Oil leak concerns in my back garden!

vipergrm

Hi guys,

Was wondering if anyone has any advice on what I should do next. Basically, there is oil leaking into my yard and it seems to be coming from under the raised wall of the next door neighbour. We are pretty sure the oil leak is not from us as we aren't losing any. The next door neighbour said that he seemed to be paying a lot more than what he had in recent months.

The Housing Executive here in Northern Ireland (NIHE) have been out probably 4 or 5 times now and keep saying it is not a leak with my neighbour. They even checked his bills for the past year and they claim there has been no difference in them, despite my neighbour saying himself that the his bills were more expensive.

I've already had an independant person come out and check my property and he was certain it was coming from this neighbour's house.

I'm at a total loss on what to do next. My house is a private house so I cannot get the NIHE to come out and check it again. It is getting more disgusting by the day. It's now over about 6 paving stones and it is absorbing into the ground around it. I can post some pictures if it helps. Any ideas on what I should/could do next?! Thank you!

welda

vipergrm wrote: »

Hi guys,

Was wondering if anyone has any advice on what I should do next. Basically, there is oil leaking into my yard and it seems to be coming from under the raised wall of the next door neighbour. We are pretty sure the oil leak is not from us as we aren't losing any. The next door neighbour said that he seemed to be paying a lot more than what he had in recent months.

The Housing Executive here in Northern Ireland (NIHE) have been out probably 4 or 5 times now and keep saying it is not a leak with my neighbour. They even checked his bills for the past year and they claim there has been no difference in them, despite my neighbour saying himself that the his bills were more expensive.

I've already had an independant person come out and check my property and he was certain it was coming from this neighbour's house.

I'm at a total loss on what to do next. My house is a private house so I cannot get the NIHE to come out and check it again. It is getting more disgusting by the day. It's now over about 6 paving stones and it is absorbing into the ground around it. I can post some pictures if it helps. Any ideas on what I should/could do next?! Thank you!

I would immediately contact NI enviromental agency, called SEPA here in Scotland, they have a wealth of powers and knowledge. Hopefully same applies for NI?

Regards...............

muckybutt

If you can expose your oil feed pipe that way you can rule out your pipe leaking.

As #2 get in touch with the NI Environment Agency General Switchboard Enquiries0845 302 0008

Im in the UK, my next door neighbour had an oil leak last easter in their garden - they had to leave their house whilst it was decontaminated, the ground it had leaked onto had to be excavated down to 2m to get rid of the contaminated ground, it had also leaked into the foundations of their house so they had to expose the foundations the brickwork had to be taken out and replaced and the foundations then had to be underpinned as a result....they are still not back in their house !

welda

Nearly a year and, still not living in their home, that is scary!!

muckybutt

We were just thankfull it hadnt leaked through into our side of the garden, I have a huge koi pond within 3 feet of where their oil tank is and the last thing I want to have to do is replace the liner !

vipergrm

muckybutt wrote: »

If you can expose your oil feed pipe that way you can rule out your pipe leaking.

As #2 get in touch with the NI Environment Agency General Switchboard Enquiries0845 302 0008

Im in the UK, my next door neighbour had an oil leak last easter in their garden - they had to leave their house whilst it was decontaminated, the ground it had leaked onto had to be excavated down to 2m to get rid of the contaminated ground, it had also leaked into the foundations of their house so they had to expose the foundations the brickwork had to be taken out and replaced and the foundations then had to be underpinned as a result....they are still not back in their house !

Thanks for the help guys! Sorry for the slow reply. Oh my goodness, that is awful. Really hope that doesn't happen! Unfortunately the leak is over paving stones so it may be difficul to track where my pipe runs to. Pretty sure it isn't mine because we aren't losing any oil. I still think it is coming from the neighbour because the leak is coming from under his wall. I will post a short video of this problem out of interest more than anything else.

vipergrm

Here is a short video clip I took a few days ago. The oil seems to dry up at times. You can see how badly the paving stones are stained. I would say it has been like this for a month or two now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVNTKbRAPPo&feature=youtu.be

muckybutt

Hell thats not good at all, that cant be coming from your side as it is clearly on top of the slabs like you said.

I would defo report it to the NI Environment Agency first thing tomorrow morning, the thing they should do imo would be to dig a test trench in the neighbours garden behind that block wall, and to do soil samples / expose the oil pipeline.
Neighbour could do that themself's and also check for leaks, easy way to do that would be to turn the boiler and oil off inside for a few days, measure the oil on the tank sight level and then re test the level say two days later.
Good luck and keep us updated.

spannerzone

Blimey that's bad!

My tank started leaking while I was on holiday and the neighbour called my parents to advise of a smell and signs of oil on the fence posts..... I got the contents emergency pumped into a temp tank and then got a replacement tank installed when I was back from my holiday. Luckily for me very little had leaked out (I reckon a few pints) but it still covered a wide area so I dug out that soil before enviromental agency caught wind and demanded I dug down and around for lord knows how many tons of soil to be cleaned!

My tank transfer to temp tank and replacment tank installation cost just under £3k

fadetogrey

Certainly looks like its coming from next door,I would contact nihe first thing in the morning telling them it is certainly coming from their property and also inform them you have children living at your home or if you havent tell them you have children visit your home and they have access to the area the leak is,tell them children are at risk from both falling on that oil and also risk poisoning if they were to place their fingers in it, then in their mouths and finally tell them they will be held responsible for any damage or injuries caused by "their" leak and if necessary contact a solicitor.

vipergrm

muckybutt wrote: »

Hell thats not good at all, that cant be coming from your side as it is clearly on top of the slabs like you said.

I would defo report it to the NI Environment Agency first thing tomorrow morning, the thing they should do imo would be to dig a test trench in the neighbours garden behind that block wall, and to do soil samples / expose the oil pipeline.
Neighbour could do that themself's and also check for leaks, easy way to do that would be to turn the boiler and oil off inside for a few days, measure the oil on the tank sight level and then re test the level say two days later.
Good luck and keep us updated.

Thanks for that. I'll get on to the NI Environmental Agency like you say. My neighbour is an old aged pensioner so he is limited in what he can do physically to assist. I'll see what the Environmental Agency recommend first of all. Thanks a lot