A Red State wins again...
 

Once again a Red State has shown us how awesome the good ole boy network is and how great lax regulations can be. Texas taught us this back in April when a fertilizer plant exploded causing havoc among several schools and a nursing home whom were all with in a thousand yards of the plant, which was right dead center of a residential neighborhood thanks to lax zoning laws.

Well fast forward to today, CHARLESTON, W.Va (yes they have one too) a chemical storage company called "Freedom Industries" whom had its storage tanks located just a few feet away from Elk river (literally a few feet) has sprung a leak and contaminated the drinking water for nine counties and around 300 thousand people.

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/qQ...706700d18c.jpg

The chemical is a foaming agent used for the wonderful world of lax regulation, otherwise known as the coal mining industry. Now a state of emergency has been called by both the governor and followed up by the president. (yey Vendillza can now blame Obama) the National guard is now being sent in to hand out drinking water..

We don't need no stinking regulations, the companies will do the right thing.. Screw that hippy solar and wind power, that's shit is just ignorant.. Freedom hell yea, drink up it tastes great!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-peo...ssues-in-w-va/

that is just terrible

This is what happens when Obama prints $65 billion a month.

plenty of "blue states" with nuclear plants in habitated regions.

I don't get it... accident happened and you turn it into a political issue? What does red/blue/regulation/non-regulation have to do with anything?

Wow, and it says there is no way to treat the water.

well it can be pretty much a complicated issue. Basically it boils down to two schools of thought; the first one is a free enterprise should be allowed to conduct business without an exorbitant amount of constraints placed on it by the government. The second is that certain industries need to be heavily regulated and those regulations enforced to protect the greater good.

The first point of view basically views regulations as just an additional tax upon business thereby limiting their ability to profit. Personally I think regulations are good thing as long as they are applied intelligently and enforced rigorously. Stupid regulations are stupid. But there are a lot of good regulations that should be enforced with strong oversight by Congress.

In the two examples listed by the OP strict enforcement of existing regulations probably could have gone a long way towards preventing or limiting the damage is caused.

:2 cents:

maybe the op parked his van and set-up camp next to the river there. :1orglaugh

States like Texas and WV are notorious for their lax zoning laws that allow things like this chemical storage facility to sit right next to their drinking water supply, or as in the Texas example a fertilizer plant with highly explosive chemicals with houses and schools next door.

It's political, because their bad polices have allowed this to happen because they seem to think companies should be free to do what they want. They push this same mentality on the federal level, so it's good to show what happens in their own states that follow their own lack of standards.

nuclear plants by state

http://www.world-nuclear.org/uploade...uclear_map.jpg

most vulnerable nuclear plants in us
http://i.livescience.com/images/i/15...110318d-02.jpg

8 out of 10 of the most dangerous and vulnerable nuclear plants are in blue states.

total population at risk > 40 million people.

wtg blue states on zoning regs.!

Right now, the biggest problem with regulations is that there is NO congressional oversight.

All of the federal agencies that are churning out 10s of thousands of regulations on businesses every year, are doing so without ANYONE in congress voting on, or even seeing, them first. Remember that regulators are only composed of two types of people. 1. A political administrator that has never started or run any kind of business and has ZERO appreciation of what affect his regulations will have on trying to run a business. 2. A representative of the largest players in a given field of business who is strongly motivated to create a situation where the cost of starting a business in that field is so high that only the biggest players can cope, and it keeps out any small competition or competititve startup. This is the reason that regulations are out of control, and giant monopolistic corporations are taking over more and more.


.:2 cents:


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one day planet will dump a huge shit on us

There is another side of this that is very common. States do have regulations that are ignored by companies because they know that most states or the feds don't hire enough staff to be out in the field checking for violations.

The normal pattern for most of the regulatory agencies that I have dealt with is they spend the majority of their time looking at businesses they already caught.

As an example, we went for over 20 years without an OSHA inspection. Then a disgruntled employee called them and made up a bullshit list of allegations about things we were doing illegally. OSHA came in for 2 days and went through every line on the complaint and when they were finished they found nothing. No fines.

Since that event about 5 years ago they have been back 3 times. Twice they did fine us for stupid stuff. $2750 for having the wrong nozzle on a couple of airhoses. They have to have holes up toward the tip. And they dinged us for another $2500 for having an electrical box with knockouts. The knockouts were in place, but it didn't matter.

That's the way it goes with government. We are on their shit list so I expect we will see them again this year.

Actually these lax regulations come down to the states themselves and their zoning codes. Congress doesn't tell anyone where they can place a chemical storage tank or where they can't. The EPA has regulations that say how it has to be constructed and what has to be in place, but it's the states that have the final say where stuff like this can be built.

In both instances they both could have been prevented had state zoning regulations been in place that didn't allow a chemical storage facility next to a water way or didn't allow schools to be built 600 ft from a fertilizer plants and houses even closer.

