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So are they going to have this person or persons man the pit indefinitely? I see they have some automated measures like the propane cannon but at some point sho

So are they going to have this person or persons man the pit indefinitely? I see they have some automated measures like the propane cannon but at some point shouldn’t they just put a net on top of the whole pit to keep birds off it?

guerrilla 5y ago
Or float those plastic balls [1] on it, like they do for some reservoirs to stop evaporation. It'd take a lot of them, but that'd work and could be both cheaper and more permanent. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o
- bmitc 5y ago
  I was wondering the same thing about a net, and those plastic balls are interesting. The manual solution(s) just don't seem that efficient.
- scottlawson 5y ago
  I also wondered about the net. Never considered the ball idea, that's very interesting. One thing the video doesn't cover is potential other solutions there are for protecting birds. Maybe they have just been doing it for such a long time that nobody thinks about alternative solutions, combined with the fact that they have already spent money into the bird hut and other equipment and further investments in alternatives would just not have a higher net present value.
deleted 5y ago
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micromacrofoot 5y ago
not indefinitely, just until people stop paying attention
sjwalter 5y ago
This case in Butte is somewhat better than usual because BP is actually footing the remediation bill. More typical is having the taxpayers foot the bill, like with the fascinating example of Giant Mine, 5km outside of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. Some 200 kilotonnes of arsenic trioxide were created as byproducts of the mining process, enough arsenic dust to kill off every human and animal on earth. Once the company (and the company that bought the company) that mined the gold went belly up, the government is stuck footing the bill for remediation. The remediation plan is to indefinitely freeze, using compressors like used for hockey rinks, the arsenic underground. An eternal, ongoing operation, costing >$1bn, costing more in present-day dollars than gold was even extracted from the mine, in order to avoid the arsenic seeping into the groundwater. Kind of hilarious the implicit bet on a stable society that this remediation plan entails. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  Wow I didn’t realize it costs more to clean up than the actual value of the mine’s production. That definitely seems broken in some way. It doesn’t seem practical to predict future costs and price them in though, so I’m not sure what a better solution looks like.
- rp1 5y ago
  Arsenic trioxide needs a bottle deposit.

guerrilla 5y ago

Or float those plastic balls [1] on it, like they do for some reservoirs to stop evaporation. It'd take a lot of them, but that'd work and could be both cheaper and more permanent. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPdPpi5W4o

bmitc 5y ago
I was wondering the same thing about a net, and those plastic balls are interesting. The manual solution(s) just don't seem that efficient.
scottlawson 5y ago
I also wondered about the net. Never considered the ball idea, that's very interesting. One thing the video doesn't cover is potential other solutions there are for protecting birds. Maybe they have just been doing it for such a long time that nobody thinks about alternative solutions, combined with the fact that they have already spent money into the bird hut and other equipment and further investments in alternatives would just not have a higher net present value.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

micromacrofoot 5y ago

not indefinitely, just until people stop paying attention

sjwalter 5y ago

This case in Butte is somewhat better than usual because BP is actually footing the remediation bill. More typical is having the taxpayers foot the bill, like with the fascinating example of Giant Mine, 5km outside of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. Some 200 kilotonnes of arsenic trioxide were created as byproducts of the mining process, enough arsenic dust to kill off every human and animal on earth. Once the company (and the company that bought the company) that mined the gold went belly up, the government is stuck footing the bill for remediation. The remediation plan is to indefinitely freeze, using compressors like used for hockey rinks, the arsenic underground. An eternal, ongoing operation, costing >$1bn, costing more in present-day dollars than gold was even extracted from the mine, in order to avoid the arsenic seeping into the groundwater. Kind of hilarious the implicit bet on a stable society that this remediation plan entails. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine

throwawaysea 5y ago
Wow I didn’t realize it costs more to clean up than the actual value of the mine’s production. That definitely seems broken in some way. It doesn’t seem practical to predict future costs and price them in though, so I’m not sure what a better solution looks like.
rp1 5y ago
Arsenic trioxide needs a bottle deposit.