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Valley Metal Heat Treat is closing

gwbolton

Aluminum
Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Location
California
Established in 1936, Valley heat treat is forced to close its doors because of California air quality control management. The upgrades required were not feasible and so yet another company closes here in SoCal. Regulations are getting out of hand and affecting 1000's of local business. Plating companies have been hard hit here as well.
After using Valley for decades, we are now forced to look elsewhere and that sucks.
 
I do not really understand why heat treating would cause any pollution. Maybe some of the special packing materials get burned off and add heavy metal into the air? Probably much less then a burger joint releases into their smoke.
Bil lD
 
I do not really understand why heat treating would cause any pollution. Maybe some of the special packing materials get burned off and add heavy metal into the air? Probably much less then a burger joint releases into their smoke.
Bil lD

Cyanide salt baths may cause emissions issues, gas furnaces over electric, burn-off of greases and contaminants, even particles from the insulation (silicates and the like) becoming airborne could be risks.

Yeah, it sucks, but I remember seeing brown haze over major cities when I was young. I like clean air to breathe (and water to drink), and will pay for it with taxes and extra regulation as needed.
 
I've talked to three small biz owners in CA this past month...all volunteer that they're thinking of getting out of CA....

But it's all good....they can 'repurpose' that space where the heat treat facility was and build a strip mall with a nail salon, ice cream parlor, and insurance agency. And maybe even a vape store they can turn into a CBD store.
 
Cyanide explains that. California still ;has problems with cyanide and mercury in rivers and streams from gold processing more then 100 years ago. California was the first to outlaw pollution more then 100 years when folks would wash mountains away with 12" firehoses and wash all the non gold dirt into the creeks that ran to the rivers that ran to the sea killing all the aquatic life and destroying the fishing industry. The law still allowed the mining but teh dirt had to be contained on site.
Some of these hydraulic mining sites are starting to grow back already. It is hard for plants to grow when all the soil is washed away only leaving solid rock that pressure washing could not remove. Of course heavy rains still cause problems. But they should be back to normal in less then 500 years.
They are worried the dams that held back these lakes of mud are over 100 years old and will soon fail allowing the old mud to wash away again.
 
It was industry that allowed CA to become the huge economy that it is. If you want to make an omelette, you might have to break a few eggs. HOW DARE YOU!ugly.jpg
 
I truly believe we need to do what's right for the planet and the future generations, that said my family has been in business here in California since 1940 and in Michigan since the turn of the century.
Here's the deal this state is completely out of control with regulations and rules that seem to never end actually.
Our new industrial diesel engines have to be tier 4, the emission package on a simple 4 cylinder engine is about 14 grand more then what the same engine would cost 200 miles away in Nevada.
Most of the regulations we deal with are just plain bull xxxx, the state ignores certain federal laws because the pot heads, liberals and free thinkers that are in office just don't like them.
In the last 4 years we have spent many thousands of dollars to comply with state regulations and the jokers in the state offices keep adding more rules requiring changes to equipment we just had approved and installed less then 2 years later.
Just because it makes the clowns in the CARB happy today certainly does not mean that in will next year, no matter the cost.
Everything we do here could be done for far less in any other state besides California and still save the planet.




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It was industry that allowed CA to become the huge economy that it is. If you want to make an omelette, you might have to break a few eggs.
I'd prefer that it had never become a huge economy. Give me back the orange groves, shitcan Intel and google and the rest of those bastards so we can have orchards in Santa Clara again, toss the fucking loser wineries, bring back the dairies and hay, me be plenty happy.
 
Sure but we all know that is not realistic. Just like people who like to wallow in 'white guilt' over the plight of the Apache Indians...as if in 2019 they'd still be riding around on horses and hunting buffalo if only we hadn't invaded their land. If it hadn't been Miles Standish it woulda been Boris Yeltnov or Habib Muhammad or ....

In any case....in 1990 I visited a copper plant in New Mexico. You use a lot of acid when you smelt copper. The acid plant was built net to the copper plant, and it was shut down. The EPA, in their wisdom, had seen fit to impose regulations that could never be met with an measure of economy. The guy there - this was flat land - pointed to a smoke plume rising in the distance and said 'There is the new acid plant'. I asked what's the difference? He said "The new plant is 90 miles to the South. It's in Mexico and can operate with absolutely no regulations....' No regulation, jobs sent to Mexico. Good job, EPA!
 
Have any of you complainers been to a car show lately? When its over and all those loveingly restored 60s and 70s cars go home ,your eyes start watering and your clothes smell like exhaust pipes. This is how it was ALL the time in the good old days.The first fuel injected cars with catalytic converters were a nightmare and actually reduced MPG.Eventually ,the engineers figure it out. Edwin Dirnbeck
 
Sure but we all know that is not realistic. Just like people who like to wallow in 'white guilt' over the plight of the Apache Indians...as if in 2019 they'd still be riding around on horses and hunting buffalo if only we hadn't invaded their land. If it hadn't been Miles Standish it woulda been Boris Yeltnov or Habib Muhammad or ....

