New Orleans - The New Atlantis - 2011

 

New Orleans - The New Atlantis

In America, the profit motive, mythical thinking and political imperative unite to defeat many of our best plans. Realistic assessment of risks and costs associated with our critical programs rarely engender serious discussion in society. The bigger the issue, such as universal healthcare or financial industry reform, the more likely that politics and the profit motive will combine to obscure the underlying issues at stake. In our current political climate, many politicians continue to propose projects and policies that defy the laws of Nature. The liberal politician might make popular promises to fix everything that is wrong. Conservatives, as a group, might promise to obstruct legitimate change. Meanwhile, accumulation of power and attainment of elite status are the real goals of most politicians.

 

Likewise, the profit motive can blind unprincipled business people. Why else would we see a high-pressure natural gas transmission line snaking through the residential neighborhoods of San Bruno, California? In a cost saving measure, the pipeline’s owner skipped a previously funded retrofit of a nearby line. Is it too much to ask that retrofits of high-pressure gas lines running through residential neighborhoods include automatic or remote control shut-off valves? When it ruptured, the thirty-inch San Bruno pipeline ejected explosive natural gas into a peaceful residential neighborhood.

 

As with the Deepwater Horizon Rig, once the gas ignited, a massive explosion was only the start of the catastrophe. Built without automatic shutoff valves, the San Bruno line took almost two hours to close. By that time, the area adjacent to the rupture had burned so hot that four missing persons appear to have vaporized, without a trace. The heat generated was so intense that more than a day later, rescue workers could not enter several former residences.

 

As if struck by mass amnesia, operators, regulators and legislators responsible for the San Bruno gas transmission line ignored the safety needs of thousands of residents. Displaying mythical thinking in their “It cannot happen here” attitude, ignorance and the profit motive combined to allow another human-caused catastrophe. Owner and operator of the gas line, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has only $1 billion in its insurance fund. If recent human-created disaster payouts are any indicator, PG&E’s losses in upcoming litigation could bankrupt the company. For lack of foresight, PG&E now faces downward price pressure on its stock value. Inevitably, the ratepayers whose community went up in flames will pay the price to fix the problem.

 

Five years after Hurricane Katrina battered and flooded New Orleans, Louisiana, conflicting plans, pledges and promises to rebuild the city and wetlands abound. When mythical thinking emanates from so many stakeholders at once, the result is an onslaught of Atlantean elite thinking, right here in the United States.

 

Only 180 of New Orleans’s 350 square miles consist of dry land. Originally built on a knoll surrounded by wetlands and the Mississippi River, decades of groundwater pumping left most of New Orleans below sea level. With a 10,000-mile long hodgepodge of channels, dikes, levees and pumping stations, it is amazing that New Orleans survived intact until Hurricane Katrina flooded it in 2005.

 

Post-Katrina, independent environmental and engineering studies concluded that a pre-Katrina size New Orleans could not stand forever against rising oceans and hurricane-driven storms. In addition to storm surge, the prospect of simultaneous flooding from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain add to the city’s woes. Despite the thoroughness of the studies, self-serving politicians, leading a complicit citizenry, ignored those uncomfortable findings. As we learned from the Lost City of Atlantis, perceived human needs, political fealty and an incipient profit motive can later manifest as both human and ecological catastrophes.

 

Over five years after Katrina, stakeholders ignore the imperative to create a smaller New Orleans, opting for a more costly “full city” approach. Government agencies have bought few, if any of the most vulnerable parcels as buffers to future flooding. Today, costly and incomplete levees only partially protect the city from category five hurricanes. Almost all of us wish to save New Orleans, yet few Americans are aware of its perilous geographic perch. No one knows how much money it might take to fully protect the larger city, let alone rebuild after another flood.

 

In August 2010, the country of Pakistan received unprecedented rainfall in its highlands. A month later, at the peak of flooding, over 62,000 square miles of low-lying countryside were impassible. That inundated area could hold 177 cities the size of New Orleans. Only extreme optimists see Pakistan returning to its pre-flood level of economic activity within five years. With huge losses of natural habitat and farmland, skeptics say that Pakistan may never fully recover. In both size and destructive power, the recent flood in Pakistan represented a quantum leap of destruction in an already troubled economy.

 

Likewise, until Katrina, New Orleans residents had never seen floodwater cover ninety percent of their city’s geographical boundaries. At the time of the city’s founding, vast wetlands defended New Orleans from hurricane-related storm surges. Potential flooding from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain were then unknown. Of paramount importance to early settlers was the ability to defend the city against other humans. Using the river like a moat, early settlers built a town deemed defensible against marauders. To this day, the Mississippi River surrounds a portion of New Orleans on three sides. Now the most likely potential marauder is the river itself.

