Right now, dozens of train cars carrying 10 million pounds of poop are stranded in a rural Alabama rail yard.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/us/parrish-waste-poop-train-alabama-trnd/index.html
Gee, I wonder why the residents are unhappy.
10 million lbs. is 5,000 tons - even at only 50 tons per car (it might load 'light'), about 100 cars or about 1 train's worth; the cited 252 tractor-trailer loads @ 20 tons each = 5,040 tons, so that checks.
- PDN.
Noted in the accompanying article: "...Hall said the stench permeates everything. The rail yard is across from a baseball field and next to a softball field. Parrish only measures about 2 square miles, and pretty much everything is within smelling distance.
Well I'll be, there really is a "Poo-Poo Choo-Choo!"
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Hope for all concerned it's out of there by July! 99 degrees Farhenheit is considered a "cold snap" down in Alabama!
samfp1943I think the working phrase in this story will be "When,Not IF"... Note, as well, the article does not mention the involved railroad(?)...
Looking up the location on Google Earth, I am guessing it is on the NS or some shortline. It is WNW of Birmingham by about 30 miles. None of the other locations in the area ring any bells from by CSX exprience in the Birmingham area.
All things considered, can it be much worse than being downwind of a paper plant in the pre EPA days? Refineries in those days were also rather oderific!
Back in the day, the smells that eminated from a town were considered the smell of money.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Back in the day, the smells that eminated from a town were considered the smell of money.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
Topo map on Acme Mapper shows it to be former Southern. With prevailing westerlies, I can see why the ball fields would suffer.
I would presume it's here: N 33 43' 59" W 87 16' 16"
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Parrish is the junction of the former Northern Alabmaa (Sheffield to Parrish) (which was swalloewd up by the Southern) and the former Georgia Pacific (Atlanta to Greenville, Mississippi)--or, briefly, the former Southern, now Norfolk Southern.
Johnny
No, Wayne, +90 is HOT in Alabama, even in the Tuscaloosa area (I lived in Reform for almost nine years). You should try scoring four ball games in an evening, beginning at 5:00 CST. We had to delay the start by an hour in the summer of 1967.
BaltACDAll things considered, can it be much worse than being downwind of a paper plant in the pre EPA days? Refineries in those days were also rather odorific!
Hmmm, sounds like Savannah, GA, and Long Beach, CA, respectively, two very pungent venues in the early-mid 70s.
I grew up in the northern panhandle of West Virginia. At that time ('50s) steel manufacturing was big business. Our house had a dusting of iron ore dust. Near the blast furnaces the ground was covered with steel related dust with nothing growing. My father who worked in the mill said that dirt and industry go together. Now the mills are gone and the population is 50% of what it was when I lived there.
Why do so many people consider clean air and water to be bad for business?
CSSHEGEWISCHWhy do so many people consider clean air and water to be bad for business?
Because businesses cry about the money they have to spend to attain clean water and air. Business would rather kill their markets than spend money making their market area livable for those who buy their products. Businesses use threats against their employees and their jobs as their defense against spending for enviornmental survival.
We can look to China and India as object points of what happens when the enviornment is not respected by business.
BaltACDWe can look to China and India as object points of what happens when the enviornment is not respected by business.
Why go so far? Been fishing in the Adirondacks lately?
tree68 BaltACD We can look to China and India as object points of what happens when the enviornment is not respected by business. Why go so far? Been fishing in the Adirondacks lately?
BaltACD We can look to China and India as object points of what happens when the enviornment is not respected by business.
Lived near Cleveland when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire!
BaltACD tree68 BaltACD We can look to China and India as object points of what happens when the enviornment is not respected by business. Why go so far? Been fishing in the Adirondacks lately? Lived near Cleveland when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-12/trump-citing-redundancies-again-proposes-steep-cuts-to-epa
Ah, progress.
[quote use
zardoz BaltACD tree68 BaltACD We can look to China and India as object points of what happens when the enviornment is not respected by business. Why go so far? Been fishing in the Adirondacks lately? Lived near Cleveland when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire! Lucky for us the current administration is rolling back those pesky environmental laws put in place by the previous administration. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-12/trump-citing-redundancies-again-proposes-steep-cuts-to-epa Ah, progress.
