Environmental Protection

1. 59

   tirelesstravelerposted 8 years ago

   The state of California, with absolute sanctions from the EPA ,demolished a portion to the old Oakland Bay Bridge this morning.  Thus destroying an Eco-system that has been developing for the the nearly 75 years. The shallow water piers that go 250 feet into the silt, according to boaters who navigate, these waters were alive with ocean life.  The EPA who watched as thousands of pounds of explosives were used to blow up this structure assure us no wild life was harmed. There are 12 more of these piers that are scheduled to be imploded, at the cost of 10 million dollars each). Because they will be imploded they won't cause any damage.   This from the same EPA who assures us that building a sports stadium extending into San Francisco Bay won't harm any ocean life either.

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   1. 90

      Genna Eastposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Is this the demolition where they used air curtains to minimize harm to marine wildlife?  I would think the sound of the explosions, alone, would do damage, but I'm no expert.  I'm sorry to hear of this.  Was there an alternate plan for the demolition?

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      1. 59

         tirelesstravelerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Genna, That would be the same air curtain surrounded demolition. The alternative was way worse. The original bridge was designed and built in 5 years. While not completely sure how long the new bridge took, I believe the new bridge it was around 12 years and it was only half the bridge.  The stabilizing rods are already rotting because of the salt water.

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   2. 61

      Richard Niehposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting news. I live in the UK so I am not very familiar with news in the US. However, my previous employer was Siemens Energy and they spent more than 10 millions per year to take care of environmental regulations for building the substations and generations. However, they are still building them with enormous of tax money. English is always quite proud of their health and environment system and considered themselves the best in the world but they still modify their substations every 20 years  when life cycle of the electrical equipment is normally 40 years but you can sometimes see 100 years old equipment is used. Every modification they make is harmful to environment and they still spend millions in transmission systems and more than 1 billion on generations.
      
      Well, from company like Siemens or EDF, they will be pretty happy about it with consistent income every year. Still, it is an race between profit and truly caring about the environment.

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2. 59

   tirelesstravelerposted 8 years ago

   Richard, I am just shaking my head at the lack of good sense in the environmental world.   I am shaking my head at the replacement of substations after 20 years when 40 would be fine.  It's so much better to be wasteful than actually do something for the environment..

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3. 86

   DzyMsLizzyposted 8 years ago

   Just like the rest of the government, the EPA has been bought out by special interests.  They no longer serve as actual environmental protection, but rather as a protection racket for their puppetmasters.  It is disgusting!
   
   As far as the rotting rods go--that's less because of the salt water than because they ordered inferior quality steel from China instead of providing the jobs to American workers, as was done when the bridge was built originally:  it was a major factor in bringing us out of the great depression of that era.

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