 

Since 1963, the U.S. Army Core of Engineers (COE) has used the Old River Control Structure to control the flow of the Mississippi River as it approaches the delta. Located 335 nautical miles upriver from the Mississippi River's Gulf outfall, the Old River Control Structure employs floodgates to fix the ratio of water flowing down the Mississippi River and to the Atchafalaya River at 70/30. After an unsuccessful nineteenth century attempt to straighten the flow of the Mississippi River, the Old River's steeper gradient to the sea favored stronger flow into the Atchafalaya River. Over time, siltation blocked more of the Mississippi River flow, resulting in a predicted permanent capture of the Mississippi River by the Atchafalaya River. The “old river” that the Old River Control Structure attempts to thwart is the cutoff to the Atchafalaya River.

 

Siltation, dredging and a lesser gradient to the sea combine to threaten ocean and river navigation in and around New Orleans. At the Old River Control Structure, the COE diverts seventy percent of available Mississippi River water down through New Orleans. Without the combined effects of higher water levels and increased flushing action, New Orleans would no longer remain viable as a deep water port. Without the constant scouring of the Mississippi River Channel at New Orleans, ships entering port might run aground on sandbars or snags, as did the steamboats of olden days.

 

If for any reason, or no reason, the Mississippi River were to retake its natural course, New Orleans would soon become a backwater. A permanent new channel would cut its way through the Atchafalaya Swamp. By permanent, I mean that eons might pass before siltation along Atchafalaya River would block its flow and thus send the main flow back again through New Orleans. Upon losing its unnatural share of river flow, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana would lose their status as deep water ports.

 

What is there to prevent this natural change from happening? Only the Old River Control Structure, built on poles sunk deep into primordial river mud, stands against the flow. Having outlived its expected service life, some sections of the Old River Control Structure vibrate at ever-higher frequencies. If river-induced vibration were to rise, agitation of the support poles might liquefy the underlying mud. Once loosened from its moorings, gravity might not hold the structure firmly in place. Relentlessly, the river seeks its natural course. At a time unknown, the weakness of structure and the power of Nature shall combine to destroy both the floodgates and levees.

 

Read Chapter One

Read Chapter Three

Read Chapter Four

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By James McGillis at 05:40 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

The Story of Atlantis - Myth or Fact? - 2011

 

The Story of Atlantis - Myth or Fact?

Chapter One

What do the Lost City of Atlantis, the Space Shuttle Atlantis and New Orleans, Louisiana have in common?” In this series of four articles, we shall discover how each of their stories intertwines with our own.

Soon to be retired from service, the Space Shuttle Atlantis completed its penultimate mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2010. During that mission, Atlantis delivered a nine-ton Russian habitation module. That new section added cooling capacity and expanded living space within the existing Russian module.  

In July 2010, an ammonia-coolant pump attached to the outside of the ISS failed. The loss of that pump cut cooling capacity inside the U.S. module by half. If necessary, the improved Russian module could have provided life-sustaining shelter for the crew. In order to escape that fate, the crew powered-down all nonessential services. During three spacewalks, conducted over several weeks, two crew members attempted to replace the critical assembly. Not including preparation and recovery time, the third and final spacewalk lasted over seven hours. 

While conducting an earlier spacewalk, ISS astronauts had encountered leaky coolant connections. Upon reentering the vehicle, frozen ammonia crystals adhering to their spacesuits vaporized, creating a poison gas. During the 2010 pump replacement, astronauts observed ammonia crystals emanating like snowflakes from coolant quick-disconnects. In the vacuum of space, the astronauts became gravitational bodies massive enough to attract those tiny crystals. After the earlier contamination event, NASA put new procedures in place. Spacewalkers must now remain outside until sunshine evaporates any adhered ammonia crystals. At the rate of 15.7 orbits of Earth each day, the crew never waits long for another sunrise at the ISS. 

After 2006, a limited number of shuttle missions remained before retirement of the fleet. Using prudent planning, that year mission planners positioned four replacement coolant pumps on board the ISS. After shuttle missions conclude in late 2011, only Russian, or contracted rockets will visit the ISS for at least the following four years. Adequate spares on-board were an appropriate hedge against the need for a resupply via disposable rocket.  

On the third spacewalk of August 2010, the crew successfully replaced the failed pump. If the other functional pump had failed in the interim, heat damage to the ISS was a significant risk. Now we realize that NASA was a single failed-pump away from ordering evacuation of the U.S. Module. Later, calm-voiced NASA’s spokespeople belied the seriousness of the situation, discussing the pump replacement as if it were routine.

