Your terminator was washed out by atmospheric haze, not the filter.

Man, that stinks. I feel for you, having to eat the cost on something you already warned the client about. I've seen the same thing happen with bamboo and even some stubborn shrubs, the roots just take the path of least resistance and go under the barrier like it's not even there. It's a hard lesson, but at least you learned it on a smaller job before something huge came along.

Hold on, dried juice from a battery is way more common than you think, but that's not really "dried juice", it's just corrosion from the battery leaking. Glad the alcohol fixed it though, those gremlins are the worst.