Clean oil spill from gravel driveway?

[HerHusband]

My daughters car developed a leak around the oil pressure switch and created a big oil mess where she parks on our gravel driveway. I don't know how long it has been leaking, but judging from the large two foot circle of oil, I'm guessing at least a few months.

Short of digging out the contaminated rock and replacing it with new gravel, is there anything I can do to clean up the oil spill in the gravel? It has already soaked into the ground so I'm not expecting to remove every trace, but it would be nice to clean up the "appearance" of the spill.

Would something like a standard degreaser (engine cleaner or cleaner for concrete oil spills) work on gravel? I realize this would just cause the oil to drain further into the soil, but it's already contaminated and I'm not planning to dig it all out.

Thanks,

Anthony Watson

[trader_4]

I would think spraying any oil degreaser would certainly help. Even laundry detergent will help break the oil down. Depending on how deep it is, what you have to work with, maybe you could scoop some gravel out from a clean area, then move the dirty stuff to fill up 1/2 the newly created hole, then cover with clean. Then move some clean on top of where the spill was.

[flakey714]

Try a propane torch on the gravel, will take some time! Be sure it's dry (no moisture) I've kept my cement driveway cleaned for decades

[DerbyDad03]

I wonder what the standard practice of using kitty litter would do in this case. If you sprinkled kitty litter on the area, might it absorb the oil an d eventually wash down into the gravel/disintegrate?

My guess is that anything you do, short of moving a bunch of gravel around to blend it all together, is going to leave a tell-tale sign for some perio d of time. There is no way you will get the oil off the gravel and leave th e area looking like it did before the leak. I doubt any cleaner will attack only the oil and leave the gravel as dirty as it was before. I'd like to s ee the science behind something that can do that. ;-)

[HerHusband]

I'm not expecting miracles, but I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Duh, I can't believe I didn't think of that. :)

I'll try the degreaser first, then follow up with the gravel shifting if needed. I have plenty to work with, I just didn't want to get more gravel right now.

It doesn't have to look like new, I just don't want someone stepping in it and tracking it all over the place.

Thanks!

Anthony Watson

[gfretwell]

A lot depends on the type of rock it is. Some is a lot more porous than others. You could try just digging out the worst of it, putting it in a white bucket and soaking it in detergent to see what happens. Then mix that in with the other rock.

[Stormin Mormon]

You can contact BP oil, and see what they use on spills, after Obama lifts the restrictions on their actions.

[bob haller]

there are natural bacteria in the environment that eats oil..... but attemp ting to clean the gravel could kill that bacteria just making it worse..... .

OP just does not want it tracked in home. the best option, and nearly no wo rk at all is buy some more gravel, the sme type thats there, and cover up t he dirty gravel. graveldriveways being what they are like it probably has s ome muddy areas. buy enough to cover those too.

or check the cost of ground concrete from demos, its really cheaper than gr avel but doesnt look as nice

when i used to change my own oil i had a place in the back yard where i wou ld dump the drain oil, this long before all these enviironmental concerns. sometime later i had the area dug up, and a 16 by 20 foot slab poured for m y new shed. i had dumped oil there for perhaps 20 years. i expected a gooey oily area, but nothing but clean soil.

thats when i found i was just feeding some bacteria

just like along roads, there are bacteria that eats worn tire dust.