May 04, 2004
Sludge: Up Close and Personal
It could not have been a more wholesome time, out with the dog romping in the pasture yesterday. I'd found a half-dozen large morels along the creek that were now crammed into my jacket pockets. I couldn't wait to tell Ann where I'd found them. We'd just scoured that area the night before and looked right over these beauties. I headed home, my mind ranging over the two meetings I needed to prepare for in the evening, and the writer friend I would meet in town to guide back to Goose Creek before dark.
As I approached the barn and Goose Creek, I was stopped suddenly by a strong odor of -- what? Could a diesel tractor have gone down the road while I was mushroom hunting? Man, that's pretty strong. The dog caught up with me just as I reached the back door, his snout black with mud up to his eyeballs where he'd been rooting around like a fungus-snorting pig. I couldn't let him in like that so we went back to the creek for a little mini-bath. Then I learned where the oily air was coming from.
To my horror, I saw that the creek was covered in an irredescent sheen. I put my hand in and pulled it back out to sample the smell. A high concentration of a volatile solvent of some kind was in Goose Creek. Had been put into Goose Creek, I was sure of it. It takes a good bit to make my blood boil. Comment spammers can do it. Litters can do it. People who back their trucks to the edge of a pristine mountain stream where rare freshwater fish live and push a 55-gallon barrel of waste oil into the creek can most definitely do it.
Long story short: I finally connected with the water quality people in Roanoke. A man came out. I showed him the broken drum two-thirds full of an unknown chemical at the bottom of the ravine. I argued that the material must be pumped out with the barrel in place, untouched, lest the thing break wide open into the creek. Three hours later, the empty barrel was being put into plastic bags and hauled away.
There is no way to catch this slug of a human who did this. I would be perfectly willing to accept that this same person left Goose Creek and went back home to their regular job: propagating weblog comment spam. There are facets of human nature with which I am thankfully not often in contact--while some of the prisoners in Iraq have become quite familiar with them, I fear. God help us overcome the varied ways we find to reap pollution, corruption and hatred on the earth and each other.
Posted by fred1st at May 4, 2004 11:18 AM | TrackBackGACK!!! I'm sooo sorry! I think of you as being . . . I dunno . . . "safe" from all that, there in Floyd. But I guess none of us are, huh? For my part, I just got my first blogspam today--I've been wondering what you were talking about; now I know. Like I said, GACK.
Posted by: Doc Rock at May 4, 2004 01:03 PM
Ugh. That's awful. I am glad however that you got a quick response from your water quality folks.
Posted by: Ana at May 4, 2004 02:32 PM
I see you have been spammed *again*! (I recognise some of the so called names) - is there an option in MT which disables html in comments? If there is that at least stops them getting the artifical boost in links they are after. This is what I've done in Typepad.
It sickens me to see what has happened to your creek - you are right - it is the same mentality.
Posted by: Ian at May 4, 2004 04:58 PM
How awful for you! Where are the satellite photos when you need them--to give you a license plate, of course--LOL. (It ain't funny, McGee.)
Posted by: Cop Car at May 4, 2004 07:48 PM
We have variant here on PEI - the roadside garbage pail. It seems to be the custom here when you have finished your beer, supersized coke, fries or big mac to though the bottle, pack and paper out the window onto my roadside. Oh yes and the other thrill is to knock my letter box off with a baseball bat as you drive by.
Are these the folks that have 28 rotting cars in their backyard?
Posted by: Robert Paterson at May 4, 2004 09:11 PM
Shit, that completely sucks. Sorry Fred.
Posted by: Marie at May 4, 2004 10:45 PM
I too received a comment spam today, and responded in kind by posting about it.
But the mentality of someone who dumped the barrel into the creek is beyond my comprehension as well.
Hope the creek cleans up well, and you won't need to worry about such happenings again.
BTW, checked out your gallery photos and while I have always appreciated them as seen here first, it's really quite awesome to see them all displayed together. Beauty reigns!
Posted by: susan at May 4, 2004 11:28 PM
Well, if you see all of nature as something which exists only to serve your needs, you can dump sludge or engage in an enormous assortment of nefarious activities.....
lgh
Posted by: lghunsucker at May 4, 2004 11:58 PM
Stories like this just disappoint me ... how people can be so irresponsible and damaging is a travesty. I grit my teeth and try to look away, but in the end, we all wind up having to come face to face with such human sludge.
It truly saddens me that your corner of the world was violated. Despicable.
Posted by: ntexas99 at May 5, 2004 12:29 AM
The forty thousand gallons of diesel fuel that ended up in the Suisun Marsh last week have burned their way through beavers, ducklings, a virginia rail, a couple of lingering western sandpipers--that we KNOW about. The "responsible party" is going to be made to pay, but paying won't change much for what's already dead. I'm so sorry, Fred, this happened to your creek.
Posted by: Pica at May 5, 2004 08:40 AM
Fred, As a frequent traveller through Alleghany Springs, I am sorry to hear of this crime. There are other backroads in the area that have litter disaster areas. One of the worst is Alum Springs Rd between Little Walker Creek and Pulaski. Beautiful dirt road over Little Walker Mt, and a few hundred tons of garbage on every slope. I'm a huge fan of catching and punishing these criminals, but how do you do it?
Posted by: chris at May 5, 2004 11:29 AM