Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Feeling rather discouraged, still energized, but wondering exactly where to put that energy.

I have the Bloomfield house that is a constant engine demanding a bit of work all the time. The investigator hired by the home owner's insurance company found oil contamination which looks like it leaked on the neighbor's land. So, they send the report saying that to the insurance company and ask the insurance company if they will cover the clean up and if they, the investigators, can test on the neighbor's land. If insurance says, yes, then the investigator gets in touch with the neighbors (who are Polish and do not speak a lot of English. Oy!), gets permission to go on their land, and starts testing on their land and delineate the contamination. The do more borings and then send it to the lab. My investigator says that it usually takes a few times doing borings to get the delineation done. Each round (boring and testing) takes from two weeks to a month. When they finish, they send findings to insurance and insurance approves (or not) the project. Then there are city and state permits and at some point we start digging.

I was thinking about the why of all this cleaning on oil contaminated land in surburban Jersey, and as David mentioned it to me today, I need to wonder about some of it. I am following the law and I intend to do what we must. But why? Why are we cleaning oil contamination from under a driveway, a lawn, and some sidewalk. What does oil in the soil do? If it increases some disease to those who are living around , waiting until the land changes hands is not the most effective way to decrease the contamination.

I wasn't going to find out about anything about oil contaminated ground but I've written myself into the question. Now, I have to some research to do to find out.