Transformer Oil Spill on Lawn - Clean Up Experience?

[ken-n-nancy]

A week ago today, a brief late afternoon thunderstorm took down a big tree near the utility pole that serves our home.

Utility services have all been restored, and the lawn areas under where the tree fell are recovering.

However, we also have a problem in that the old transformer spewed out a fair bit of transformer oil onto a section of our lawn near the pole when it was damaged. The grass in that area has all died. We called Eversource a couple days ago to let them know of the problem and have them come out to take a look to see what they would need to do to clean it up. They're likely to come take a look on Monday, August 1st.

However, we're looking to find out if any of the rest of you have dealt with oil spills on the lawn before.

Any suggestions as to what is required to fix the damage? Will the existing (contaminated) soil need to be scraped off and replaced? If so, any idea to what depth? Have any of you dealt with this kind of problem before?

We weren't planning to put down new seed in that area this fall, but it now seems like a mini-reno of that section is going to be needed. Combine that with the fact that we're hopefully getting our septic tank replaced, and we'll have about 500sqft of turf to renovate. Maybe we should open up a renovation thread to document the work; it would be our 4th year in a row...

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[McLovin]

How old was the transformer? The older ones (1978 and earlier) used PCB in the oil.

[ken-n-nancy]

How old was the transformer? The older ones (1978 and earlier) used PCB in the oil.

I believe we're okay there. Our subdivision was established in 1981, so the street (and utilities) were laid in 1981 or 1982.

[McLovin]

I spilled a couple of gallons of diesel fuel before a 2008 renovation and it did no harm as far as I could tell. I remember my friend telling me that grass would probably not grow but the grass germinated in the spill area normally.

[Tsmith]

Gotta tell Bumble Bee and Optimus to stay off the lawn


Sent from my iOS device using the Yard Help App

[Coach8]

I know where I coached previously, they had used diesel to kill the Bermuda to try to make a path from the dugouts to home plate. This was 5-6 years before I got there. They were eventually sodded back in, but would always brown out very easily no matter how much care they were given. I finally asked a local greenskeeper and he said to use activated charcoal. After we put some of that down, never had a problem with that area again. Not sure if that would work on this oil, but it sure worked on diesel.

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[LoneRanger]

I would say replace the top 6".