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Acid Trip on UP bums out Organic Farmer

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Acid Trip on UP bums out Organic Farmer
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:24 AM
From the Des Moines Register:

http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041201/BUSINESS01/412010336&SearchID=73191641101287

LC
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:31 AM
If you have problems with the above link here is another to the BLET site where I first saw it:

http://www.ble.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=12114

LC
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:31 AM
Great.....more homeless beavers trying to wash car windows at stop lights.
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:32 AM
OK, I just have to say this. Will apologies to Bergie...

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!!

LC
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Posted by rrnut282 on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:41 AM
Doesn't Phosphoric Acid occur in nature? As long as it wasn't a man-made compound, he should still be able to say organic. At roughly 16 gallons per mile, I don't think the acid went very far from the railroad right-of-way. I would do more damage urinating off of the platform as I went by.[:O]
Mike (2-8-2)
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Posted by adrianspeeder on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:42 AM
I think he is screwed.

Adrianspeeder

USAF TSgt C-17 Aircraft Maintenance Flying Crew Chief & Flightline Avionics Craftsman

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:44 AM
Nut-

You can't tell me you do that from a moving train...lol...

Just a touch of independent could cause unexpected wetness...lol...

LC
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Posted by gabe on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:46 AM
Man, I have to pack my brief case! Talk about an ideal client! My client, the saint who gives land to migrant workers so they can have some food of their own! Chaching! A few puppy dogs and a pet cat I wouldn't even have to convince the jury there ever was a leak.

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:46 AM
I think the beaver thing is GREAT. How often do railroads have serious beaver problems. I can still remember hirailing a certain regional railroad some years ago where they kept a blacksmith on staff to fabricate beaver devices for culverts and other spots where beavers cause trouble. If all you need is a few gallons of acid to run them off...

Better living through chemistry...lol....

LC
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Posted by rrnut282 on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:53 AM
I was just making the point that I could "deposit more fertilizer" per lineal foot than what the leaking tank car possibly did. I didn't really mean I would stand on the platform and actually do that. Not unless it was in a remote area and very dark outside and I saved some for whoever monkeyed with the independant while I was "out".
Mike (2-8-2)
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:55 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

I think the beaver thing is GREAT. How often do railroads have serious beaver problems. I can still remember hirailing a certain regional railroad some years ago where they kept a blacksmith on staff to fabricate beaver devices for culverts and other spots where beavers cause trouble. If all you need is a few gallons of acid to run them off...

Better living through chemistry...lol....

LC


Give it a few days and someone will be posting a homeless hobo beaver manifesto, demanding the RRs provide free access to phosphoric acid-free rail transportation within the M&M domain.
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:56 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by rrnut282

I was just making the point that I could "deposit more fertilizer" per lineal foot than what the leaking tank car possibly did. I didn't really mean I would stand on the platform and actually do that. Not unless it was in a remote area and very dark outside and I saved some for whoever monkeyed with the independant while I was "out".


LOL!!

Yeah, I know what you mean...just couldn't resist the spoof...

LC
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:57 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

Man, I have to pack my brief case! Talk about an ideal client! My client, the saint who gives land to migrant workers so they can have some food of their own! Chaching! A few puppy dogs and a pet cat I wouldn't even have to convince the jury there ever was a leak.

Gabe


Just dial 1-800-For-Gabe and your legal worries are over...FOFLMAO....

Gabe. That was a classic...

LC
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Posted by SALfan on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 11:58 AM
I think that farmer needs to work on his bladder control. If he got that excited about 16 gallons of phosphoric acid per mile he must wet his pants over all sorts of things. I'd like to know the distance the track runs through his farm - if he has 180 acres, it isn't very far, so probably 2 or 3 gallons of the stuff leaked adjacent to his land. THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!
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Posted by Junctionfan on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:07 PM
Could have been worse. There are other acids that are more toxic.
Andrew
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:11 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

I don't feel too educated right about now. Mark takes the trouble to give this great post and the entire time I am reading it all I can think of is (in a Homer-Simpson like voice): Mmmm Juicy Corn Fed Cows.

I can unpack my brief case now.

