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You nearly answered part of your question in the initial post. You stated that the hole contains water. If there is oil in the hole then the oil would have been on the top if the water! Oil floats on water.
 
I used to work for an enviromental cleanup company (Central States enviromental) Ive seen a 2 gallon spill turn into a million dollar clean up, How? at a small shop in Mulberry grove Il a semi driver pulled in with a leaking fuel tank ity was DRIPPING mind you. The shop owner fixed it for $12 but then called the company to tell them they were responce able for the cleanup of the gravel the guy had dripped on. The company agreed and called the insurance company. they called us . An enginner and I went down with a shovel and a 55 gallon drum and took care of the actuall spill BUT it was a very contaminated site. They had had a shop there for over 100 years and wanted the spill cleaned back toi "Clean soil" (an EPA standard) since we couldnt establish a line of clean soil we wound up cleaning the entire site to the boundry lines and then replacing the soil and building. at one point we had a hole 440'X220' and over 30 ' deep in places. Theres no way it was the trucking companies fault but it was the way things worked out!


Id definitly try to make the past owner take it back or clean it up.
The lack of oil on the water would be a good thing BUT a very thin sheen can be hard to see from an angle well above it.
If if you cant get rid of it Id drill or dig a sump a bit deeper than the apparent contamination say 10 feet and install a sump pump,I know it will pump a lot of water trying to lower the water level but it will draw any contaminants to it and eventually cleanse the area. I it might give ya an excuse to have a fountain!
 
I'd call the EPA, the FBI, homeland security, the state police, and my grandma ASAP. Good grief. You probably found someone's trash pit. Test your water to ease your mind and pick up the trash and fill in the hole.
 
Yeah, knowing that there was an auto shop on the property before your purchase should have been a clue... as a banker I won't finance anything until we get a pretty good idea of what has been there in the past, then order environmental assesments if there is even the possiblilty of contamination. Good luck, let us know how it all turns out.
 
First I would contact the previous owner and find out what's in the hole.

I would then remove everything and move it to a landfill and send the bill to the previous owner.

I've seen garbage pits that some rural landowners used for decades. Everything from broken batteries leaking acids and lead to pesticide containers to you name it went into the hole. When the hole filled up they would cover it and dig a new hole next to it.

There are some generic tests that can be done for petro chemicals and pesticides. They can tell you if further testing is needed.

Sorry to hear you bought into this but maybe it's nothing serious.
 
If this is something bad, it can very well void the sale and you can recover your money back from the seller.

if they started digging on my land they would find all kinds of odd stuff I have burried over the yrs.... nothing dangerous but there is a few cars.... some pits full of scrap metal, appliances, and other junk I was to poor to have carted away at the time.

I actually regret it now becuase i cant dig a foundation where I would like to, and I have to disclose this to any buyers I sell it to.

it kinda kills the value of your land and, I suspect it greatly has devaluated yours.

the state DEP and the EPA can assist you in cleanup and finding out how bad this dump is.
I wouldnt mess around with it, as it is not uncommon for industry to cut corners and bury their waste on private property or to pay off owners to let them do it.

this could be a very old site and contain some nasty stuff.
 
knuckledragger said:
I was walking around the 20 acres that I just bought and found a large hole that had been dug with a backhoe or some other large piece of machinery. There was standing water in it and a large number of containers that looked like the kinds of bottles that transmission fluid or oil is sold in. It was only about 75 feet from the well but hidden by vegetation and a mound of soil. Is this something we can recover from? I have not had the well tested yet, but most of the wells dug in our area are over 100 feet deep. Apparently, there was a double wide that burned down in the area some years back. There is also a shop where the previous owners used to work on vehicles. Could I be fined for what previous land owners did?

IMHO. Clean it up, test your water, and if needs be move the well.
 
Fantasymaker, when you were doing environmental cleanup and soil removal, where did you put the contaminated soil?
 
From that site in particular it went to the landfill at Taylorville Il. But diferent things go to diferent places and can be handled in various ways
 
fantasymaker You buried it on some ohter persons property? You should be ashamde of your self. You should have burned it in an incenerator and cleaned the ground then sent it through a decomanting area then brought the dirt back and put it on the same land. Shame on you. LOL!
 
Hey.

You will need a backhoe to come in and see what was hidden there. After that you can determine if you need contamination cleanup or a lawyer to sue previous owner.
There may be other hidden dump spots you haven't found yet because they were covered over more smoothly.

