Hazardous waste disposal in the 40s

[Josh]

Yes, we don't do it like this anymore. But hey, it was a dead lake and it was fucking cool.

[youtube][/youtube]

At my previous employer, we did exactly this kind of work and that's still how you dispose of sodium, albeit in a much more controlled fashion with much smaller quantities dropped in. I always regretted not getting in on one of those gigs, because I heard it was neat to watch the sodium chunks zipping around in the mixing pan.

We also had a couple of operators demonstrate why, when doing the same job with lithium, you don't get impatient and whack the lithium chunk with the bucket of an excavator. Nobody was hurt, but it was a pretty good fireworks show and a plume of smoke that was visible for miles around.

[LadyTevar]

That... was COOL!

So, was there any lasting harm to the lake?

[Josh]

Dunno. I don't know if there's much you could do that would be called harming a dead, alkaline like.

[LadyTevar]

Knowing what we do now about extreme lifeforms, the lake may not have had fish, but may have still had a thriving ecology. What lake was it again?

[Josh]

Well, Google-fu has failed me.

The report said that it was Lake Lenore, but Lake Lenore is a live lake listed as a fishing site. However, if you dig around a bit you find that Lake Lenore is near Alkali Lake, but there's pretty much zip-nada on it other than that it exists. It apparently is fishless at least because none of the fishing sites have reports on it other than to note that it's there. But nothing on if it has any other ecology going on.