Gabe


Good...I'm not the only one...as I look not so longingly at the salad that's in the office frig....[xx(]
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:22 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

Uranium occurs in nature too. Do you want that added to your food? No? It used to be added to pottery glaze, which ended up in your food, which ended up in your gut. The point of organic farming is to avoid artificial substances that weren't there when the human being was first designed by nature (or God, whichever your personal ideology believes), to avoid ingesting things that are either poisonous or out-of-spec from the original design. Personally, I like eating all sorts of things that are quite bad for your health -- bacon, Necco wafers, and juicy corn-fed cows come to mind -- but I do respect the right of others to do business and eat food as they see fit.

I do wish everyone would drop the "railroads were there first so they have carte blanche to do whatever they feel like" mantra. That philosophy is very dangerous; if you take it to it's next logical step, we'll be giving Native Americans the right to set up their lodges in back yards and cutting down our ornamental shrubs for firewood, followed by the Native Americans arguing among themselves that it's really the Athabaskans who own everything because they were the first across the Bering Land Bridge, etc. Besides, when the C&NW's predecessor reached Council Bluffs in 1867, there were plenty of farmers already in Iowa, so on its own facts the statement is false.


Mark-

While I don't entirely disagree with you I would respectfully point out that a number of Native American tribes are indeed trying to take back lands with tribal land claims. In New York State there are several that have been going for decades. I think the only way they will be settled is if the tribes get rights to more Casinos so they can earn the money to buy the land back. On that score check out the situation in Oneida County, New York where sales tax recently hit a statewide high of 10% as property taxes are not high enough to support local services due in large part to the purchase of massive tracts of land by the Oneidas funded by their Turning Stone Casino.

As far as the railroads being there first, it certainly doesn't give the UP or any other railroad the right to contaminate areas off their right of way.

I'm still amused by the organic farmer as he reminds me of my youth when, as a young lad, my college professor father used to take me to "all the good campus riots" in the late 60s and early 70s as a "learning experience". I am still bummed that I missed the "Free Love"...

LC
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:33 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

I am still bummed that I missed the "Free Love"...

LC


That's the reason that many of us here now.......
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Posted by gabe on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:36 PM
Don't be too disapointed, Mark. Many of the more active members of the "Decade of Love" got a disease. You got a job.

Gabe
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:47 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

Don't be too disapointed, Mark. Many of the more active members of the "Decade of Love" got a disease. You got a job.

Gabe


Yeah.......My mom is still coping with what she caught back then.........me
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Posted by gabe on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:50 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

Don't be too disapointed, Mark. Many of the more active members of the "Decade of Love" got a disease. You got a job.

Gabe


Yeah.......My mom is still coping with what she caught back then.........me


Very funny
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 12:57 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill

Uranium occurs in nature too. Do you want that added to your food? No? It used to be added to pottery glaze, which ended up in your food, which ended up in your gut. The point of organic farming is to avoid artificial substances that weren't there when the human being was first designed by nature (or God, whichever your personal ideology believes), to avoid ingesting things that are either poisonous or out-of-spec from the original design. Personally, I like eating all sorts of things that are quite bad for your health -- bacon, Necco wafers, and juicy corn-fed cows come to mind -- but I do respect the right of others to do business and eat food as they see fit.

I do wish everyone would drop the "railroads were there first so they have carte blanche to do whatever they feel like" mantra. That philosophy is very dangerous; if you take it to it's next logical step, we'll be giving Native Americans the right to set up their lodges in back yards and cutting down our ornamental shrubs for firewood, followed by the Native Americans arguing among themselves that it's really the Athabaskans who own everything because they were the first across the Bering Land Bridge, etc. Besides, when the C&NW's predecessor reached Council Bluffs in 1867, there were plenty of farmers already in Iowa, so on its own facts the statement is false.


I don't feel too educated right about now. Mark takes the trouble to give this great post and the entire time I am reading it all I can think of is (in a Homer-Simpson like voice): Mmmm Juicy Corn Fed Cows.

I can unpack my brief case now.

Gabe


Darn it Gabe, and Mark. Now I'm gonna have to have steak today...

My wife was looking through the Omaha Steaks catalog earlier for a gift and between that and you guys...