In any case....in 1990 I visited a copper plant in New Mexico. You use a lot of acid when you smelt copper. The acid plant was built net to the copper plant, and it was shut down. The EPA, in their wisdom, had seen fit to impose regulations that could never be met with an measure of economy. The guy there - this was flat land - pointed to a smoke plume rising in the distance and said 'There is the new acid plant'. I asked what's the difference? He said "The new plant is 90 miles to the South. It's in Mexico and can operate with absolutely no regulations....' No regulation, jobs sent to Mexico. Good job, EPA!
"YOU VISITED A COPPER PLANT.".Would YOU want to live there? Edwin Dirnbeck
 
What's wrong with your clothes smelling like an exhaust pipe? Anyway, we have morons here who want to prohibit natural gas service in new homes- electric power only. Apparently no one explained basic thermodynamics to them or how power plants actually work and where electricity comes from.
 
The political problem is the regulators need jobs. They need to grow their empires. they do not need to make a profit, as money can be extorted out of the taxpayer, at gun point if necessary. And some of them are motivated by a religious zeal-yes, some environmentalism resembles religion much more than science.

The main technical problem with pollution, and many other things, is simple- the Law of Diminishing Returns. back in the 60's , the Clean Air and Clean Water acts made tremendous strides- I remember the etching and plating plants and fabric dyeing companies dumped acid and dye right into the streams. There was not a fish alive downstream. A modest effort and cost made a huge difference. The fruit was low, hanging to the ground. After 50 years, they are trying to build a ladder to the moon to pick the last remaining apple- the cost vs benefit with regard to pollution reduction, when trying to get rid of the last 1/10th of 1 percent is insane.
Everything is a trade off. There IS no way to get rid of all pollution, period. Can't be done. The question is how much damage to an economy (meaning a supply of resources like food, clothing, cars, phones, heat, shelter, water, etc) are we willing to accept? None, is a literal death sentence for the human race- and believe it or not , the far fringe of the environmental wacko's espouse that idea as a desirable goal.
 
Wow, Stoneaxe said a mouthful in the previous post. Going for that last 10% reduction is causing so much manufacturing to go to China and India with almost zero pollution controls. The permanent clouds of aerosols over those 2 countries bend the jet streams and further climate change and everyone wants to throttle western industry even more to curb just making it worse as the last western manufacturers close the doors.

I have to ask what is wrong with cyanide in an oven? The waste is not cyanide anymore after it has given up carbon. It starts out as a large molecule of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Cows can make cyanide from prussic acid by eating Johnson grass after Johnson grass has undergone a growth spurt. When this happens a vet can give the cows that have not died yet a shot and they survive. Cyanide does not accumulate, the ones that get the shot will be just fine.
 
Saw this one in the news a few days ago. Why should we pay to clean up his intentional mess?

Madison Heights. chemical firm fined $1.4M, owner sent to prison

Madison Heights chemical firm fined $1.45M, owner sent to prison

A Madison Heights chemical plating firm shut down by state regulators three years ago has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million and its owner sent to federal prison for illegally storing dangerous chemicals in leaky containers.

Electro-Plating Services and its owner, Gary Sayers, were ordered Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy to pay $1.45 million in restitution to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the extensive cleanup the agency conducted at the EPS plant at 945 E. 10 Mile Road.

Sayers was also sentenced to serve a year in prison followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty earlier this year to a federal hazardous waste storage felony.

The Electro-Plating Services plant was shut down by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (now the Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy, EGLE) in December 2016 after regulators found numerous deteriorating drums and tanks brimming with toxic chemicals stored inside.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, Sayers stored the hazardous waste in numerous drums and other containers, including a pit dug into the ground in the lower level of the EPS building, rather than transporting old chemicals to a licensed hazardous waste facility.

The chemicals included cyanide, chromium, nickel, chloride, trichloroethylene, and various acids and bases that were used as part of the plating process.

Sayers for years stonewalled state efforts to get him to legally deal with the hazardous wastes, the federal government said. After the state shut the facility down, the EPA spent nearly $1.5 million cleaning up the plant as part of a Superfund removal action.

Sayers and the company were charged in January by federal prosecutors with violating the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Guilty pleas were entered in February to the felony charge.

The plant is within 500 feet of residences, the state has said. In addition, the Madison Heights Fire Department, an ambulance service, nine day care centers, schools and senior living facilities are within 1 mile of the facility, the state said at the time it closed the plant down.

The MDEQ said it found chemicals and waste stockpiled in extreme disorder and chemical spills throughout the building, which was severely dilapidated. According to the MDEQ, a combination of cyanide and hydrochloric acid on the site with large amounts of water could have produced a highly toxic cloud of hydrogen cyanide.

According to federal court documents, the company has a long history of violating hazardous waste storage standards, dating to 1996. The company was issued numerous letters of warning and Sayers pleaded guilty in 2005 to state criminal charges involving illegal transportation of hazardous waste.
 
Thanks Glug,
After that I had to look it up, cyanide is not a single chemical, many different forms, probably many different ways to detoxify it also. I still doubt the stuff used for case hardening steel is cyanide after a cycle in the oven. But I will not be looking for any to put in my compost pile.
Certainly not worried about case hardened steel being toxic like some have been.
 








 
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