With electrical power and cooling capacity reduced for over two weeks, the ISS environment became warmer and darker. Not ironically, that is also happening here on Earth. With a steady increase in human-created carbon emissions floating in our atmosphere, particulate haze further darkens Earth's now warmer sky.

With crew safety uppermost in their minds, NASA and its international partners endeavor to keep the ISS functioning. Unlike the level of public interest during the Space Race, few of us today follow ISS news with regularity. As astounding as spacewalks may be, activities on the ISS appear to happen in slow motion. If we look past the disarming calm of weightlessness, human activity in space provides excellent parallels for our lives on Earth.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis shares its name with the lost or mythical City of Atlantis. Those who believe that Atlantis once existed, call it “lost”. Those who believe that Atlantis was only a story, call it a “myth”. After studying the subject for myself, I believe that the Atlantean culture existed on Earth, ending about 12,000 years ago. During their prominence, the Atlantean elite developed an advanced understanding of crystals as power sources. Lost in the Atlantean deluge, some ancient scientific principles we only now rediscover, as aspects of new energy.

As it happened, hubris and greed were the seeds of Atlantean destruction. In ancient Atlantis, energy often behaved differently than it does on Earth today. After many generations of transcending the effects of friction and heat, the Atlantean elite did not believe that mechanical or thermal failure were possible. Therefore, they expected their mechanical and electrical devices to operate indefinitely. 

Ignored by the elite, rapid-onset global warming had changed the underlying energy principles here on Earth. Like wax melting down the inside of a candle jar, large areas of Atlantis slowly slipped beneath the ocean waves. As the oceans rose around them, the Atlantean elite paid little attention. Possessing both arrogance and supreme self-confidence, they believed that they controlled Nature, not the other way around.

For a while, pumps protected what parts of Atlantean culture remained. However, a relentless period of global warming had overstressed their environment. As Earth energies became hotter and denser, the laws of thermodynamics came fully into play. One by one, water pumps that had worked for millennia began to fail. Similar to the cooling pump failure on Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2010, each Atlantean pump that failed put additional stress on those remaining. Eventually, a cascade of failures brought all Atlantean pumps to a halt. Soon thereafter, the advanced civilization known as Atlantis vanished beneath ocean waves.  

Clinging to both their gold and old energy thinking, most of the Atlantean elite perished in the flood. The few surviving elite embedded knowledge in their DNA regarding their failures. Also embedded was their old addiction to power, with which they had controlled the Atlantean citizenry. In a balancing of fate, an almost equal number of non-elite citizens survived the fall of Atlantis. Although non-elite survivors carried no exploitation gene, they embedded genetic knowledge regarding human-caused disasters. Their progeny held an unspoken desire to avoid catastrophe. Their approach to life on Earth featured forethought and planning.  

Most humans alive today are descendants of Atlantean seed. Therefore, we have a natural predilection towards ‘elite think’, ‘citizen think’ or a combination of both. Both ancient and current elite thinkers exhibit hubris, greed and indifference toward their fellow humans. During World War II, the Nazi elite learned to disguise their message through doublespeak and inflammatory obfuscation, often dressed as entertainment. Through media promotion of their causes, the elite may try to confound, confuse or sedate us. However, each of us retains the ability to detect the ratios of Atlantean elite or Atlantean citizen energies present at any given time and place.  

While reading mass consciousness, we may compare current levels of greed and hubris with those of hope or caring. Where we fall along that scale, ranging from self-serving to selfless indicates how far we have traveled toward enlightenment. When critical systems on the ISS include plans for routine maintenance or replacement, it appears that we have learned our Atlantean lessons. When we observe inadequate planning, testing and operation of critical life-support systems on Earth, we see that Atlantean-elite thinking remains present in our culture. 

Each time we hear, “It can't happen here”, “failsafe” or “unsinkable”, we know that Atlantean elite-thinking is involved. By ignoring safety precautions, one tacitly accepts as truth the magical thinking of the Atlantean elite. By purposefully ignoring salient facts, humans continue to employ Atlantean elite-thinking in a self-serving way.  

On April 15, 2012, the unsinkable steamship Titanic will pass its one hundredth anniversary lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. In the 1958 Hollywood production of 'A Night to Remember', Eric Ambler’s screenplay alluded to the horror of death by drowning. In James Cameron’s top-grossing 1998 production of ‘Titanic’, an attractive young star freezes to death before our eyes. Fifty years from now, will yet another filmmaker refloat the Titanic and its Atlantean tale of folly?