Maybe I can hit a steer with my choo choo and drag it in on an mty 89' flat...lol...

LC
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Posted by Junctionfan on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 2:43 PM
Has anybody heard of hydrofluoric acid or arsenic acid solution spilling. Apparently in St.Catharines along long time ago, CN derail some horrible poisonous acid all over a farmer's field. The government made CN clean it up including replacing the farmer's soil by sending in the backhoes and dumptrucks.

Just wondering if that has happened in the U.S?
Andrew
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 2:47 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Has anybody heard of hydrofluoric acid or arsenic acid solution spilling. Apparently in St.Catharines along long time ago, CN derail some horrible poisonous acid all over a farmer's field. The government made CN clean it up including replacing the farmer's soil by sending in the backhoes and dumptrucks.

Just wondering if that has happened in the U.S?


Yes, but it was about twenty years ago, a terrible chemical spill near Beaumont, TX. The land was vacant and unusable for several years until a company came in and scraped the soil and took it someplace in Canada...not sure where though.
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Posted by gabe on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 3:04 PM
Ask the German fishing fleet about that some time.

Gabe
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Posted by vsmith on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 3:27 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

I think the beaver thing is GREAT. How often do railroads have serious beaver problems. I can still remember hirailing a certain regional railroad some years ago where they kept a blacksmith on staff to fabricate beaver devices for culverts and other spots where beavers cause trouble. If all you need is a few gallons of acid to run them off...

Better living through chemistry...lol....

LC


Give it a few days and someone will be posting a homeless hobo beaver manifesto, demanding the RRs provide free access to phosphoric acid-free rail transportation within the M&M domain.


His name wouldnt be KissMyCabeaver would it?
[X-)][%-)][D)]

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 3:32 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

I think the beaver thing is GREAT. How often do railroads have serious beaver problems. I can still remember hirailing a certain regional railroad some years ago where they kept a blacksmith on staff to fabricate beaver devices for culverts and other spots where beavers cause trouble. If all you need is a few gallons of acid to run them off...

Better living through chemistry...lol....

LC


Give it a few days and someone will be posting a homeless hobo beaver manifesto, demanding the RRs provide free access to phosphoric acid-free rail transportation within the M&M domain.


His name wouldnt be KissMyCabeaver would it?
[X-)][%-)][D)]


[bow]
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Posted by dharmon on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 3:33 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

Ask the German fishing fleet about that some time.

Gabe


Are you referring to the "Hogger Bank" Incident?
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Posted by jeaton on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 4:03 PM
For those of you who were too late for the '60s, don't worry. I go with Jerry on this, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there".

Jay

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics

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Posted by dldance on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 4:26 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Has anybody heard of hydrofluoric acid or arsenic acid solution spilling. Apparently in St.Catharines along long time ago, CN derail some horrible poisonous acid all over a farmer's field. The government made CN clean it up including replacing the farmer's soil by sending in the backhoes and dumptrucks.

Just wondering if that has happened in the U.S?


About 20 years ago, UP had a tanker load of elemental Phosphorus (not phosphoric acid) leak into the yard at Soda Springs Idaho (I can't remember the cause). Phos. is shipped under water (thus the tank car) to prevent spontanious combustion. So when the Phos. hit the ground and dried out - it started on fire. The local fire dept. came and properly wet down the site - putting the fire out. UP cleaned up the spill by removing all the ballast and the top 3 feet of dirt under the contaminated track. The contaminated soil was buried in a landfill. All of this was done while periodically wetting the site to prevent Phos. fareups.

So in removing the ballast and soil, UP first pulled the rails and ties. The rails were set aside for reuse and the ties were neatly stack along the ROW for later disposal. Now remember that the ties were soaking wet from the fire suppression efforts.

Along comes a local who sees a stack of used ties - which he appropriates for a planned fence. He loads the ties into the back of his pickup and parks the truck in his garage. The ties dry out and the Phos. fares, burning down his house. Now the local has some real explaining to do:
UP - theft of RR property
EPA - unauthorized removal of hazmat
Insurance Co - why I burnt down my house.

Fortunately no one was injured.

dd

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