HAWLEY, PA — The National Park Service wants you to know the right places and wrong places to change the oil on your car.

Some of the right places? “Your driveway, the mechanic, a quick-stop oil change bay,” they say. The wrong places? “In national park sites or near bodies of water.”

On June 19, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DWGNRA) received a report of an oil sheen on Hidden Lake, north of Lake Wallenpaupack. Responders from the Shawnee Fire Company and the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management found oil-soaked rags in the water near the picnic area, oil spots in the parking lot, and an empty bottle for injector fluid in a trashcan.

The park service mitigated the damage by placing oil-absorbing rags and booms—absorbent floating tubes—around the sheen and at the spillway. They consulted with a Hazmat professional and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the damage.

“After determining there was no source of material remaining, the sheen was contained and left to evaporate with the hot weather,” the park service reported. “This kind of pollutant can severely damage natural resources if left untreated. Emergency services to treat these kinds of incidents are costly and use a lot of emergency resources. These incidents are avoidable, so if you see something, say something.”

If you witness an incident like this, report it to the park service’s dispatchers at 570-426-2457.

And if you change your oil in your driveway, make sure none of it drops on the ground. According to Pennsylvania law: “No person shall deposit, dispose of or cause to be deposited or disposed of, any used oil into any sewers, drainage systems, surface or ground waters, watercourses or marine waters in the Commonwealth, or onto any public or private land within this Commonwealth, unless a used oil collection site for such proper deposit is located on said land, where the used oil is placed in a used oil collection tank, or unless a used oil storage facility is installed or located on such property for such proper deposit and storage as used oil.”

Federal laws also protect the environment from dumped car oil, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act.

The Soil Science Society of America says the petroleum hydrocarbons in car oil are cancer-causing, highly mobile and travel readily to water resources. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says “used motor oil is insoluble, persistent and can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. It’s slow to degrade. It sticks to everything from beach sand to bird feathers. Used motor oil is a major source of oil contamination of waterways and can result in pollution of drinking water sources.”