More recently, greed and hubris caught up with the owners and operators of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Oil producer BP p.l.c. and its partners came to believe that they were immune to the laws of thermodynamics. In April 2010, while drilling off the coast of Louisiana, uncontrolled venting of hydrocarbon gas from a well resulted in an explosion and fire. Less than two days later, the twisted remains of the rig toppled to the seafloor. In addition to eleven deaths and many injuries that night, an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil poured into gulf waters before operators could seal the well.  

No single person understood how all of the safety systems on the Deepwater Horizon platform worked. Before the explosion, undocumented modifications to on-board safety systems had precipitated numerous false alarms. After extensive undocumented modifications, no one knew if the systems still worked in concert with each other. Even so, top executives in both the owning and the leasing corporations had faith that their machines would not fail. Besides, if a failure occurred, the blowout preventer was there to save the day. Contented that no real emergency might occur, rig operators silenced many of the alarms. Later that night, everyone on-board received a rude awakening. Imagine being the individual who silenced those gas alarms, later to find a nightmare of explosive reality threatening all on-board.  

The Atlantean-elite thinking prevalent on both the Titanic and the Deepwater Horizon resulted in epic sea disasters. Over the energy bridges of time and space, we can almost hear the calls of the few citizens of Atlantis who survived. After triggering as many phantom alarms as they could, our Atlantean citizen ancestors fell silent once again. 

Along with the fall of Atlantis, there was a world population crash. With slow rates of recovery, it was millennia before another advanced civilization arose on Earth. Post Atlantis, only cultures that embraced the “profit motive” could qualify as advanced civilizations. Since that time, Atlantean-elite thinking has combined with the profit motive to create countless scenes of human war, death and destruction. In the tradition of Atlantis, today’s old energy elites hide their real motives, including their lust for both power and profit. 

Read Chapter Two

Read Chapter Three

Read Chapter Four

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By James McGillis at 06:15 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link

Trucking Industry Legend Kevin Rutherford Creates the Ultimate Freightliner Coronado RV Custom Rig - 2011

 

Trucking Industry Legend Kevin Rutherford Creates the Ultimate Freightliner Coronado RV Custom Rig

As we pulled in at the Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles, California, I noticed something unusual. Squinting in disbelief, I spotted the longest semi pulling a fifth-wheel RV rig I had ever seen.

 

Up front was a new Freightliner Coronado on-highway traditional tractor with a flat top sleeper. Pure white, with lots of chrome and polished aluminum, it featured a full sleeper compartment. With its twin 150-gallon diesel tanks, one could drive this beauty coast-to-coast without a fuel stop. On the dual rear axles, four super-single tires took the place of the usual eight. If this rig were pulling a standard van, with super-singles all around, it would become a 10-wheeler, rather than an 18-wheeler. Fewer tires on the ground create lower rolling resistance, translating into higher highway mileage. The engine of success for the Freightliner Coronado has always been continuous improvement. This custom tractor was no exception to that rule.

 

To the rear, a modified hitch supported a triple-axle, Voltage Toy Hauler fifth wheel, manufactured by Dutchmen. With the Voltage alone measuring over forty-two feet, the full rig measured almost seventy feet. That, of course, did not include the little Smart Car, parked out front.

 

After looking at this astounding road machine, I thought that the owner must be an on-highway trucker on vacation or an eccentric individual, to say the least. Freightliner Diesel tractors mated to fifth wheel RVs are common enough, but most such units look like a modified SUV. This RV tractor was the long-wheelbase type, typically seen pulling a fifty-three foot trailer along our interstate highways. It was not until the next morning that we met the owners of this unusual land yacht.

 

That morning, we sat enjoying a cup of coffee in the warm California sun. Soon, we saw a woman pull up in the Smart Car and unload groceries into the coach. Before we knew it, we were in conversation with Leesa Campbell and her husband, Kevin Rutherford. An accountant, with experience in trucking operations and truck building, Kevin also hosts a daily "Letstruck" Sirius satellite radio show. Even with multiple careers to manage and many trade shows to attend, Kevin and Leesa enjoy a full-time RV lifestyle.

 

Soon, Carrie and I were taking the grand tour, starting with the Freightliner high style sleeper cab and finishing in the palatial Voltage toy hauler. With the floor set low in the coach, the ceilings appeared to be ten feet high. There was no claustrophobia there or forward in the master suite, with its two separate entrances. In the salon, there were generous living, dining and galley spaces.

