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Back in the saddle again
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Central TX west of Houston
Posts: 56,144
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Crazy things "we" did to the planet in the past
It's amazing what "we" thought was OK back in the day. I guess this isn't much different than the old thing that we've all seen that says that you can dig a hole and fill it with gravel so you can just dump your used motor oil into a hole in the ground. (of course, oil was much simpler back then, and not, I think, much different from how it was when it got pumped out of the ground, so maybe that was different)
Metal Barrels Dumped Off the Coast of Los Angeles Are Encircled by Mysterious White Halos—and Scientists Think They Finally Know Why https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-barrels-dumped-off-the-coast-of-los-angeles-are-encircled-by-mysterious-while-halos-and-scientists-think-they-finally-know-why-180987334/ At least some of the barrels contain caustic alkaline waste, which has made the surrounding ecosystems inhospitable to most life forms, a new study suggests I'm not sure if this image will work due to the complexity of the link ![]() Quote:
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Steve '08 Boxster RS60 Spyder #0099/1960 - never named a car before, but this is Charlotte. '88 targa ![]() |
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Kantry Member
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Location: N.S. Can
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There are several Volvo sedans on the bottom of Halifax harbor. They were damaged in shipment in the late 60s and were simply pushed overboard.
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Best Les My train of thought has been replaced by a bumper car. |
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Back in the saddle again
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Central TX west of Houston
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Quote:
I know that we've sunk tanks and ships. Surely even in modern days when we decide to sink a ship for some reason even if the various fluids are emptied, the places where those things were held aren't cleaned. And car thieves are always sticking cars in bodies of water. I know that I had a buddy back in the day, that before he turned 17 or 18 used to steal mustangs and strip them for parts and/or money. He said that they'd cut up the body and drop it in Tampa bay once they stripped it. At least, I guess, all of the bits full of fluids were stripped and kept or sold.
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Steve '08 Boxster RS60 Spyder #0099/1960 - never named a car before, but this is Charlotte. '88 targa ![]() |
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: west michigan
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Thousand of barrels of dead cows contaminated by PBB buried in Michigan in the 70's.
The barrels only slow down the process. I was part of the clean-up work at the time. .
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78 SC Targa Black....gone 84 Carrera Targa White 98 Honda Prelude 22 Honda Civic SI Last edited by stevej37; 09-18-2025 at 02:19 PM.. |
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Back in the saddle again
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Central TX west of Houston
Posts: 56,144
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Quote:
Quote:
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Steve '08 Boxster RS60 Spyder #0099/1960 - never named a car before, but this is Charlotte. '88 targa ![]() |
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Kantry Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: N.S. Can
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And don't forget in the early years of the petroleum industry gasoline was considered a byproduct and was dumped into the streams of Pennsylvania.
The documentary on the chemical waste from the production of teflon is is recent and, I believe ongoing.
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Best Les My train of thought has been replaced by a bumper car. |
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Location: west michigan
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I was part of a 10? man team that went into feed mills and cleaned them up before they were given permission to resume feed manufacturing.
Steam cleaning and dusting every day until an inspector would give the ok. The rafters and beams had to be dust free...it was a challenge. All because a worker didn't read the label on the bags correctly.
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78 SC Targa Black....gone 84 Carrera Targa White 98 Honda Prelude 22 Honda Civic SI Last edited by stevej37; 09-18-2025 at 02:41 PM.. |
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Get off my lawn!
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I often think of the damage to the oceans from WW2. Hundreds of large ships and submarines sunk full of fuel and crew. Mega thousands of gallons of fuel gasoline and oil and explosives.
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Glen 49 Year member of the Porsche Club of America 1985 911 Carrera; 2017 Macan 1986 El Camino with Fuel Injected 350 Crate Engine My Motto: I will never be too old to have a happy childhood! |
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What?
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10's or 100's of thousands of gallons of fuel and oil or even millions of gallons in how much water? The sheer volume is staggering. The world's oceans are big place.
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________________________________________ Eric Hahl 85 911 to 73RS backdate, a.k.a. "Gretchen" (SOLD) 2015 981 Cayman S (Sold) 23 Outback Wilderness & 23 BMW R1250GS |
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Model Citizen
Join Date: May 2007
Location: The Voodoo Lounge
Posts: 18,956
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George Carlin's perspective:
"The planet is fine...the people are •••••d"
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"I would be a tone-deaf heathen if I didn't call the engine astounding. If it had been invented solely to make noise, there would be shrines to it in Rome" |
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I live near the 3M headquarters and in their early years, like many companies just got rid of waste wherever they could. Now in order to build on any of these pieces of land, the soil has to be decontaminated.
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Rutager West 1977 911S Targa Chocolate Brown |
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Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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"Scientists also don’t know the exact number of barrels, though a previous estimate suggests there are more than 25,000."
![]() Back in the 19th century, the Chicago River was an open sewer due to becoming a repository for industrial waste and raw sewage that contaminated the city's drinking water and resulted in numerous outbreaks of cholera and typhoid. The river's flow was actually reversed at one point to keep pollution from flowing into Lake Michigan and entering the city's water supply. The Chicago River is now much cleaner than in the past, but it's still not safe for drinking.
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'67 912, '70 911T, '81 911SC, '89 3.2 Targa - all sold before prices went crazy '13 BMW 335i coupe - current DD '67 VW Karmann Ghia convt. & '63 VW Beetle ragtop - ongoing projects |
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Almost Banned Once
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- Peter |
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Location: Chicago, IL
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https://www.wttw.com/chicago-river-tour/how-chicago-reversed-river-animated The other one was raising the city - over about a decade, more or less the entire city was raised up between about 5 and 15 feet. The river today is good enough to swim and paddle in. Except for Bubbly Creek in ca. Bridgeport, which has many feet of nasty industrial waste from the 19th century at the bottom of it.
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'80 SC Targa Avondale, Chicago, IL |
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Get off my lawn!
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To this day, the USS Arizona is still leaking every day. And we tried to remove all the oil possible. I wonder how many of the beaches of the islands in the Pacific had oil slicks that nature had to take care of. I remember hearing of a few that washed up in Europe.
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Glen 49 Year member of the Porsche Club of America 1985 911 Carrera; 2017 Macan 1986 El Camino with Fuel Injected 350 Crate Engine My Motto: I will never be too old to have a happy childhood! |
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First half on my career was with an environmental remediation company. I was the Project Manager for at least a dozen sites cleaned up under CERCLA/RCRA EPA administration. American industry did a lot of nasty scheiss for decades out of pure ignorance and/or a desire to minimize costs.
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Ponder all the radioactivity that was in the atmosphere when we were kids, from the above ground nuke testing.
As for chemicals and general trash, abad as we were, it's nothing compared to Asia now. Have a look at India, or China. Have a look at how much pollution comes from shipping that nobody talks about. |
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Leadfoot Geezer
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Quote:
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'67 912, '70 911T, '81 911SC, '89 3.2 Targa - all sold before prices went crazy '13 BMW 335i coupe - current DD '67 VW Karmann Ghia convt. & '63 VW Beetle ragtop - ongoing projects |
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And people still use round up.
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90% of the plastics in the ocean come from two rivers. One in china and the other in India. No surprises really.
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