It's simply state officials whom are to blame and had they taken the proper zoning regulations into consideration, chemicals would be leaking into a river right now, but rather on ground away from water that could of been decontaminated if a spill like this took place.

crockett having me on ignore only makes his comments even more lolly!

All efforts should be focused on clean renewable energy. Fossil and nuclear based energy options should be phased out ASAP.

Well it won't be..so suck it up and find a new cause.

People who share your "CAN'T DO" attitude, conveniently provide cover for the most evil corporations on the planet.

There is a significant difference between CAN'T do and WON'T do. Read again the word I used.

Minte's simply being realistic.

Human nature. We won't stop using oil until we suck the well dry. Nuclear will be required simply due to the unbelievable amount of energy we need and will need in the future.

It's ALL states!

Can't spell my name?

Spell check in the mini van not working?

What kind of a moron thinks that because of regulations there will not be any chemical spills? California has got to be the most regulated state in the union, cars have a special California listing because of the regulations.
1991 Canatara Chemical spill, 19,000 gallons of metam sodium dumped into the Sacramento River

Here's a list too big to post of just 2012 for just California of all the shit that went wrong
http://www.rtknet.org/db/erns/erns.p...te=CA&detail=0

Crocket, you are the biggest fucking troll on the forum right now, looking for a fight with no intelligence or balls to back up the Bullshit that comes out of your mouth. If I challenge you or someone else does with facts, you change the subject, what a fucking moron!

Since the year 1933, West Virginia has had a Democrat governor for 64 of 80 years. They currently have a Democrat governor and have since 2005.

But hey now, let's turn this into a Republicans are evil thread anyway.

I will make one more comment to this. We just shipped out thousands of parts for the frames of a large commerical solar array system. We invested heavily this year in new machinery to make this stuff. And when I say we..I mean I..not the government.

So hop in your car and go get a big mac. It's so simple for liberals to sit around and preach about how it should be, yet when it comes time to actually do anything, you punt.

Nuclear power is one of the safest forms of energy we have. Remembering I slept 30 feet from a reactor.

In the US, no one has died from a problem at a nuclear power plant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y_death_t oll

Want to figure out how many people have died because of wind power, 12 world wide.
3 deaths from installing solar panels in California alone
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/wha...t-power-source

I tend to agree. Although that's my view of generation 4 nuclear power plants ( and gen 3 updated plants), I think the current plants located on earthquake fault lines using 1970s level tech (non-updated) are potential big big issues. I think many are coming up on their end of life span, nevertheless.

Yeah, you have me all summed up. I am at McDonalds right now, eating a big mac, watching Fox News, and "punting".

There's no fooling you. :thumbsup

No you're not...you are back and sitting at your computer, still thinking about how it should be...and doing nothing

That explains a lot :1orglaugh

Wow. That backfired pretty quick!

It's a given that the tech that most plants go by can be improved, the facts are still the facts, in the US, no one has died from them yet.

I have done two things in my life that makes me an expert on this. One as a submariner I have to know a lot about the reactor on a submarine. By earning my "Dolphins" I have to get a good knowledge of how it all works and the safety features. They were pretty damn safe. Second, I did a lot of earthquake construction by upgrading elevators in Los Angeles. If they can have a Nuclear Reactor that's safe on a floating war ship, two on a big carrier, where one can supply enough electricity to power a city in the Philippines. Then they can build a safe reactor near cities in the US.

I would rather live near a reactor than one of those giant propane storage tanks

http://o2.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dim...756245dcfa356f
Explains what? That I will know more about nuclear power than you can ever conceive of knowing?

right on, as I mentioned I tend to agree. (btw, I'm not one of the anti-vendzilla posters here at teh gfy).
That said, fukashima was doing perfectly fine until the earthquake. The only difference between fuku and every single nuke plant we have here on fault lines is ours haven't had to withstand an earthquake and consequently, a tsunami. That's sheer luck.

I know who my haters are, you are most definitely not one of them.

Reactor technology is the highest in the US because of one person

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover

It's a good read and will fill you in more about nuclear safety

I'll certainly read that. i've come across admiral Rickover's legacy here and there, watching documentaries and such. Certainly a very very smart person. The navy is indebted to what he brought and gave.

someone needs to tell this idiot that democrats(blue) have held the governorship since 2001, the last three years the state house and senate have been democratic (blue). But never let facts get in the way of a bottom runger's political rant. :thumbsup

He's an idiot, it won't help

The FED operates independently of the government. They are really their own boss. It has nothing to do with the White House.

This is what happens when rich people pay other rich people to pay people who are not rich to look away while poor people get fucked.

I'm sure that Freedom Industries just built those tanks in the last three years (sarcasm intended). Also I'm pretty certain the governor doesn't dictate zoning codes to cities and counties, perhaps you should ask the governor of your state for a building permit and see what he tells you to do....

Is that your way of saying you were wrong?