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In Reply to: RE: Those Red Falls again... posted by ghost of olddude55 on September 05, 2024 at 07:34:36
How long was your ride this morning?I was reading about Japan's Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of US Steel. It's complicated whether it happens or not. The workers are in a pickle either way. Of course blocking the deal seems to have bipartisan support in this election year.
Edits: 09/05/24Follow Ups:
Don't know about that, but here where there is a lot of iron in ground / rocks, that would not need be a sign of concern.
There is opposition to the buy out because nearly all of our steel comes from China now and if there was a war, not having the capacity to make steel in quantity is not a good strategy.
Just as China's steel capacity being greater than they need and sell, is a good strategy for war for them and possibly both some sort of clue.
An steel aside
About 30 years ago, the company i worked for was contracted to examine the bottom for the #8 furnace in Gary (pic) to see if we could measure the thickness of the interior with sound. The reason was the giant furnace had a carbon lining 20 feet thick. Every 10 or so years of non-stop operation, the have to shut down and replace the carbon which was a huge cost / disruption..
The reason they do that and are interested in thickness is there have been "worm holes", a cute name where the molten steel makes a tunnel through the carbon to the outer steel jacket. When the jacket melts and fails, tons of white hot molten steel squirts out under pressure. As explained, a bad thing in several ways and very messy, once cool, steel is extremely hard to clean up.
Just getting to the bottom of this huge thing was terrifying and when we had our coats and hats on, the guy that took over and took us there had a half dozen gas monitors on his jacket and said "if any of these go off, leave the gear and stay right behind me, run if you need to".
No one ever told me that before.
Sure enough, when we finally got to the bottom of the furnace which itself was about 2 stories high, after walking past some rail cars that were blazing hot and pouring steel an uncomfortably short distance away to look at the situation, a monitor shrieked and we trotted off right behind the guy.
Thankfully that was exciting enough for my boss and we didn't go back.
To me, once behind the gates, it was like being on another planet or something, smoke, steam, sulfur smell 100% of everything rust colored, what the heck am i doing here?
got some Hilla and Bernd Becher photo action going on, nice.
That was the best one i could find on line but where i was is at the bottom of it. I would have loved to have had a camera!
Shoveling graphite 1000 feet down below...
Now that sounds like fun not!
No, this was to put ultrasonic transducers around the base of it and use the TEF machine to look at what comes back and we never got that far.
It was possible to detect / locate deliberate internal flaws in concrete blocks for a customer but that was in a lab, trying to do that at the base of this monster no thanks.
Full of iron oxide, and it flows into the Youghiogheny River.
When I worked for US Steel, Nippon was the gold standard. Probably still is.
I think it's a bad idea to block the sale, but I don't think it matters as much as it seems to at face value. If the sale doesn't go through, US Steel will probably get out of the steel business anyway, and Nippon will end up buying any modern facilities--the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock PA has a continuous caster--at bargain prices.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
At least the fish don't glow in the dark like Hanford.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
from wikipedia
"Iron oxides and oxyhydroxides are widespread in nature"
Plus the water is acidic.
Commonwealth of PA, I'm pretty sure, now requires mining companies to post a bond to be used towards cleanup. But old mines like Ocean No. 2, the companies that owned them are long gone, and the bond requirement didn't happen until the 1970s, when legislatures did things in the public interest.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
" and the bond requirement didn't happen until the 1970s, when legislatures did things in the public interest "
Next tax cut let's get us some legislators there who'll overturn the stupid thing.
The PA General Assembly whooped through a bill allowing longwall mining without much debate. That was 30 years ago.
Result? Massive surface subsidence. Destroyed watersheds. Homes ruined, including historic structures. Mining companies were supposed to make good, but you know how that goes. "Don't like the compensation we're offering? Sue us."
A major highway was undermined, fixed at taxpayer expense.
Meanwhile, a bill to legalize marijuana for recreational use has languished in the legislature for well over a decade even though it has bi-partisan support and the last three governors said they'd sign it.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
Edits: 09/06/24 09/06/24
Saw a study on legislative action and it's pretty clear regardless of public opposition the majority of legislation addressing specific industry or business issues get through and quickly. Legislation addressing public issues, no matter how great the public support, usually go no where.
The tie in with trickle down economics is obvious. The return on lobbying dollars brings a better return than R&D and new product development. Imagine being able to achieve record profits year in and year out with lobbying, replacing workers with technology and reducing workforce (increasing productivity).
With all the tax cut cash they didn't turn America into the high tech mecca we were promised it would become. They maximized their take of the money and in fact invested in replacing workers not creating new jobs. Who would have though profit makers would do anything else?
In 1980 when this stuff (Reagan's tax reforms) happened owning a home was something almost anyone with a steady job and a decent income could do. In the 2020s the wealthy speculators who've benefited with millions and millions of additional dollars are now buying up affordable housing so as to rent it back to us or worse tear it down and put up apartments for us to live in. Home ownership has been the foundation upon which most working Americans could achieve financial security. It's slipping away.
In California, at least.
The sad reality is that with the exception of the period from 1933 until 1981, our government has always been a tool for money interests, lobbying notwithstanding. The one percenters wrote the US Constitution and the main goal was to protect their own property. It's why people like you and I weren't granted suffrage.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
Edits: 09/07/24
Are your eyes discolored?
I don't really see anything in there about the hazards of Iron compound traces dissolved in drinking water. SOME Iron is a necessary nutrient, for making hemoglobin in the body -- hence dietary supplements such as Geritol.
Stand next to it, smell it, look at it. Anybody wants to drink a glass or two, farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
Edits: 09/06/24
I agree. The cited fact sheet doesn't pertain to contaminated ground water, plus it's talking about human toxicity, not an aqueous ecosystem. Iron oxides in water imply a previous reduction-oxidation reaction, which probably means the water is oxygen deficient. Additionally, the OP has stated that the water is acidic (dissolved CO2?).
There are bacterias in stagnant water that love iron and produce iron oxide; so that's another possible red flag.
I know nothing about that mine or it's water, but an MSDS about inhaled iron oxide addresses none of the above.
Let's hear from the MN Dept of Health:"Iron in water does not usually present a health risk. Your body needs iron to transport oxygen in the blood. Most iron comes from food, since the body cannot easily absorb iron from water."
And from the Illinois Dept of Health :
" Iron is not hazardous to health, but it is considered a secondary or aesthetic contaminant. "
Edits: 09/06/24
When the mineral content of various foods was first being evaluated, a misplaced decimal point in the published data made it look like spinach had 10x its actual iron content. This became the source of Popeye's legendary strength, which in turn got millions of kids to eat their spinach and actually like it.
And beating the living tar out of Popeye for once.
Maybe he wasn't really all that hot for Olive Oyl but had to stir some shit.
The blissful counterstroke-a considerable new message.
Unlike many, I enjoyed eating spinach as a child. Just add lemon.
Today, I find steamed fresh spinach a treat.
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