 

In the stern, the spacious toy-hauler garage also served as Kevin’s broadcast studio. After stopping for the night, Kevin rolls the Smart Car down a full body-width ramp. Then he closes the garage and uses an innovative, piling-rig-sequence to lower his radio studio into position. At show time, Leesa sits amidships, screening the calls, while Kevin chats live with truckers from all over the country.

 

Focusing as he does on “trucking as a business”, Kevin Rutherford is a contributing author on OverDriveOnline, where he has published eighty-three articles to date. On his own http:// LetsTruck.com website, Kevin features forums where members share operating efficiency and mileage tips. That information can make the difference between profit and loss on the road. He also offers a free mileage-minder program, called My Gauges. Freightliner owner or not, members logging in can input their fuel purchases and calculate their mileage statistics. This leads to friendly competition for top positions in the website’s unofficial mileage championship. Although it is nowhere as large as Facebook, Kevin's 31,000-member LetsTruck.com social media website helps owner-operators create efficiency and profitability.

 

Although a casual observer might think that Kevin Rutherford’s rig represents the ultimate RV power trip, it does more than look good on the road. Known for “walking the walk”, Kevin’s personal rig averages close to ten miles per gallon. Few, if any Class A diesel motor coaches attain that level of fuel efficiency.

 

At a "truck of the future" factory in Tennessee, Kevin Rutherford builds innovation into every Freightliner custom Signature Series Truck. Using Freightliner Coronado tractors, he builds the big rig of the future for on-highway use today. Before customer delivery, they install custom tractor sleeper cabs, plus gauges and level-monitoring for fuel and exhaust system modifications, even chrome steps, if you choose. Many of their custom rigs include advanced oil filtering systems and super-single tires. Utilizing those and other modifications, Kevin’s trucks achieve both high mileage and low maintenance costs. Even in today’s economy, demand for fuel-efficient, low maintenance trucks is high. At the time of our meeting, Kevin was working through a backlog of seventy new Freightliners. Currently, his factory delivers two finished units per workday, each for sale at over $100,000.

 

Although it is both a showstopper and fun to drive, Kevin’s personal rig is also a test bed for innovations of all kinds. One example is its Bose Ride vibration-cancelling truck seats, manufactured by the Bose Corporation. Using a technology similar to their noise-cancelling headphones, the seats offer a precise counter-force to road bumps, both large and small. To demonstrate the vibration damping effect, technicians drop a basketball on the seat platform. No matter how hard they throw it down, the basketball sticks without a bounce. Once installed in the cab of a Kevin Rutherford tractor, the Bose ride and perceived noise level are far superior to conventional air-ride seats.

 

After our tour, it was almost time for Leesa and Kevin’s three-hour Saturday afternoon broadcast. After thanking Kevin and Leesa for their hospitality, we departed for San Francisco. Looking back, I laughed at my initial assumptions about Kevin's big rig. Rather than an eccentric, resource-wasting RV nut, our neighbor turned out to be a trucking industry legend and visionary entrepreneur. Can you imagine what might happen if in 2012 Kevin put his talents toward creating the ultimate Freightliner off-road RV?

 

When towing, our pickup truck and travel trailer rig averages about eight miles per gallon. Kevin Rutherford and his Freightliner/Voltage fifth wheel rig consistently average better than that. In both trucking and the RV world, appearances can be deceiving.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 04:31 PM | Technology | Comments (0) | Link

"WindSong" - 1970 Ericson 35 Mk II - Voted Best Liveaboard Sailboat - 2011

 

"WindSong" - 1970 Ericson 35 Mk II - Voted Best Liveaboard Sailboat

In 1995, I became the third owner of WindSong, a 1970 Ericson 35 Mk II sailboat. In the past fifteen years, I have sailed her to Isthmus Cove at Santa Catalina Island over fifty times, often with adventure, but always in safety.

 

What makes a Bruce King Design such a pleasure to sail? First is the sail plan, with plenty of power, even in even a moderate breeze. Second is 5000 lb. of lead, encapsulated in her sleek fin keel. Working together, even under extreme conditions, those two aspects assure safekeeping for captain and crew. In high winds or heavy seas, a King design incorporates such a strong “righting moment” that there is little danger of a knockdown. Even on those rare occasions when her semi-balanced spade rudder shall breached the surface, I know I am in God's hands, and therefore shall not fail. Short of a gravitational eclipse, there is no prospect of turning-turtle. Even when the tattles tail and all sheets are to the wind, a Bruce King yacht shall carry you home. Thank you, Bruce King.

