[Kathy1228]

There is a gas spill in my yard that came from gas that we use for the lawn mower. A workman that was here on Friday turned it on it's side and the gas came out of the plastic gas can (from the small hole in the bottle). We had heavy rains on Saturday and Sunday I was not in the yard. Today when I left the house there is a strong odor of gas. I have corrected the problem with the can, however I am extremely worried about the gas that has soaked into the ground. How do I clean this area up and make it safe?. as well as getting rid of the odor?

Thank you.

[wildandblue]

The only way to really get rid of it is to dig that dirt up and replace it with good dirt from somewhere else in your yard. It will cause the grass to turn a sickly yellow color there forever if you don't. My Dad had a tractor fuel line break in one of our hayfields in 1987 and you can still tell where it happened. Gasoline also has additives that can pollute the water if you don't.

[Fr_Chuck]

I mean how much, 3 or 4 gallons, or 100 gallons,
If just a couple gallon, it will cause no real issue, just let it go.

[ballengerb1]

I'd throw some top soil around on the spot and then overseed. The smell maylinger but it will evetually go away in about a week. The soil is sour from the gas but fresh top soil will solve this.

[twinkiedooter]

I had some gas from the lawnmower spill out into my yard. It killed the grass and made a bald spot in the yard. I put some grassseed onto the spot and within a week it was growing in. Just water the area a lot and put down some new seed and your area should be okay. Gasoline usually evaporates within an hour or so totally. Just water the yard. As long as it was not a huge amount (over 5 gallons) you should be fine.

[scot008]

When tilling my back yard to prepare for a lawn, the tiller leaked gasoline in several places where it was parked overnight. I did not notice the leaks until I filled the tiller up one evening, and it was empty the next morning. About a liter spilled. I dug out the contaminated soil where it was parked that night and scattered it thinly in another part of the yard so that the gasoline would evaporate. I dug down until I could no longer smell gasoline in the soil, and I found that the gasoline had percolated to a depth of about 3 feet in poorly draining clay soil. The method work for that area, but I had no way to know where else the tiller had leaked.

I planted lawn seed, and it seemed to thrive everywhere. However, in about six months, yellowish-brownish patches began to appear in several areas where I believe the tiller had been parked overnight. It looked like the lawn was dry and dying in these patches, but heavy watering seemed to make the problem worse. Since gasoline floats on water, I surmised that the watering was causing the gasoline to rise from a lower level.

I did not wish to dig up a large area to a depth of 3 feet, and so, I came up with the idea that diluted laundry soap might mix with the gasoline and take it back down to a lower level where microbes would eventually destroy it. I mixed 1 capfull of Woolite per gallon of water in a five gallon bucket and poured the solution over an area of about 4 square feet. I watered that area heavily, and after about 3 weeks, the grass began to recover. I treated it a second time. In another three weeks, that patch was fully dark green and thriving. It has been growing fine for six months.

To treat the other areas, I filled the bottle on a MiracleGrow garden hose sprayer with Woolite and broadcast it over an area of about 100 square feet, again watering heavily every day for about a week. After about three weeks, the brownish-yellowish patches began to disappear, and I gave the area a second treatment. My problem now seems to be cured.