SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Many are going to ask, "What's so weird about this one corner?" and I'm here to answer.
The end of Irving Avenue, where it meets Moffat Street, in Ridgewood, Queens, is the most radioactive spot in the entire state of New York, and would be the northeast's if not for NJ's McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County (called "the most contaminated base" in 2007 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency).
In 1918, chemical engineer Alcan Hirsch, and his brother, mining chief Marx Hirsch, opened a chemical plant where today sits most of the businesses on Irving Ave's north side. In 1920, they christen it Hirsch Laboratories, and later added the mining company Molybdenum Corporation (aka Molycorp). The Hirsch brothers sold the lab in 1923 to Harry Wolff and Max Alport, who renamed it Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, but continued their mining operations, and supplied W-A Chemical with the rare-earth metals needed to produce a huge list of products.
The plant processed Monazite sand, which, when treated with Sulfuric Acid, separates into the rare-earth Sodium Sulfate, but also the radioactive waste known as Thorium Pyrophosphate.
It wasn't till the United States' nuclear weapons program in 1942, known as the Manhattan Project, that Thorium became useful. Until 1947, when the Atomic Energy Commission began to purchase the fertile heavy element from Wolff-Alport, and for the full 20-years prior, the Thorium waste was simply dumped into the area's sewers.
"Thorium waste dumped into the area's sewers." Amazing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Monday February 15 2016, @12:52AM
Simply normal business practice for many businesses: externalise your costs. Make the taxpayer pay for clean up of the mess that your business creates.
It's possible because of 2 reasons:
1. Lack of appropriate regulations
2. Where regulations exist, starve the regulatory authority of funds required to actually implement and manage the regulations.
The whole push for "lower taxes" -- that's what it is all about: wealthy people don't want to be responsible for the messes that they create.
Another thought along the same lines: If you had a business where you knew that you could hire a bunch of new employees and each one would bring in a profit of many times their total cost of employment, you would do it, wouldn't you? So why do people oppose hiring more auditors at the IRS? THis isn't "small government", it's "crippled government".
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 15 2016, @01:02AM
I see you tried to emulate their practice by dumping your textual waste into the comment section.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday February 15 2016, @02:44AM
This is correct, and the reason it works so well is because the political system is for sale.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday February 15 2016, @03:33AM
Actually many mining companies are avoiding regulations by simply going bankrupt after authorities pressure becomes an issue. They are distributing all the profit as soon as possible in an anticipation of the bust. The only way to implement any responsibility is by going after owners, including former owners and bankers. Yes, including stock holders, pension funds and eventually you and I. This is of course true for any business, just not that obvious.
This particular garage is the same Molycop with shares in $70's thanks to Goldman, which is now in single cents.
https://www.google.com/search?q=molycorp+chart&gws_rd=ssl [google.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Monday February 15 2016, @04:55AM
If there were effective regulation, if would prevent pollution before the mining companies started operating and certainly before any profits are distributed.
The fact that a business that requires a long time to establish and is fixed in place can pollute, distribute profit to shareholders and then shut down before any effective regulatory action shows just how broken the regulatory system is in extractive industries.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 15 2016, @02:33PM
One of the debaters claimed that eliminating ALL regulations would raise the income of ALL americans by more than $20,000.
What's the cost of the cancer from the thorium dumping?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]