Musings from a Midwest Garage

By Cory Keesling

Spring is in full bloom for most of us across the country. The weather is warming and the brightly colored tulips and daffodils have sprung-up, bringing much needed color and cheer back to our landscapes. The warm weather also means that it is time to get back into the great American pastime of lawn care! 

About two weeks ago, I dragged my trusty lawn mower out of the shed for the first cut of the year. I filled her up with gas, pulled the choke, and pulled the cord… Nothing. Several more pulls… Nothing. So, then I got to participate in another American pastime; small engine repair. There is just something about getting your hands oily and dirty while the smell of gasoline hangs heavy in the air! My tinkering leads me to suspect the carburetor after a simple spark plug change didn’t work. So off comes the carb and as I am trying to remove the bolt that secures the bowl to drain out the rest of the gasoline into a jar, DISASTER! I got the bolt loosened, but my wrench slipped and my hand slammed right in to jar, which already had some gas from a previous project inside. The jar toppled over and roughly 6-8 oz. of gas spilled out over the trash can it was sitting on and ran down to the gravel driveway below. Immediately, I ran to grab any rags around to tried to catch as much of the spill as I could and, luckily, most of it was contained.

Fortunately, this was just a small amount of gas and only a negligible amount made it off the can. However, it got me thinking about how often incidents like this happen and how even just a small amount of gasoline can really contaminate an area. That 6-8 oz. of gasoline could have potentially contaminated between 35,000-47,000 gallons of water! And in my area, as in many others, there are neighbors who still draw well water that could be affected. 

So, while in our industry we focus on fuel dispensing and storage facilities, safe fuel handling practices are always important, even in your own garage!