Oh Chip!

Now that I'm thinking about petroleum consumption, I'm seeing horrifying things everywhere. This was at the foot of my driveway: 

What's that? This morning it was a collection of sprinkler water in the gutter. While you can't tell from these photos, the curbs on our street are really steep. My neighbor created a cement ramp over the gutter to ease the bump, but the pipe they installed to let the runoff through is too high, so the water pools in the gutter in front of my house. No big deal really, there haven't been any mosquito problems or such.

However, as you can see, the once clear-ish sprinkler run-off is now brown and oily. Why? The city is chip sealing our road and put down the final coat today. That brown nasty goop is mess from the process. This same goop is running off in less noticeable amounts into sewers, yards, possibly irrigation wells...

What's in it? Oh, just this: Chip Seal Safety Sheet

Did we ask for the seal? No. And they do every street in town every 9 years. How can this possibly be safe?