Re: @ Margaret
Author: mook
Date: 11-03-2012 - 18:18

Spurs ... where?

When I lived in the S.C. area in the late 1970s most of the spurs north (west) of Watsonville were either inactive or gone. It should be even worse now, because even those few industries have disappeared for the most part - whether because of activities of the Socialist Republic of Santa Cruz or simply the economy (housing and small commercial make more money per square foot). The trains seen on the branch at the time in the S.C. area were cement loads and coal empties out, cement empties and coal loads in, and very occasional other cars for the cement plant, Wrigley's, and a few other lumber yards and the like. Non-cement-plant traffic was very light even then.

One thing discussed back then - very briefly - was building a garbage transfer station at the Buena Vista dump and sending it out (somewhere ... anywhere) on trains. Given the state of that industry and the fact that despite recycling S.C. residents still make garbage, Iowa Pacific might want to start talking to somebody about that again.

The chromium issue at the cement plant was probably related to coal burning. It's a common product of coal burning, along with mercury, etc. The plant was rebuilt from heavy oil (mostly delivered by tanker) to coal power in the late 1970s -- yes, there was "comment" at the time but the company showed that they would meet all air pollution regulations and in fact would be much cleaner than they were before. Since then regulations have gotten tighter and the number of things that are of concern has grown. So I'm sure that Cemex looked at the prospect of having to rebuild it again (to use gas, probably) to keep operating and decided that it was better for the corporate bottom line to ship it in from someplace else. [Caution - political rant - skip if your mind is made up on such things]Preferably someplace with no environmental regulations and very low-wage labor (i.e. expendable slaves). I'm kind of cynical in my old age, because my observation from many years in the environmental regulation and planning game is that Americans in general, and "environmentally concious" folk in particular, are very good at exporting their impacts and very bad at paying for them. I really don't blame the Cemex's of the world for doing what they do with offshoring when we make it so hard (via unlimited lawsuits, clueless politicians, etc.) to just do the job right. It's not just the cost; the hassle factor and uncertainty are major points -- sometimes more important that the cost.[/political]



Subject Written By Date/Time (PST)
  MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line Howard 11-03-2012 - 12:47
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line AngryFoamer 11-03-2012 - 15:31
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line Howard 11-03-2012 - 15:49
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line Margaret (SP fan) 11-03-2012 - 15:37
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line Carol L. Voss 11-03-2012 - 15:48
  @ Carol Howard 11-03-2012 - 16:18
  Re: @ Carol---sand plant Carol L. Voss 11-03-2012 - 17:47
  Re: @ Carol---sand plant Brian Bergtold 11-03-2012 - 17:54
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line Brian Bergtold 11-03-2012 - 17:52
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line John Bromley 11-04-2012 - 06:13
  Re: MOW Work On The Santa Cruz Branch Line Howard 11-04-2012 - 08:37
  @ Margaret Howard 11-03-2012 - 16:14
  Re: @ Margaret mook 11-03-2012 - 18:18
  Re: @ Margaret Brian Bergtold 11-03-2012 - 18:47
  Re: @ Margaret---amen to Mook Carol L. Voss 11-03-2012 - 18:56
  @ mook Howard 11-03-2012 - 19:19
  Re: @ mook Tony Johnson 11-03-2012 - 21:50
  Re: @ mook------tires as fuel Carol L. Voss 11-03-2012 - 22:10
  Cupertino plant local yokel 11-03-2012 - 23:56
  Re: Cupertino plant is owned by GERMANS, not Mexicans Not German 11-04-2012 - 00:33
  Re: Davenport was never Lehigh Brian Bergtold 11-04-2012 - 01:00
  Re: Davenport was never Lehigh Tony Johnson 11-04-2012 - 07:59
  Re: Davenport pedo viejo 11-04-2012 - 09:42
  Re: Cupertino plant---use of acreage etc Carol L. Voss 11-04-2012 - 10:01
  @ Tony Howard 11-04-2012 - 09:04
  Re: @ Tony Tony Johnson 11-04-2012 - 23:40
  Re: @ Tony Howard 11-05-2012 - 08:55


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