Carter Carb back in the news

[nbextermueller]

Hey guys, our beloved Carter Carbs are making news here in STL again. Our at least the mess they left behind.

http://m.stltoday.com/STL/db_109121/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=vZLvABKb

I worked for American Railcar Ind, which owns ACF and Carter Carb from 2008-2011. Obviously not during production years. But there was always talk of the cleanup mess that is the Carter Plant....

There is lots of info about Carter out there. I looked high and low for old plans, drawings, manufacturing documents while I was there. Amazing, what wasn't donated to the Wash U. Library and others, was destroyed...

 

[dfrisk]

NIC - Reminds me of the old BURGESS BATTERY plant in beautiful Freeport, IL.... right on the banks of the scenic Pecatonica River on the east side of town. After 40-50 yrs of making dry cell batteries there was a LOT of hazardous chemicals in the soil.... wonder how much was washed down stream? I did NOT drink the water from town or at the mfg plant I worked at a mile away, didn't even drink the coffee!

Just like IH, The internal paperwork for all the designs and test results, and the routings on how parts had to be made were destroyed. Liability reasons I'm sure.

 

[pbell]

The property that the IH Louisville Works/Plant was on was another enviromental nightmare, especially the area around the foundry, but because the airport authority built a parallel, 10,000 ft runway over top of it, rather than using it for commerical or public use, it saved a lot of cleanup cost (basically if you pave over it, you don't have to dig it up). The UPS World Center and a Fed X air facility are adjacent to, and between the two parallel runways, and close to where IH was, but are not built on what was IH property.

 

[dfrisk]

PAUL - I've read that the Wisconsin Steel site in SE Chicago was a badly polluted site too.

I guess all that chrome, lead, zinc, nickel, and boron isn't good for us when it gets in the ground water.

 

[bjamison]

I worked for a company one time that built special purpose trucks. The company had been around since WWII and I gather that over the years a goodly amount of diesel found it's way into the ground. A big honkin' company bought out the old company and decided to consolidate operations to one single building (previously there were two buildings - across town from each other). The bean counters figured there would be a savings and a pile of cash by selling the old building and grounds.

Right before the sale went through, the EPA came-in and did a soil sample. Sale went on hold, the company spent a LOT of $$$$$$$'s to dig up the soil, clean it and put it back down.

Needless to say, they took a loss on the old building by closing. I don't know if they ever sold the building after that.

If they had continued production (nothing wrong with the building or grounds), I gather they could have continued making $$$$$$$'s and the clean-up might have never had to occur?

 

[pbell]

Dennis,
I was told, but I don't know it for a fact, that the "worn out" core/mold sand from the foundry at Louisville, was used for fill in and around the plant, foundry, and rail yard, and considering where most of the enviromental hazards were located, it is probably true.