This is what $50,000 looks like.I said it before and I’ll say it again: “environmentalism” and so-called “Global Warming” is a religion unto itself; hence, my typifying the Religious Left. It deals not so much in facts, unless they are — ahem — “inconVEnient” facts (sorry, Church Lady). It instead deals in faith.
I wrote about CFLs here and here. And here. I wrote about the first CFL mercury bulb break here — which resulted in a $2,000 bill — a pittance now, apparently.
All that I surmised about the insane Religious Left has surfaced once again:
A two-ounce (yes, you read that correctly; two ounces) mercury spill on a surface street has resulted in a $50,000 cleanup bill in Twin Falls, Idaho:
Local, state and federal agencies likely spent more than $50,000 to respond to and clean up a small mercury spill two months ago in Twin Falls, officials said this week.
The mercury, just about two teaspoons’ worth, was found the week of Sept. 15 in a parking lot outside an apartment complex at 359 and 341 Pheasant Road W. Investigators later determined it came from several thermometers intentionally broken by kids, and one family had to be temporarily evacuated from a contaminated apartment.
A number of public entities responded to the incident, including the Twin Falls Fire Department, Idaho Department of Environ-mental Quality and South CentralPublic Health District, and submitted reimbursement requests to the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security.
On Wednesday, response costs for state and local agencies were still being tallied. But they’re expected to come in between $25,000 and $30,000, said BHS spokesman Lt. Col. Tim Marsano.
In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent about $26,000 to bring in contractors for assessments of the parking lot, eight apartment units and other nearby areas, including other homes. Only one homeowner denied the agency access, according to an EPA report. The money came out of an emergency-response budget authorized through the Superfund program.
This nation has, clearly, gone off the Deep End. The fear of appearances and suits are the driving concerns. Requiring, naturally, more and greater stacks of governmental bureaucracy at every level. The “official” EPA report of the incident is here. Wow. What sacrifice.
Give me some napkins. I’ll soak it up, dig a hole, and drop in the napkins. Problem solved. And I will have gotten the napkins for free at Taco Bell. After having used their restroom for free as well.
We are a nation of blithering, indecisive, fearful, quivering Sheeple.
BZ
Give me a mini-wet/dry shop vac and I’ll clean it up, put some sand on the spill to get as much as possible, recover the mercury, filter it to get the grit out and resell it. That is why people troll garbage dumps for mercury light switches: there is money in that mercury. What is profitable to do at an individual level doesn’t scale up so well to the central garbage system that has grown up for waste management.
And just how many ‘superfund’ sites have been cleaned up to a livable standard? There are thousands of them, and I used to bicycle past one on a pretty regular basis in WNY. The lot where that is remains open, undug, unchanged, weed infested and right next to a highway as of 2003 and my last drive past it while visiting… not even fenced off. And just what will the Feds do for all of Niagara County where the entire groundwater table is polluted? If you think the guys in white suits are a hoot, how about knowing that the water just beneath the surface is toxic? And you can’t shut the county down and you are safe as long as you don’t go tromping through ditches and runoff streams… the problem with Love Canal isn’t just the old Canal, but the fact that all that work needs to be protected with plastic so that toxic material doesn’t come back into the ‘clean’ region. And it still isn’t a place you would want to actually live as no one expects that plastic to survive what is down there.
At the small scale it government is ridiculous and uses overkill, at the large scale it is incompetent and unable to live up to its promises.
It never really has been about the environment, but simply an excuse to control what you don’t own. Socialism failed to deliver economically and they won’t let go of it so they use the environment as an excuse to have the same policies. Modern environmentalists are watermelons; the outside is green but the inside is still red.
AJ: you make an excellent point; overkill in the smaller, more controllable venue.
Shop: nice watermelon analogy.
BZ
Imagine CFL’s bursting all over schools. Sheesh! The bills for the taxpayer!
Global warming and light bulbs…
Don’t eat beans, you’ll fart…
Don’t eat beef, you’ll fart…
Don’t raise beef, THEY fart…
Hell, I can drink water and get gas… We are doomed, doomed I tell ya!
Insanity appears to be catching and apparently there is no cure. I recall my time in service many years ago as a naval dental tech. We used mercury by the bottles. Guess where it went into the mouths of our patients. Yes it was mixed with a silver alloy powder to make fillings for our service men. Its a wonder we have any vets left today. Guess these new light bulbs are not so environmentally friendly. The ultimate goal of the radical environmentalist is YOU. Yes you are the pollutant. $50,000–insanity gone wild!