 

Known for designing the most beautiful sailing yachts of the past fifty years, some ask if Bruce King shaved performance in favor of good looks. An observer of Bruce King designs from the 1960s until his retirement in 2004 knows that early in his career, he "got it right". Over the years, he modified his original designs no more than necessary to execute the requirements of any particular project. As time passed, he advanced, rather than hackneyed his developing design aesthetic.

 

Once delivered, Ericson Yachts owned the designs. To his chagrin, Bruce King's artistic and aesthetic control ended when the design left his drawing board. Hence, the chop-shop stern modifications on various later model Ericson sailboats.

 

Whether it was the “Classic Plastic” Ericson 35-2 or one of his later super yachts, we see a gentle evolution of form throughout King’s career. In a testament to the young Bruce King’s abilities, almost 600 of the 7000 yachts attributed to his designs were Ericson 35s.

 

With an overall length of 34’ 8” and only a 27’ 10” waterline, why would the designer give up almost five feet of boat length to the bow and stern overhangs? While heeling moderately under sail, the leeward waterline of the Ericson 35-2 lengthens to nearly thirty-two feet. In the sailing realm, longer waterlines equal greater hull speed. Combining that clever design element with a concentration of weight amidships minimizes the “mass moment of inertia”. In plain English, an Ericson 35 sailor can find peace in the three dimensional time-space reality we call ocean sailing. If you like your peace with a dash of excitement, then WindSong is the boat for you.

 

Known as a racer/cruiser in its early days, most Ericson 35 - 2 sailboats have now transformed into coastal cruisers or unique liveaboard sailboats. Either is a task for which the boat is ideally suited. From Marina del Rey to Two Harbors at Santa Catalina Island is over thirty nautical miles. On many of my transits to the island, I overhauled and passed boats larger and longer than mine. With the élan of a racer and the accommodations of a cruiser, there is no better boat to spend a few leisurely days and nights on a mooring at Isthmus Cove.

 

Finding myself suddenly single in 2003, I became a live-aboard in Marina del Rey, California. After a few sleepless nights, staring at the ceiling of the cabin, I recalled that living aboard WindSong was part of the adventure that I sought in life. As early as 1972, on a visit to the LA Boat Show, I decided that I wanted to live aboard a sailboat. In 2003, with homelessness as my alternative, it took me a while to become comfortable with my dream come true.

 

During the next two years, I spent more hours aboard WindSong than ashore. Rekindling my executive recruiting business, took many hours of telephone and computer time. By late 2004, when I rejoined my recurrent odyssey to the Four Corner States, WindSong became less active as a cruising boat and more of a floating haven for me. By 2007, I had moved on to a new and rewarding relationship with an other. Despite our mutual love for WindSong; we spent only occasional weekends aboard.

 

In 2011, over forty years since her launch in Orange County, California, WindSong calls out to a new owner. She is a good boat overall, so in another forty years, we hope that an interested party will Google, “Ericson 35 WindSong” and read this epistle. If the year is 2048, I will be 100 years old. Even then, I will be happy to discuss all that I know about WindSong and what makes her a great yacht.

 

Author's Note: In May, 2012 I sold the boat WindSong. She now has a new home in San Diego Bay, California. Look for her sailing there, or perhaps anchored at Two Harbors, Catalina Island.

 

In September 2017, I found a link to "Windsong, 1970 Ericson 35-2 for sale" in San Diego, California. Although I have not seen her since 2012, I hope she is still ship-shape and ready to sail.

Email James McGillis

 

 

By James McGillis at 11:20 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (0) | Link

The "Train of Pain" Travels Thirty Miles from Moab to Crescent Junction - 2011

 

 

The "Train of Pain" Travels Thirty Miles from Moab to Crescent Junction  

In April 2009, I was in Moab, Utah when the first mill tailings train departed the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) site. The train departed from a track running high along a ridge that overlooks the Moab Pile. Five days each week, a trainload of radioactive soil headed north on the Cane Creek Subdivision, better known as the Potash Branch. The destination is a disposal site, northeast of Brendel and Crescent Junction, Utah. In those early days of rail transport, there was no published train schedule. Before I could locate a schedule, it was time for me to leave Moab.

 

In October 2010, I returned to Moab, traveling south along U.S. Highway 191. As the road descended towards the entrance at Arches National Park, I looked ahead towards the ridge. There I saw two Union Pacific Railroad locomotives pulling a trainload of containers to the north. After noting the time, I made plans to return and photograph the train as it traveled toward the UMTRA disposal site in the desert.