RF
 
You will likely find your state version of the EPA very helpful. My aunt and uncle ran an auto repair shop out of an old gas station that hadn't sold gas in years. They wanted to repave the driveway and decided to remove the old gas tanks first. Trying to do the right thing, they asked the Illinois enviro dept about the best way to go about it. They were very helpful. They showed up and roped off the entire drive, thus closing their business because customers couldn't get in. Then they took complete control of removing the tanks and hauling the dirt 40 miles to an approved landfill, using their own contractors of course. In the end, it cost them over $25,000 and they had to mortgage their paid of house to pay it.
 
cfabe said:
Well me personally, I'd have the well water tested by a private lab under a different name or address, and if it's clean, then I'd remove all the junk that I reasonably could and dispose of it properly, then fill in the hole and forget you ever knew about it. Don't mention it to anyone. Continue to test the well every so often. If it's a deep well that's properly cased and grouted there should be a very low risk of it becoming contaminated. If it is a shallow dug well I'd reconsider.
cfabe gave you the best advice.
 
why not contact the person you bought it from and ask him what the hole was for maybe he had another plan and never followed through with it. and over time a few empty oil bottles got threw in there could have just been kids throwing stuff in there. seems like every one likes to jump to conclusions on this site a lot of times.
 
Pizza pace in town here needed to put in a sewer line to the street, through his parking lot. Used to be a garage on that site years ago.

Dug out, & the city's sewer pipe on the street was so thin the plumber couldn't tap into it.

So, they dug through the parking lot to the other street, & ran into the 2 old burried fuel tanks. And a real strong fuel oder.

State came in, dug up & hauled off the soil. Current owner was billed about $50,000 for this. Was told he will get between 1/2 to all of it refunded to him, pending state/fedral grants & determining previous owner's responsibilty for the situation. (Tanks appeared to be filled with sand, which was at one time the approved thing to do.) But, had to write the checks first, no IOU's......


I can understand the 2 different directions mentioned here. Ignoring it can cause long-term problems, and will make you responsible for it down the road if others find problems from this.

Turning it in to the 'proper' officials can be a world of paperwork && money from you.

From what you describe, I don't think you can get any fines or penalties at this point. The problem is as current owner, you get billed first, and then they sort out (over years....) who really will pay........

Doing some of the things suggested here would, tho, make you responsible from here on out. Modify or hide or so forth the area, and then you become the one they can fine.

Tough spot.

--->Paul
 
Have you bothered to go down and pick these containers up? Look at the ground they are on? There's a world of difference between full jug of mystery gunk that hasn't leaked and one that has. Between eyeballs and a nose you can likely figure out most, if not all, of the mystery.

As for liability, you are liable. You are certainly entitled to then sue the previous owner. But, as far as the governing bodies are concerned, you are the property owner, and are therefore the responsible party.

It would be worth your while to do a google search on "EPA super fund" and read some about it. I personally wouldn't recommend tangling with it. But, some folks enjoy pain and suffering. It is a great way to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
 
Depending on the severity of the contamination [and only you can decide on this with some prompt pre-testing] and your attachment to the property - I'd consider walking away from the purchase. You have had it for only 2.5 months - if the dump was not disclosed and actually kind of hidden the way you described; in between that failure to disclose from the buyer, the realtor [assuming one was involved] and the title company - there is a loophole somewhere for you to get out and recover your investment with minimal financial loss.

I would do my very best to stay out of the involvement of major clean up, EPA and state agencies, claim law suits, etc - this is a seriously big can of worms, and even if you win in the long run - collecting your money is an entirely different story. Lots of heartache, financial difficulties and possibility of financial ruin looking real hard at you there...
 
I'm inclined to think this property may have all sorts of hidden skeletons. The fact that there are at least some barrels containing "something" indicates the prior owners have no problem with creative disposal. Odds are good that other items may be lurking beneath the soil. Examine the barrels and see to what, if any extent, they are leaking. Dispose of them and their contents.
Get a metal detector and probe the entire property.

Decades ago, it wasn't exactly an uncommon practice for people to toss drain oil out the back door. People just plain didn't realize the extent of the harm they were causing.

As the current property owner, all contaminants on your property are now your problem. Your liability is endless. Yes, you can sue the previous owner. Quite likely though, this will not produce beneficial results. Your legal fees will be astronomical. And the person being sued may simply hide their assets and go bankrupt.

If this info comes to the attention of the powers that be, you will be responsible for cleanup costs.

Yes, you have cause to be alarmed. Your economic well being is at stake.
 
Humm, large pile of dirt with a hole in the middle? Could it be where a well was dug that didn't produce? The oil bottles could have been thrown there by the driller. Just trying to think of a logical explaination.
 
logbuilder said:
Humm, large pile of dirt with a hole in the middle? Could it be where a well was dug that didn't produce? The oil bottles could have been thrown there by the driller. Just trying to think of a logical explaination.
Nah, it can't be that simple. Haven't you noticed how people are quick to assume the worst? The truth is, if you own any amount of acreage that was ever farmed, there is a dump buried on it someplace. Usually farmers used a washout ot other low spot and threw trash in it for years before covering it up. Tractor batteries, pesticide containers, and everything else went into the hole. There was no trash collector in those days. I remember hunting on farms and they all had trash dumps.
 
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