[PRCo] Re: PRC 4398

[Fred Schneider]

I love your comments, Ken.

Ken & Tracie wrote:

> From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
>
> > I may be assuming a little too much.  A lot of the structural problems
> > with
> > those cars may also be related to atmospheric pollution in Pittsburgh.
> > There
> > was a lot of sulfur dioxide in the air which coverts very nicely to
> > sulfuric
> > acid when it rains.
>
> Fred, do you remember that large coal fired power plant just north of Las
> Vegas? You saw it when we took our trip to Salt Lake City.  That's the Reid
> Gardner Power Station.
>
> A friend of mine who worked for Nevada Power purchased a 1990 or '91 Chevy
> pick up from the company auction. This was a few years back. The truck had
> 40,000 miles on the "clock." The truck was something of a "yard goat" and
> seldom strayed from the power plant property. As you know, our climate is as
> dry as a bone, later model motor vehicles generally have much better
> corrosion protection than the vehicles of forty years ago, yet the streets
> and roads of Southern Nevada our full of vintage cars which never suffered
> any significant rust damage.
>
> That noted, the pick up truck from the power plant was so rusty, it was
> barely worth renovating. The doors, tailgate, front  fenders, etc. were
> rusted through as if the truck had been driven in slush and road salt.
>
> Several plant employees noted that this is a common fate for steel objects
> around the plant. They get a bit more rain than we do in the valley, but the
> employees attribute the rusting to sulfur dioxide and steam emissions mixing
> in the immediate area.
>
> This could be compared to what the Pittsburgh Low Floors were exposed to, as
> you noted above.
>
> Makes me wonder what those power plant employee's lungs look like....
>
> K.