 

Two afternoons later, I waited near Milepost 134 on Highway 191. From there, I could see the lead engine, a 2004 GE C44AC-CTE approaching from over a mile away. As it pulled the hill, the entire train disappeared behind the Redrock. Reappearing a minute later, the lead engine entered an “S” curve. If this were the old days, I would say that the engines appeared to be “building steam”. As I stood and shot photos, the engines rapidly approached.

 

 

While standing near the edge of the railroad right of way, an unexpected plume of sound, heat and pollution blew me back from my position. After receiving that 8800-horsepower blast of old energy from the twin GE Evolution Series diesel locomotives, almost a minute passed before I could catch my breath. Still, as the parade of nuclear waste bins passed my position, I reflexively snapped more photos.

 

Each of the thirty-six flatcars carried four steel-lidded bins. The two bins at the center of each car held up to thirty-five cubic yards and two outboard bins were larger still. Bringing up the rear were two ancient, exhaust encrusted locomotives. After fifteen years of service in the Rockies, the old diesel-electric engines could still share the load with the newer, equally powerful engines at head-end. Because of the extreme weight of the mill tailing trains, pushers are needed to help climb the initial grade. If an average container held forty cubic yards, the entire train carried almost 5000 cubic yards of contaminated soil. When dumped at the disposal site, a single trainload of contaminated soil would fill an American football field to a depth of about one meter.

 

To put the cleanup process into perspective, consider that it will take ten to fifteen years to complete the removal project. That timeline assumes two trainloads per day, at least five days per week. What might happen if a Colorado River flood were to hit the UMTRA site before the Moab Pile is gone? Only time will tell.

 

After the train passed my position, I jumped into my truck and headed towards the grade crossing at Utah Highway 313. When I reached that spot, the lead locomotives had already passed. I fastened my seatbelt and took off for a spot where the tracks come close to the highway. While taking pictures from a small hill adjacent to the tracks, the big diesel engines soon provided me with another blast of hot diesel exhaust.

 

Traveling farther north, I stopped at an arroyo and shot pictures of the engines as they passed over a low bridge. My final stop was north of Canyonlands Field, where the unmarked Rock Corral Road crosses the tracks. This time I arrived well before of the train. After passing under the highway near Canyonlands Field, the train made wide left turn across my field of view. As it did, I could see each car in the thirty-nine car train. As the big diesel electric engines approached, I moved back form the tracks the tracks and continued shooting pictures. The train passed my position; it was heading down a slight grade, gaining speed on the straightaway.

 

Thinking that I was smarter than the train this time, I had positioned myself upwind from the exhaust blast. Sounding like an earthquake on wheels, I watched as the mighty engines roared toward me. What I had forgotten was the several horn-blasts required at a rail crossing, even in the middle of nowhere. This time, rather than an exhaust blast I endured several deafening blasts from the horns.

 

Covered with diesel soot and near deaf from the horn blasts, I stopped chasing the "Train of Pain". Instead, I stood between the tracks and watched as the two 1996 GE C44AC pusher engines disappeared down the tracks.

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By James McGillis at 05:45 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

Cleanup of UMTRA Moab Nuclear Site is Now On Flood-Watch - 2011

 

 

Cleanup of UMTRA Moab Nuclear Site is Now On Flood-Watch 

During the Cold War years, the UMTRA project languished for lack of sufficient funding.

 

During heavy rain, the Moab Wash channels water toward the Moab Pile and the Colorado River. An aerial photo on the current UMTRA website shows the wash running toward the site. Both then and now, a subterranean stream passes under the site. As it does so, it carries hazardous materials to the Colorado River. Today, pumps near the river lift much of that contaminated water to the surface. Sprinklers then distribute it across the tailings, where it evaporates into the atmosphere.

 

By 2006, new studies showed a high potential for massive flooding along the Upper Colorado River. What had previously been called a ‘1000-year flood’ might occur once in 300 years. The new 300-year flood might also be three times larger than the old 1000-year flood. Sediments from ancient floods along the river proved that a large spring flood could sweep much of the Moab Pile downstream. If so, its radioactive poisons would flow toward the Lower Colorado Basin. Suddenly, the prospect of Los Angeles and Phoenix becoming “ghost cities” seemed plausible.

 

During the George W. Bush administration, cleanup funds for the Moab Pile were sparse. At the time, the U.S. was fighting wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Unwilling to add further to the federal deficit, many Cold War era cleanups languished. Conventional wisdom said, “If a large flood is so rare, the odds are that it will not happen here in our lifetimes.” 

 

Soon after President Obama took office, his administration funded cleanup of the Moab Pile. Then, as the economy faltered, the project received additional federal stimulus money. In April 2009, the first trainload of contaminated soil departed for a disposal site near Crescent Junction, Utah. By late 2010, larger waste containers and a second train each day promised even faster removal of the Moab Pile.

