Would this help?

So far, no. They don't want to deal with contaminated oil. I left them a message earlier today at the Berkeley Ecology Center (as they recommended) asking where to go. We'll see if they get back to me. I just hoped someone already knew.

The Clean Boating section of california.earth911.org has an oil recycling center location search tool that returned some promising results.

Thanks, triode. I'll call them.

I got their oil absorbant pads but so far they haven't worked well. (Meaning, when I start pumping water into the bay an oil sheen still shows up on the water.)

Oily water? You'll probably have to evaporate out all the water first - that's what my dad had to do. It's difficult, since the oil sits on the top (?) and inhibits evaporation.

muddgirl, I hadn't thought of that. It would take forever but it's an option.

What are you pumping the water out of? An engine? A bilge? Something else?

I was thinking of something along the lines of muddgirl's suggestion, except the other way around. It sounds like you need some sort of greasetrap.

It's a bilge.

I had a look on the trucktubes, and it seems as though there are as many different types of system as there are methods of separating oil and water. Some use muddgirl's evaporation method, some my "float the crap off the top" greasetrap method, others use centrefuges, and some even use enzymes and other critters to eat the oil.

They all seem to assume you have the throughput and budget of an aircraft carrier though.

You could maybe get a 55 gallon oil drum and a smaller container. Put a tap or outflow pipe of some sort in the top of the oil drum, with a hose leading into the other container. Pump your bilge water into the 55 gallon drum. Once it fills up, the oil floating on the top will pour off into the other container.

You can then deal with it in a more traditional manner. Leaving this smaller container open to the elements will also allow evaporation to help you out.

Thanks, Gecko. I think I'll try something similar. 55 gallon is too big for this tiny pier, but a few 10 gallon pickle barrels will work I bet.