COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE PITS 
“Up until the 1930s, most oil taken from the ground was quite simply stored in earthen pits. Oil penetrated the soil to about 30 feet vertically and 100 feet horizontally. Humble by itself had 6,000,000 barrels of earthen pit storage. Note that the world’s largest documented land-based oilspills (not related to the Gulf War) were the Lakeview Gusher in Kern County, California (9 million bbl) and Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan (2 million bbl). Deepwater Horizon was the worst maritime spill (4.1-4.9 million bbl). These pits are not considered spills, but the land around them is far more impacted than a spill site. Back then, when pits failed from flooding or erosion, that was often unreported.” [TheNiche, commenting on An Update on the Leaky Oil Well in Missouri City] Image: Lulu
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Hmm… according to Wikipedia, the Lakeview Gusher spilled 9 million barrels, not 9,000.
Uh hey, somebody mentioned in the original thread that I got my oil spill figures off by 1000x. It’s true. I misread a table. Small mistake, big order of magnitude. You noticed my mea culpa on the other thread and you corrected the one for Deepwater Horizon, but not for the Lakeview Gusher or Fergana Valley. Please get the other figures. Thanks.
@TheNiche We just fixed those other figures. Thanks!
One of the most infamous pits in the Houston area was the one that used to be under the now used-to-be Carver Elementary in Baytown. It was an oil pit for the refinery back in, I think, the 20’s. They covered it up and sold it to the school district for $1, who built an elementary school on it. Then, one fine Labor Day weekend, black crud(e) started seeping up in the playground. Needless to say, that spot is now an empty field.