 

In 2025, when UMTRA concludes its work, the long-running environmental disaster known as the Moab Pile will be gone. With almost fifteen years to go, I wonder what might happen if a 300-year flood hits the site prior to complete removal.  When asked that question, an UMTRA manager explained to me that flood protection at the site was already complete. Most of that work focused on sandbagging where the Moab Wash meets the river on the northern edge of the Moab Pile. As a temporary stopgap, workers had sandbagged to protect the well field adjacent to the Colorado River. That small project protected against a normal spring flood, but would do nothing to stop the potential ravages of a 300-year flood event.

 

Once the removal and transport work began, conventional wisdom reestablished itself. The current prevailing attitude at the UMTRA project is that, ‘If we don't think about it, everything will be OK’. Removal and disposal of material continues, but will that effort ‘beat the clock’ against a 300-year flood event? Statistically, there is a five percent chance that a 300-year flood event will occur before UMTRA concludes. Even so, federal regulators and the private contractor continue to ignore the potential for flood damage at the UMTRA site.

 

In recent years, large dust storms have become common occurrences in the Four Corners. The prospect of a regional dust storm rapidly melting heavy snowpack on the Colorado Plateau is real. In preparation for such an event, both UMTRA and its regulators should reassess the risk of flood damage at the site. A one-in-twenty chance that a flood will send any part of the Moab Pile downstream is too high a risk to take. The livelihood of fourteen million downstream residents may depend on protecting the Moab Pile during its removal.

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By James McGillis at 12:49 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link

24 Hours of Moab 2010 - The Race

 

 

24 Hours of Moab 2010

- The Race - 

After an exciting start at the 24 Hours of Moab 2010 off-road bicycle race, I moved farther down the course to watch Lap #2. One half mile beyond the Start/Finish line, the course briefly parallels Behind the Rocks Road. By positioning myself near there, I was able to photograph action sequences that featured a brief ascent, followed by a quick drop to the bottom of a sandy arroyo. Those quick terrain changes guaranteed lots of action.

 

After freewheeling downhill almost from the start, that first climb requires a quick application of energy. As they top the hill, each rider is up off their seat, pumping to maintain speed and momentum. After surmounting that knoll, the racers experience a gentle down-slope, ending in a quick drop to the bottom of a wide arroyo.

 

Over the years, the steep drop to the sandy bottom of the arroyo has flattened considerably. Only two years ago, some racers clamped on the binders and tumbled head over heels down that steep slope. Now, thousands of laps later, wind, rain and bicycle tires have combined to erode that slope. Rather than an unmanageable drop, the evolved location now resembles a high-speed ramp. Behind the Rocks was cattle country for many years, so the new ramp will be safe only until the next big storm widens the arroyo and recreates the precipice, as it inevitably will.

 

 

Be sure to watch high-speed action from the 24 Hours of Moab 2010 on the accompanying YouTube video.

 

 

 

 

 

Spanning the arroyo each year are two rubber conveyor belts, laid out, end-to-end. Ostensibly, they provide a smooth, continuous surface for the racers. If the old gravel-transport belts were not present, riders might bog down in the deep sand. In past years, we have noticed continued problems with the layout of the belts. Initially, they provide the correct course trajectory; including a slight right turn at their midpoint. During practice day on Friday, the belts begin to migrate, leaving their ends separated by ever greater distances. By race time, racers must traverse a few meters of deep sand, causing danger, delays and frustration.

 

This year, my friend, “The Other” decided to fix the belt-gap prior to Lap #2 of the race. Until this year, when I caught his shadow on a couple of photos, no one had actually seen The Other. As I watched, The Other assessed the dysfunction of the two belts and then took remedial action. Moments after The Other finished overlapping the belt ends, second-lap leaders appeared over the crest of the hill. As the riders made their high-speed dash down the ramp and across the belts, we saw the shadow of a mysterious character disappear in the wind.

 

That day, I was lucky enough to catch the shadow of The Other both before and after he rejoined the belts. Here, on this page is a slideshow showing how The Other helped with safety and speed at the 24 Hours of Moab 2010. After transiting the belts, riders then sped across the plateau, as if heading straight for the peaks of the Sierra la Sal. Soon, they too disappeared over the horizon. The animated GIF image on this page shows how The Other helped make the 24-Hours of Moab 2010 race safer and faster than ever.

Email James McGillis

 

By James McGillis at 12:34 PM | | Comments (0) | Link