Norm, I have to comment on your story about the mechanic's liability.
You said, " But the EPA requires that he sign a statement that he remains legally responsible for the eventual environmentally correct disposal of the oil--ten years from now, should somebody scrape up a highway he "contributed to" and then dump the stuff illegally, he could be charged with part of the cleanup and disposal cost. He would also get hit for his share should the waste oil collector be in an accident, and the oil leak into a roadside ditch. So he has an open-ended liability, in terms of both time and cost."
In my part of Florida there is a huge sinkhole that has been used for many years by a big road contractor to dispose of his road material that has been scraped up from repair jobs. This contractor's trucks can be seen all over Florida and it has been adding another lane to I75.
The sinkhole connects to the Florida acquifer and the state has been trying to get this contractor to clean the mess up because it represents a huge contamination of the state's drinking water. So far there has been no action taken and the pollution continues.
In all the articles about the pollution, I've never seen it mentioned that material suppliers are liable for the contamination, only the contractor. What the contractor is doing is felonious, and felons are prevented by state law from doing business with the state. Yet the contamination continues, the contractor still gets government contracts, and nobody is going to jail.
The very idea that a mechanic is to be held liable by the legal system for the behavior of a wealthy, priveleged, and powerful contractor many years after his trifling amount of waste oil was turned over to somebody else is absolutely mind boggling and defies any sense of logic or justice. If true, it is an ingredient of rebellion.
GRNO's role in relieving the mental and legal burden from the decent, honorable, and hard working oil changers of America is nothing short of a noble endevour.
Charles |
