Pool Contamination

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MichaelCombs

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Sep 18, 2008
16
Seeking some advice about pool contamination. My neighbor hired a painter(read as guy he picked up in the parking lot at Lowes) to stain his fence with TWP 100. When I came home tonight there was an oily film over the entire pool which is starting to coagulate into gooey, oily globs. However, looking at the water closely you can still see small drops of oily residue. TWP 100 is apparently full of nasty stuff like pesticides, wood preservatives, etc and cannot even be shipped to California and several other states because it contains banned ingredients. I'm assuming this is a drain and refill. Anyone have any advice? I cannot drain the pool into the city sewer system so who do I call, a septic company? All this 10 days before my daughters 13th birthday/pool party!

Thanks.
-Michael
 
I don't recognize all of the ingredients, but certainly most of them are things that some extra chlorine and an enzyme treatment could take care of. If you go this route, skim as much of it off the top as you can first.
 
Ugh! Sounds nasty.

You might give a call to your insurance agent. This sounds like property damage that the neighbor's homeowner's policy would cover under its liability section. The insurance agent may know whom to contact for cleanup.

I had two reactions when I read your post: oil spill and degreasing gravy. No, don't laugh, I'm serious.

You know how they contain oil spills by surrounding them with some sort of tubing or whatever which skims the surface and holds the oil slick to keep it from spreading? I'm wondering if you could rig something like that, maybe using smooth pool noodles strung together, to get most of the residue into a smaller area.

As to the gravy, when there's just a small amount of fat that's not enough to pour or skim off, you can gently lay a paper towel over the surface area which soaks up the fat. What kinds of absorbent paper materials are there that are larger than paper towels? Mattress liners come to mind, the kind used for incontinence.

Just brain storming here. Let us know how this turns out.
 
Someone posted about using pig mats to clean up motor oil and brake fluid that had been dumped in their pool. Might want to contact someone about hazardous materials clean up to find out what is needed or to get an estimate if you want someone else to clean it up.
 
Thanks for the advice.

It was starting to accumulate in the skimmers like pudding skin which I was able to get out. The problem was that just after I posted we received about 2 inches of rain in an hour. When it was over the oily residue was gone. I looked up the materials safety data sheet and it contains things like xylene tolulene mineral spirits, ethylbenzene. I called Amteco, the manufacturer of the product, and they basically said that from a toxicology standpoint I shouldn't be worried. Of course that's what they always say until people start growing 3rd arms. He also said mechanical filtration should remove the product as the drying agents move to the surface and evaporate.

Anyone have any experience or know which enzyme cleaner product is the strongest or works the fastest?
 
Do a search for the motor oil thread (I hate telling people to do a search but I don't have time right now).

The enzyme is mentioned toward the end of that thread IIRC. If not search for the OP of that threads posts.

Sorry I don't have the name for you.
 
After the rain the oil came back to the surface slowly and I was able to get a lot of it up with some scum absorbing pads I bought at the local pool store. I also added some Pool First Aid and it seemed to do the trick. Thanks to all.
 
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