A kind of "reverse saber rattling?" re. Cape Cod

bill reidy et al: the bourne landfill is 'subtitle d' . this requires liner(s) and leachate collection & disposal. since this cell is a major investment , the pricing will be under 'market'. their permit is 1000tod which can accomodate the 400tpd moving by rail/ ( about 18 100cu yd walkers). the 'market' at braintree can completely utilize the 2000tpd semass permit. semass has no interest in remaining at the 'buy-in'rates given the cape towns. their latest 'offer' to the towns is significantly higher than bourne . you however and all concerned folk should question semass ash disposal in carver. therein lies a future problem. semass generates 800 tpd( 800 yds) of top & bottom ash per day-awful stuff. i proposed a rail container move to their 'd' landfill in niagara.couldn't match the carver number.as for bridge traffic? minimal increase. ken patrick

ken patrick - I'm so happy the Bourne landfill can accept trash at lower rates. By all means the Cape towns should go that route then. Tomorrow's generations can pay for the ground water cleanup on the upper Cape -- or better yet, truck clean water over the bridges. As long as the rate is the lowest, nothing else matters.

Ken Patrick would be the first one crying if government were to disappear and every industry had to fend for itself.

i am so old that i remember the 50's as a wonderful time. no epa, energy, education. amtrak fantasies. rotc was at harvard/columbia/dartmouth et al, no public employee unions, no busing. in short, a time where the federal govt was constrained to defense and currency. companies were on their own. alas, rachel carlson's 'silent spring' gave those who had empty lives some meaning. today it's the 'green' fad. anyways, the bourne landfill will never impact groundwater. when full, it will be waterproof covered and pass into history as a 'dry tomb'. until then, it remains a cost-effective solution for cape waste streams.i remain to correct misconceptions. ken patrick

KEN/ken-
In your cataloging of the good old days, you left out asbestos in ceiling tiles, in flooring tiles, in siding, in brake shoes, in joint compound, in electrical cables, and in cigarette filters. You also left out lead in gasoline, in paint, and in drinking water. Such a wonderful era! I, too, was there then. I, unlike some, am happier to be here now. Yes, this is seriously OT, but so is your 08-28/1216 post. I have been relatively successful of late in keeping my fingers away from the keys after reading your submissions, but today was FAIL DAY on my part.
Does anyone have a gross of Peeps?

jaymac. my mission is to offer clarity where obfuscation exists. the gullibility factor is high in these posts. for example, asbestos. have you ever met anyone affected by asbestos? i haven't but do watch the lawyer-inspired adds trying to drum up business. can it be that we are susceptible to made-up crises? maybe i've been impacted by lead since i don't get the 'peeps' deal. i'm sure its perjorative but i don't see the connection. i'd appreciate instruction. ken patrick

KEN/ken-
Since you did ask, my father was a WWII shipyard welder ("weldor" was the preferred spelling in the Hobart manual that was part of his "estate") who died of metastasized lung cancer, his occupation being one with a pronounced occupational exposure to airborne friable asbestos. He did complicate things by being a smoker -- surely you remember the "Not a Cough in a Carload" pronouncements -- as did my mother who lasted four years longer than he did with the same diagnosis. Before it was shut down in the late 1970s, the then-General Dynamics shipyard in Quincy, MA -- one of the ones where he worked while it was owned by Bethlehem Steel -- hosted NIH crews doing testing for mesothelioma on current shipyard workers. The NIH crews, the GD managers, and the GD workers seemed to take the occasion very seriously.
As far as lead goes, I have worked with both adults and special needs youth who have had plumbism diagnoses. What they could, should, and would have been like without lead poisoning, no one will know. I do, however, know how compromised their lives are.
Because something doesn't fit with an individual's particular view does not mean that something has no validity. No matter what our perceptions may tell us, no matter how much we may want to believe it, the sun neither rises nor sets: It only looks like it does.
(Apologies to non-KEN/ken readers for the continuation of being OT)

Well...this thread has been living up to its title the last 2 pages.

"reverse saber rattling?" indeed.

KEN PATRICK wrote:jaymac. my mission is to offer clarity where obfuscation exists. the gullibility factor is high in these posts. for example, asbestos. have you ever met anyone affected by asbestos? i haven't but do watch the lawyer-inspired adds trying to drum up business. can it be that we are susceptible to made-up crises? maybe i've been impacted by lead since i don't get the 'peeps' deal. i'm sure its perjorative but i don't see the connection. i'd appreciate instruction. ken patrick

YES, I have.
It was NOT pretty.
(I will refrain from further comment on the matter as.. well, it's WAY OT.)

to bring this thread back OT, let's just say that Ken, you certainly have a right to play "Devil's Advocate" pertaining to the merits of rail service, but please do your research before you tell someon that asbestos/other hazards do not cause health problems,etc. (BTW my grandfather died of mesethelioma from decades of work at the shipyard in New London CT in WWII.)

Ken, let me offer some clarity.

Mesothelioma takes 30 to 50 years to 'incubate'. The link to asbestos was proven in 1964 and asbestos has been pretty much banned form the 1970s. The risk today is from buildings that still have the mineral in them.

There are 2500 to 3000 new cases annually in the US alone. There is no cure - and even treatment only extends life by a few months at best. When the feds started tracking deaths from this, they found 18,000 from 1999-2004 alone. The preceding 20 years is closer to six figures.

Your statement about this perhaps being a "made up crisis" betrays an ignorance of surprising proportions.

18,000/100,000? in a 330MILLION POPULATION? my point is that we knee-jerk and make up crises to justify vast expenditures chasing various chimeras. individual cases are, of course, sad. but as a basis for huge societal expenditures? i may be wrong but the nyc trade center didn't have asbestos protection. in general, i abhore the trotting out of individual cases as justification for dumb governmental 'programs'. programs that justify hiring hacks to act out kubuki-like scenarios. i was surrounded by asbestos in the navy, inhaled coal and coke fumes in worcester. everyone needs to take a step back and view the environmental drumbeat with skepticism. ken patrick

KEN PATRICK wrote:18,000/100,000? in a 330MILLION POPULATION? my point is that we knee-jerk and make up crises to justify vast expenditures chasing various chimeras. individual cases are, of course, sad. but as a basis for huge societal expenditures? i may be wrong but the nyc trade center didn't have asbestos protection. in general, i abhore the trotting out of individual cases as justification for dumb governmental 'programs'. programs that justify hiring hacks to act out kubuki-like scenarios. i was surrounded by asbestos in the navy, inhaled coal and coke fumes in worcester. everyone needs to take a step back and view the environmental drumbeat with skepticism. ken patrick

This is railroaddotnet and not about this stuff. This has absolutely nothing to do with railroad on or off Cape Cod.
Noel Weaver

I agree with Noel.

Can we all agree to move on, then? I think everyone has made their respective points.