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Oil Seeping from Ground in Parent's Back Yard
Self | 03/21/05 | Laurel Barney

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?


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: blackgold; environment; faultline; ground; heavyrain; leonardcrawley; oil; seeping; texastea
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To: Dimples
Well, I just drove over there and found the pump. It is in the parking lot behind the SJNB Office Bldg. at 15405 Los Gatos Blvd (about 3 bldgs south of the Rotten Robbie Station.) It looks like it hasn't operated in quite a long time.

Thats great!It's nice to find a little bit of history that is still there.

141 posted on 03/19/2005 7:26:49 PM PST by tapatio (The fact that no one understands you, doesn't make you an artist.)
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To: The Grim Freeper

Better have Agents Mulder & Scully check it out. Black slime durn near did in Fox. If you you see any floating in your eyeballs after handling it, its too late.


142 posted on 03/19/2005 7:32:36 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (The world needs more horses, and fewer Jackasses!)
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To: The Grim Freeper

It may be from an old buried oil tank.


143 posted on 03/19/2005 7:38:49 PM PST by expatpat
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To: marty60

Standard Oil/Standard of California bought the oil rights up en-mass in the entire Bay Area, if not most of northern California, at least a century ago.

Once in a while, a parcel is found to have been missed, but it is rare. After the Korean War, my oldest brother bought a rare 160 Northern California acres parcel that still had primary water, mineral, and timber rights attached to it.


144 posted on 03/19/2005 7:39:00 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (The world needs more horses, and fewer Jackasses!)
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To: berkeleybeej; The Grim Freeper
I'd suggest getting the goo tested.

If you get it tested, I wouldn't tell the company doing the testing where it came from. If it is something toxic, the state could make you pay to clean up the property.

145 posted on 03/19/2005 7:41:34 PM PST by dc27
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To: Cyclopean Squid
Ah, the modern education system. I spent thousands of dollars I don't have, waste years of my life (well, not waste, I love the social aspect), then they give me a piece of paper saying I'm competent (which I'm clearly not!). Then I learn how to do the job when on the job, once I procure one

Now you know why your chosen profession is called a practice.

       ;^)

146 posted on 03/19/2005 7:43:09 PM PST by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional.)
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To: mercy

>>>Effing simpleton!<<<

I'll see your effing simpleton and raise you an effing scumbag lawyer!


147 posted on 03/19/2005 8:17:21 PM PST by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: The Grim Freeper
it is still black in those patches where it had oozed up before


148 posted on 03/19/2005 8:25:22 PM PST by pbear8 (Latin Mass - gotta love it!)
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To: Dallas59
When you get rich as Jet Clampet, don't forget your buddies here at FR!! :) Black oil, Texas tea...LOL!
149 posted on 03/19/2005 8:30:10 PM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: RoseofTexas
Dang! I guess you can tell it's saturday night when the wine does all the typing...I meant Jed and Black Gold...geezzzz! Hiccup..excuse me! :)
150 posted on 03/19/2005 8:32:20 PM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: The Grim Freeper
From a USGS report on Santa Clara Valley petroleum geology:
Preliminary calculations suggest that about 1 billion barrels of oil may have been generated from source rocks within the Monterey Formation in the deepest part of the subsurface sedimentary basin between Los Gatos and Cupertino. Most of this oil was probably lost to biodegradation, oxidation, and leakage to the surface, but some oil may have accumulated in as-yet-undiscovered structural and stratigraphic traps along the complex structural boundary between the Santa Clara Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although some of these undiscovered accumulations of oil may be of commercial size, future petroleum exploration is unlikely because most of the area is currently devoted to residential, recreational, commercial, and industrial uses.

151 posted on 03/19/2005 8:38:08 PM PST by Dimples
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To: The Grim Freeper; NormsRevenge
Don't be surprised if the staff of the Water Quality Control Board show up and open a file on possible pollution of the ground water. It could be a buried barrel of waste oil as one FReeper suggested and it has rusted through with water displacing the oil. Then again it may be natural seepage. Good Luck...
152 posted on 03/19/2005 8:43:11 PM PST by tubebender
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To: The Grim Freeper
You may also find this Cupertino Courier article interesting:
... Stanley said the oil poses no major hazards but did say, "It would be wise to drill [water] well bores carefully, in case any oil moves up [the line] and contaminates water supplies. And if people find traces of oil in their water, it is likely from the oil underground—not man-made pollution."

153 posted on 03/19/2005 8:50:33 PM PST by Dimples
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To: hookman

That one looks like it's a quart low, better throw it back.


154 posted on 03/19/2005 8:54:58 PM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult (Witty tag line on back order.)
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To: The South Texan
Just don't let the envirowackos/Democrats know. They might declare the rest of your property a national park and forbid you from drilling.

No they'd call the EPA and make them clean up the property and remove the oil spill. The maroons.
155 posted on 03/19/2005 9:03:41 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
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To: The Grim Freeper; Boot Hill; bd476

You may have an indication of a pending earthquake.


156 posted on 03/19/2005 10:03:06 PM PST by First_Salute (May God save our democratic-republican government, from a government by judiciary.)
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To: First_Salute

Thank you for the ping to a very interesting thread!


157 posted on 03/19/2005 10:14:56 PM PST by bd476 (I may not like the law of gravity but I find that it's best to make the attempt to obey it.)
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To: First_Salute; The Grim Freeper
"You may have an indication of a pending earthquake."

Interesting thought, there is precedence for what you suggest. And Los Gatos is damn close to the San Andreas fault (about 2 miles south). However, the epicenter for the Loma Prieta earthquake was also located very close to Los Gatos and one might expect sufficient strain for a big one, not to have returned so quickly.

We'll see, I'll be keeping an eye on the USGS website Maps of Recent Earthquake Activity in California-Nevada.

--Boot Hill

158 posted on 03/19/2005 10:18:12 PM PST by Boot Hill ("I'm going on psychological nuances that most any super sensitive psychologist might be skilled in")
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To: First_Salute

Yikes!


159 posted on 03/19/2005 10:20:25 PM PST by null and void (Even if Terri didn't want to live like that, it doesn't follow that she wants to die like THIS!)
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To: BurbankKarl; lainie; oceanperch; Ernest_at_the_Beach; A CA Guy

Bubbling crude, Texas tea, black gold.


160 posted on 03/19/2005 10:22:33 PM PST by bd476 (I may not like the law of gravity but I find that it's best to make the attempt to obey it.)
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