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Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by nimbius on Sunday November 04, 2018 @12:18PM (#18376869)
I work as a professional mechanic for a small chain of truck repair shops in the midwest. This reminds me of a customer we had who owned a cemetery and was having a hard time with their front end loader...specifically, the tires.

About once a month they were spending a few thousand dollars on new tires for this brand new Kubota LA525. The tires would show excessive wear and, curiously enough, enormous golf ball sized holes that look like they were burned through with a torch. we all figured it was vandalism.

We'd recently unmounted one of the tires to replace it when a golf-ball chunk of white rock fell out and shot across the shop floor with a startling bang. Curious, I took it to our OSHA office and our inspector nearly screamed, 'Thats phosphorous!' Turns out the cemetery was built on an old lot used by a chemical transportation company. It also explained why the sod was being replaced about twice a year.

Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by toomuchtodo on Sunday November 04, 2018 @02:57PM (#18377787)
I'm always surprised how few identified Superfund sites there are.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by nimish on Sunday November 04, 2018 @03:17PM (#18377878)
It's a lot easier to toss some dirt over the land and water you polluted. With deregulatory fervor on the rise, it shouldn't be surprising that there's fewer identified sites.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by mousadafousa on Sunday November 04, 2018 @03:32PM (#18377938)
Could you explain what a superfund site is?
Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by grzm on Sunday November 04, 2018 @03:34PM (#18377947)
> "Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. Sites managed under this program are referred to as "Superfund" sites."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund

Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by microcolonel on Sunday November 04, 2018 @07:52PM (#18378994)
Fun fact: in a single Northwest Territories mine [0] lies an amount of arsenic trioxide dust sufficient to kill every mammal on earth many times over; and in the early '90s an organized labour terrorist planted and detonated a bomb inside the mine, killing nine workers who were there in spite of a strike.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine

Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by bsder on Sunday November 04, 2018 @06:59PM (#18378769)
Anywhere that Max Gergel worked:

"Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide?"

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/reading_list/indices/book...

Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by HarryHirsch on Sunday November 04, 2018 @10:39PM (#18379710)
The Gergel mess was small and in no way comparable to the PCB mess in the Hudson or the Love Canal site in Buffalo.

Chemophobiacs may remember Edward Tyczkowski, featured here in a breathless Salon article: https://www.salon.com/2004/03/23/armageddon/

He was a very talented fluorine chemist, who ran a custom synthesis and contract research outfit out of a shed in the ghetto somewhere in the South. From colleagues who knew him I understand that he was a true gentleman and righteous. He wasn't known for mishaps, but when he retired he left behind cylinders of sulfur tetrafluoride (10 times more toxic than phosgene) and perfluoroisobutylene (100 times more toxic than phosgene, supposedly the Russians had a stash because it passes through your regular gas masks) and much other stuff.

A trained chemist knows how to use SF4 without incident (I have done so myself), but it's remarkable that Tyczkowski, who recruited his workers from the ghetto - Apartheid was strong in the 1960s Southern US, didn't have deaths amongst his workforce. It shows what properly training one's workforce can do. Meanwhile Information Technology tries to achieve the perfect fit through endless rounds of interviewing and teambuilding and keeps failing.

Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by iggldiggl on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @02:31PM (#18394180)
See also http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/index.html. While you're browsing around there, you might also want to pick up a copy of "Ignition!", which I personally liked even better than the Gergel books.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by pankajdoharey on Sunday November 04, 2018 @11:23PM (#18379861)
Nice, i am surprised to see Professional Mechanic's to hang out on HN.
Re:Cemeteries are landfills, and can contain all sorts of po... by Casseres on Monday November 05, 2018 @01:00AM (#18380189)
There's at least one other Merchant Mariner (I used to be one), and I'm (now) an Air Traffic Controller.

I'm sure there's a bunch of other fields represented here.