I thought the oil was all gone ?!?

[Wookie]

Amber liquid sounds more like I'm stupid or power steering fluid. It is very likely that this is from a bilge. I worked on a salmon boat in Alaska that was equipped with a Detroit engine, and if it was leaking a good amount of power steering fluid that is probably what it would look like. What you surfaced in is most likely an oil, fuel, and power steering mixture. Definitely not fun to clean up and a real pain. The dish soap I forget why it works, but it does. We could toss it on oil floating in the river and it would appear to dissolve it.

Because dish soap (Dawn is the best) is a dispersant and a emulsifier. That's why it works on your dishes. It disperses the oil (makes it not want to stick to itself or other things) and then makes it sink (emulsifies it to make it water soluble, and heavier than water).

It is illegal to put any kind of dispersant or emulsifier on a oil spill on the water, by the way. If the stuff is floating, you can clean it up. Unless you're BP, but that's another story.

 

[STwill]

It is illegal to put any kind of dispersant or emulsifier on a oil spill on the water, by the way. If the stuff is floating, you can clean it up. Unless you're BP, but that's another story.

Which is what upset me the most about the whole situation. Illegal for everyone else, but hey it's BP...