Lucky for us the current administration is rolling back those pesky environmental laws put in place by the previous administration.
[/quote]
I grew up in Akron, Ohio, and went to high school near the Goodyear plant. If the conditions were just right, you could take a deep breath and vulcanize your lungs. Often, the aroma of ammonia was almost overpowering. In other towns, pulpwood mills provided (and in some places they still provide) a special ambiance.
Now that the EPA is being weakened, I wish I had the money to build a big old-fashioned tannery and locate it in a nice place like, say, Palm Beach, upwind of Mar A Lago.
Tom
ACY TomI grew up in Akron, Ohio, and went to high school near the Goodyear plant. If the conditions were just right, you could take a deep breath and vulcanize your lungs. Often, the aroma of ammonia was almost overpowering. In other towns, pulpwood mills provided (and in some places they still provide) a special ambiance. Now that the EPA is being weakened, I wish I had the money to build a big old-fashioned tannery and locate it in a nice place like, say, Palm Beach, upwind of Mar A Lago. Tom
Worked the Train Order Operators job at FY Tower in Pittsburgh, tower was bolted to the side of the 33rd Street Bridge across the Allegheny River - before gettting to the North shore of the river some piers were constructed on Herr's Island. On the island was a major tannery and animal protiens business. The tannery's outbound hide cars were switched by crews from Willow Grove Yard. In the pre-EPA days at 6 PM sharp they dumped their 'waste water' directly into the river. If you had not eaten your lunch prior to 6 PM, and the breeze was from the North - you took it home as it was impossible to eat anything with the stench.
Having live in Akron for 2 1/2 years - I know the aroma of East Akron very well!
Deggesty No, Wayne, +90 is HOT in Alabama, even in the Tuscaloosa area (I lived in Reform for almost nine years). You should try scoring four ball games in an evening, beginning at 5:00 CST. We had to delay the start by an hour in the summer of 1967.
As Senator Claghorn used to say, "That's a joke, son!"
Hence my 99 degree cold snap quip!
Wayne
ChuckCobleigh BaltACD All things considered, can it be much worse than being downwind of a paper plant in the pre EPA days? Refineries in those days were also rather odorific! Hmmm, sounds like Savannah, GA, and Long Beach, CA, respectively, two very pungent venues in the early-mid 70s.
BaltACD All things considered, can it be much worse than being downwind of a paper plant in the pre EPA days? Refineries in those days were also rather odorific!
Ever spent any time in Brunswick GA? When I lived there in 1978-79, there was a paper mill on one side of town and a gunpowder plant on the other. Because of the sea breeze residents were able to "enjoy" the stench of one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. You never had to wonder which way the wind was blowing, just breathe while outside and you would know. Side benefit: the chemicals condensing out of the emissions of one of them (I think the paper mill) would eat the paint off cars parked there, so all the employees had old beaters to drive to work.
So we have a train full of New York's waste. Guess NIMBY works well there. Send all of our unwanted you know what some where else. Now we have a very smelly line of rail cars sitting on a siding. Are they covered hoppers or what? Being the vice president of our water company i know a little about sewerage. As it degrades by anaerobic action methane gas is produced. Methane will burn but from my brief earlier life working as a mining engineer we had the 5-15% rule. Methane is explosive between 5.13 and 14.97% concentration in air, hence the 5-15 rule. Above and below these points it will burn. If things turn bad we could have an explosion bigger than the West Texas explosion a few years ago. If I lived there I would have a couple locomotives coupled to the poo poo cars and send it back to New York City.
ccltrains If I lived there I would have a couple locomotives coupled to the poo poo cars and send it back to New York City.
Dont' blame NYC for an alabama company for taking the stuff.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
The same stuff that rolls downhill also tends to stick together; out-of-town politicians and railroad companies (which are increasingly detached from a feminized, over-sensitized and technophobic electorate) are an easy target for the short-sighted "swing voters" and the short-sighted political hacks who pander to them. The great deceptive game will continue until it breaks down completely, and those of us who see a wider picture, who still hold to some belief in the American Experiment, and still try to play by the rules will be the biggest losers.
$#it happens.
Still in training.
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