A simple and inexpensive device with no moving arts for removing from a
well non-aqueous liquids, such as gasoline or crude oil, that accumulate
on top of the water table in the well comprises a buoyant elongated
member, such as a plastic tube sealed at both ends, and a hydrophobic
sorbtive material preferably attached to the outside of the tube. The
buoyant device is lowered into the well where it floats either in the
non-aqueous liquids or in the water such that the sorbtive material is in
contact with and absorbs the non-aqueous liquids from the surface of the
water. The buoyant device is then removed from the well, the spent
sorbtive material replaced with fresh sorbtive material and the device
again lowered into the well for further removal of non-aqueous liquids.