This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Fri May 13, 2005 1:05 am
I just got back from the meeting at city hall in downtown Mountain View about Moffett and Hangar1. Okayyyy here we go,,
The moderator, spokesman, rep, whatever he was, left Hanger1 until last. It turned out that a whole lotta folks came there for just that reason. That made him real popular for a moment or ten. Soooo...
They talked about wetlands for awhile (Area 25). The tree huggers got some quality time in. They presented some kind of protest banner to the rep, signed by all of the little kiddies in the world. Sniff, sniff. Then they went back to the Whaaa Whaa Whaa WHa wa, wa waa waa (Think Charlie browns teacher) waa waa, about that time I went to take a long wizz and have a smoke break. When I got back, it was still waa waa, tidal marsh, waa waa, wetlands.
Come on. It's not like I'm ever going to swim in, or eat anything out of the bay. Besides, all them PCB's, Asbestos, and lead are probaby keeping the skeeters down. Any super bugs left are gonna be ate by a cool looking four headed ten winged seagull. ahhhhhhhh,anyway
Area 25 and all of Moffett is my neighborhood. I live off of Moffett Blvd within walking distance of the ol "Space Camp" gate. I feel that the gubmint and tree hugger folks have done, and are doing a good job on the wetlands. Gubmint! Tree Huggers! Kudo's! From what I think I understand about what had been said about area 25, Thanks.
Then the rep got to Hangar 1. He did some splaining, and the splaining included the word Demolition. That was totally ungood. I wouldn't say the room got hostile or anything, it was more of a "Over my dead body" kinda thing. There were a lot of old folks there. Not California slick, or totally shaggy a$s old dudes, these guys were the clean cut, half a zillion years old retired military lookin dudes. A tad bit of the ol tension goin on. The rep opened it up for questions/statements. I'd say most of it centered around the Demolition thing. The second or third person in for questions was Larry Shapiro. Before he said anything he asked if anyone there wanted to see Hangar1 demolished, not once, but twice. No one raised their hand. No One. It was pretty impressive. I got the feeling, Tree huggers and all of us, that we were on the same page. Hangar1 should stay.
Some Hangar1 stuff I learned at the big meeting. (Thanks Rep Dude, Thanks NASA Lady)
1. The outer sheath of the hangar is corrugated covered in asbestos and secured with a PCB contaminated material.
2. The bolts holding it together are made of lead.
3. The "Sheath", has 100 plus thousand ppm of PCB's in it. Allowable is point 2 ppm.
4. They swiped the floor of the hangar, and got over 3000 ppm PCB's. They then cleaned that part of the floor and came back three weeks later and got 3000 ppm PCB's.
5. The inside of the hangar is raining PCB's and Asbestos. The whole inside of the hangar is seriously contaminated. There are offices and other stuff in there.
6. They coated the hangar with a material that is guaranteed to encase the bad stuff for 3-5 years. They're going with three. Times up next year.
7. They (the gubmint I guess), have fasttracked this thing. The Navy wants out. They want to do whatever they're going to do this winter. Rain and bad weather keeps the dust down.
8. Demo'ing the place cost's 30 million. They put that together before they knew about the hazmat thing.
And on, and on, and on.....
I get it. The place is a bonafide disaster area.
Solutions, not b1tching, thats one of my motto's. Here it goes.
1. Strip the sheathing off and sh1tcan it.
2. Demo out the interior, and sh1tcan it.
3. Clean the structural members.
4. Replace sheathing.
5. Replace interior.
There, you got it. Salvaging any of the sheathing/interior for use on the refurbed hangar is nonsense. I actually heard it at the meeting. Someone said that it "wouldn't be historicaly intact". That reminds me of the ol "Its grandpas axe, 10 heads and fifteen handles" kinda krap. They had a bunch of technological ways to try and get around doing what I'm saying. Leeching processes and such. Who cares? You're gonna have to spend the dough anyway,and nothing is going to be "right" when you're finished,lets get to the point.
The most immediate thing with this whole thing, is this "fasttrack" process. If this goes south, they could be demoing Hangar1 next february.
On kinda the same whole public duty note, I did my first public thing tonight, besides drunkedness and nudity, of course. I raised my hand and asked a question at the ol city hall. I asked if the city, faa, or anyone was going to plow over the airfield to build condos. I got a big no from about a half a dozen folks. It will remain a Federal airfield for now, and maybe not a federal airfield later. But it's definately not going anywhere. I'm happy.
Pretty long winded, ehhhhh
Orvis
Fri May 13, 2005 10:29 am
Usually, the best way to spread contamination is to mess with it. How much more of a problem will they create by doing anything?
Fri May 13, 2005 11:57 am
Aaand why don't they put the thing off limits, and cover it it up with plastic? Then when Moffett is abandoned, volunteers can take care of the big thing.
Fri May 13, 2005 12:42 pm
The coating they put on it, an asphalt type of stuff, is beginning to become ineffective. By the manufacturers standards, it will be finished in two years. By the low end of those standards (the number they are going by), it will be done next year. They can't just leave it because rain runnoff alone is going to recontaminate the surrounding areas. One option talked about is recoating it with the asphalt stuff and waiting another three years to come up with a solid, well planned solution. But, thats another three million dollars, and, as the rep said, the Navy wants out. Thats why they want something done this winter, because of the dust issue involved with working on it. Thats a very short period of time. I have a feeling that unless everyone holds the governments and the Navys toes to the fire, and have them recoat it, there is a good chance it will be demolished this winter, despite all of the rep's platitudes to the contrary. There doesn't seem to be enough time for any other solution.
Hi Chris! The cleanup and restoration is light years and tens of millions of dollars out of the scope of any volunteer organization. They Navy, EPA,Ect, would never let that site out of their possesion in it's current condition. They would demolish it first.
Fri May 13, 2005 1:11 pm
Hi O.P.
Gad, and I bet being in California, the 3000 p.p.m. you quoted will cause cancer if someone lives to be 300 yrs old! Is that a good guess?
Fri May 13, 2005 1:21 pm
HarvardIV wrote:Hi O.P.
Gad, and I bet being in California, the 3000 p.p.m. you quoted will cause cancer if someone lives to be 300 yrs old! Is that a good guess?
I'll have to look it up. But from what I remember from PCB contamination in the state where I'm originally from, Oregon, it takes hardly any to create whole generations of mushy headed flipper babies, Then there is the environment/wildlife, which it will completely destroy. IIRC, PCB's debond genes/DNA. It takes very little.