Front Porch ( one of my stores ) had a specific clause which meant that any oil, gas, or valuable minerals were not mine, but reverted to the former owner. Didn't mean a damn thing in practice, since no such deposits existed, but the seller was covering all his bases.
The only thing I would add to your excellent commentary is that this family may be able to sell oil and/or mineral rights to their property while retaining the right to reside there.
"You've exceeded the good Colonel's record by 79 feet."
Seeping oil is no recent phenominun. Back in the late 1800's oil threatened water holes in Oklahoma and Texas where cattlemen watered their herds.
Hope it's JUST oil, and not paint thinners, solvents, etc.
Could you be near a toxic waste dump???
(I'm on the plume from Lorenze Barrel and Drum)...
Pray that the enviroLibs don't sue your parents for damages to "Mother Earth".
Gee nobody wants to help you ... only use you to launch one-liners. Good ole FR.
You very likely do not own the mineral rights to your property is there is any chance of oil anywhere near it. Maybe you have half the rights. That's common. I don't know what the Texan is talking about. Nobody has the mineral rights to their property around here unless their ancestors got the Spanish land grant. Usually you find that some corportation or University holds the mineral rights to your land.
Besides that if you are in a residential neighborhood they will never let you drill. Ever. There are no unknown deposits of oil anywhere in california. They are all known and mapped. Your deposit has been determined to be not worth exploiting and the developer has kept this little secret to himself.
There could still be gold in them thar hills however. Lawsuit gold. You can sue the developer. The city (How dare they permit land for residential use with oil seeping to the surface?) You can sue the large corporation that sold the land to the developer that cut the lots. Sue em all.
The other very likely possibility is that you are living on a land fill. BIG lawsuit possibilities. I'd get that stuff analysed as soon as possible!!!
I wouldn't mention it,I would assume California has some pretty waco enviromental laws,who knows what they may want to do.
Rapists, serial killers, child molesters, ecoterrorists, gangstas, jackbooted govt thugs, meth freaks....
Wow, I never noticed before that ol Jethro has a serious Melon Head, and these days Ellie May would have had transplants by season 2.
transplants = implants
(Ol geezers don't know squat)
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