Five Million Cubic Yards

[trof]

My friends who has the debris clean up contract for Jackson County MS estimates that he has 5,000,000 cubic yards of trash to pick up and dispose of.

Right now, he has no idea where he's going to put it.
He has 150 LOADED trucks parked now. Waiting to be told where to go to dump.
on edit: A huge truck holds 18-24 cubic yards.
There aren't enough landfills in the county.
More will have to be created.
Want one next to you?
Nope, neither does anyone else.

Picture a box that measures 3 feet on a side.
That's one cubic yard.
27 cubic feet.

Now picture 5 million of them.
And that's "just" Jackson County.
Population 134,000.
It contains the towns of Moss Point, Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, and some smaller places.

It borders Alabama, and, of the 3 MS coastal counties, is the farthest from the eye of Katrina.

So imagine how many cubic yards there are to be cleared out in Harrison and Hancock counties.
And the parishes in and around New Orleans.

My friends expects to spend the next YEAR, just in Jackson County.

[NMDemDist2]

1. good grief! can they burn it first? good grief, what a chore n/t

[trof]

4. Nope, not allowed.

All they can do is grind up the grindable stuff and mash the mashable stuff.

[NMDemDist2]

10. and it can't be used as clean fill, cuz it isn't (clean that is). barges

they'll probably end up putting it on barges and sending it to a third world country whadda ya wanna bet?

[trof]

15. True. Not clean.

Except for the yard stuff.
That's usually fairly clean unless contaminated by stuff like in NOLA.

[Botany]

2. Send to the ranch in Crawford Texas .....

and use it to re-contour the land for a National Cemetery for
Katrina's victims.

[trof]

3. More on the magnitude:

There are steel barges lying across railroad tracks.
There is no equipment big enough to remove them that can get to them.
They will probably bring an army of welders in to cut them up for scrap.

[oneold1-4u]

5. Texas is a big state!

With thousands of non-productive holes!

[fasttense]

6. Just remind your friend he no longer has to pay minimum wage.

That should help get some good workers. Brush will suspend child labor laws soon too so he can hire all those children still looking for their families. That should help. (In case you don't know, this is sarcasm, or is it a prediction?)

[NMDemDist2]

9. minimum wage was not suspended (I first thought the same thing)

but "prevailing wages" was suspended. :shrug:

[trof]

13. Yeah, I sent e-mails to rep and senators about that.

[trof]

11. He has good experienced crews and pays them well.

A lot of them are in the timber/logging business in the southeast. Many barely eke by in "normal" times. They have exactly the skills and equipment needed for storm cleanup. Not that they wish for disasters, but this is the gravy for them.

He says "If you pay crap, you get crap."

He is fairly apolitical, except that he doesn't like politicians in general. He's dealt with too many of them in his business.

[Wordie]

7. Maybe they can use it to raise the level of NO. nt

[FloridaPat]

8. Find out what they're going to do with the home in NO. If they tear them

down, they can put all the debris in NO and raise the city up a few feet.

[trof]

12. It's a little more complicated than that.

"Yard trash", basically anything that was growing prior to the storm, goes to one type of landfill. Sometimes this can be ground up into mulch.

Construction debris, houses and contents, goes to another.

"White goods", appliances and manufactured items to yet another.

[trof]

14. More on my friend.

He lives just a couple of blocks down the street and we see him and his wife frequently.

They are very wealthy, but also very down-to-earth, very generous, and very hard working.

She set up a drop off point in her furniture business parking lot for goods donated to the hurricane victims our town and county are caring for. Deliverd them where needed in the company truck.

He made his first trip to Pascagoula Thursday before last in a huge pickup loaded down with ice, water, and food. I asked him if he wanted some company.
"trof, I appreciate it, but I'll be able to haul more stuff if it's just me."
Believe me, this is the guy you'd want cleaning up your neighborhood.
Jackson County is lucky to get him.

[trof]

16. Oh yeah, the estimate for NOLA is 30-35 million cubic yards.

And hardly any of it "clean".