[PRCo] Re: PRC 4398

[Ken & Tracie]

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.