It makes me wonder what kind of research "they" did when they started piling all that compost into such a large pile. Doesn't compost cook from the inside out?....that's why I doubted "arson". It needs to be suffocated. The damage from it is already pretty intense. So much smoke, and then the seepage into the Edwards Aquifer. It seems that w/ so much modern technology (I can barely work my new cell phone!) that they could come up w/ someway to use flame retardant foam and then cover that with large fireproof covers. I'm sure I'm making this sound so simple, but something has to be done.
My heart goes out to all you Helotes & surrounding area folks that are suffering.
Helotes compost pile
Howdy Debbie, :)
Yes indeed, that dadgum mulch pile is awful! I live about a mile and a half from it....and *cough*, I'm convinced that my house, my car interior and my clothes will smell like beef jerky for years to come, lol. :p
It's difficult to imagine how large this pile really is until you drive by it. We use to drive by and wonder how in the world they got the pile so high. Some mornings are real smokey...and others not so much. With Spring on its way, I sure hope they have it out since I love to open the house up to the fresh air.
Melanie
That area should never have been used for that mulch pile (more like a hill than a pile). It's a very environmentally sensitive area. Anything they use chemical-wise will reach the Edwards Aquifer (source of drinking water for a LOT of people and more locally, many people nearby and downstream on that creek (the creek is RIGHT by the mulch pile) have wells for drinking water. So just from the wetting agent that TCEQ put on it very briefly (they stopped that), contamination has already started...and that's against the law. So work on the pile, as far as I know, has been mostly halted until they figure something out. Some of the news media call it compost, but I've never seen any justification for that term. It's shredded wood mostly, with some soil mixed in. I compost, and that doesn't sound like compost at all. Compost has to have a really EXTREME amount of greens mixed in if you use lots of woody ingredients. There's a certain ratio of browns to greens, otherwise it won't work. And obviously it didn't compost, otherwise you'd have no fire.
BTW, this huge thing has been there since 1981, increasing a LOT in size all that time and no "recycled" stuff has ever been removed from the site except some (probably very little) that was put on the personal property of Mr. Zumwalt (the owner of the construction company responsible for this mess). Bexar Co. is now checking on other mulch piles in the county. I suggest people in other counties start looking into what's going on in their counties, because this could happen anywhere there are large mulch piles.
This message was edited Feb 4, 2007 5:10 PM
It is huge...just think of all the trees that were cut down and ground up. I'm down the road "a piece" from Helotes and my neighborhood hasn't been directly affected yet, but any strong wind from that direction will bring in the smoke. TCEQ really dropped the ball on oversight.
Someone told me yesterday that the whole pile is sitting in a pit....so that what you see on the surface is also what is deep down in the pit. If that is true, can you imagine? I went outside a while ago to get my cell phone out of my car...and the smell is really really bad tonight. Will this mess ever go away... : /
Melanie
UGH!!! I really feel for you guys. That must be horrible...not to mention permeating!!! YUCK!!!
We have problems out here on the southern border too. Mexico has a garbage dump close to the bridge and they burn stuff all the time. That junk makes you cough and makes your eyes water and itch. Ain't no telling what's in there!
I remember one time a few years ago I was working the midnight shift and that stuff ruined my contact lenses. I had to take them off and they had turned gray and hard...ewwwwww!!! Am glad I'm stationed at the other port and sitting indoors :o) I feel sorry for my fellow brethren still hoofing it on the bridge.
Word has it that the health agencies have taken air samples and they tell us it's not harmful. Yeah right...I've never seen them at the port nor have I ever heard of them taking air samples when the smoke is blowing over the river!
~ Cat
yuckers, Cat.....I'm feelin' for you too up here! Mexico can be incredibly foul along the border cities. Taking a trip there in the summer and breathing all of that nasty air always makes me cough and wheeze. :p Plus, cars don't seem to have any inspection requirements at all. I remember how Progresso use to be a sleepy, clean little border-crossing town. Welll....that has definitely changed...lol.
Melanie
SAWS (S.A. water) has denied them any more water to fight the fire. How mean! So Bexar Met (who has had trouble coming up with water for its customers during the drought...had to borrow from SAWS) jumped in and offered water. It's like a soap opera. Tune in tomorrow and watch all the different governing bodies fight over what to do about the mess that the county (BTW, the mulch pile is not really in Helotes...it's just outside the town), TCEQ and the state of Texas created together with a very greedy contractor! Hey, this is exactly the kind of mess that came with Katrina, but on a smaller scale. I heard the cost to put the fire out was estimated at 3 million.
This message was edited Feb 7, 2007 8:27 AM
Wow! and to think they could have given all that mulch to gardeners in the area, and avoided all the mess.
Josephine.
BTW, my own pile of mulch from the landscaping company is composting! Saw steam coming up early yesterday morning and had to check. I crawled up to where the steam was coming out from the top of the pile and yep, it's quite warm up there. But not burning!
I hear you, Josephine!
Isn't that an interesting process, Linda? I saw a big pile of compost in Massachusetts giving off a ton of steam on a 7° day. Mother Nature is really something to behold... :)
Melanie
Talk about compost heat. The last pile I put together (2 parts chopped dead leaves to 1 part chopped fresh grass) got up to 140 degrees in 1 1/2 days and it was only 3 cubic feet. Now I understand the warnings not to stick your hand in the pile to see if it's hot.