Brea Chem

[chrisbutts]

I don't have a date for this, though I imagine it was sometime in 1991. Certainly before Unocal closed. SP's Fullerton Switcher at Brea Chem - tied down for some reason really late in the afternoon (I shot this around 2pm, they were usually off the branch by this time). It's parked next to a very rusty station sign which I never knew was there until I walked in to shoot the train. As you can see the Unocal plant generated quite a few cars, was always strange seeing this big fertilizer plant in "The OC".

   

[Myfordbrowning]

The the later days of the operation of the plant, Unocal stopped producing ammonia (basic material to make several types of nitrogen fertilizer) at Brea and would ship it by rail to the plant. Much of the ammonia came from Alaska or other oversea locations by ship to the Port of Stockton.

I recall a problem when the SP used to base the switcher at Basta. They would go to Brea Chem on the return trip from Los Nietos and leave the cars from Brea Chem at Fullerton Jct for the next train to Los Nietos. Some of these cars were empty tank car that carried the ammonia and, at least once, residual one or more cars escaped from the car and cause concern in La Habra. I think that procedure of handling the cars from Brea Chem changes after that.

Nice to see the photo of the train at Brea Chem Chris.

Cliff

[Holloran Grade]

I am glad that plant is gone.

Those fertilizer plants blow up every now and then, and anhydrous ammonia will kill you deader than a door nail in nothin flat.

I remember when they started to tear out the plant back in the early 90's.

[TC Smith]

I was one of the people who tore down that plant. When they were cutting some of the pipes I saw the most fascinating colors of flames like green, purple/ violet, blue, dark orange, etc ...
Good stuff.


TCS - never would've guessed my bank would be there in later years.

[Holloran Grade]

(02-24-2011 11:58 PM)TC Smith Wrote:  I was one of the people who tore down that plant. When they were cutting some of the pipes I saw the most fascinating colors of flames like green, purple/ violet, blue, dark orange, etc ...
Good stuff.


TCS - never would've guessed my bank would be there in later years.

I hope you were dressed like this when you were watching all those pretty colors.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/36722129@N0...583990188/

[SP4449]

Love the SP Shot at the Brea Chem.

[TC Smith]

Not exactly HG but I was a suitable distance away. I'm more concerned about that stuff along and under Bastanchury east of Lakeview - like why the ground temp got 10 degrees hotter every 5 feet we dug down (last recorded reading 155*), why the "dirt" was such a dark color of grey that it absorbed light, why the water trucks were dumping two 5-gallon jugs of Simple Green concentrate into every 5000 gallon load, and why nothing can be built where we moved said "dirt"to ....


TCS - I know, and they'll never tell us.

[daisykngdm]

And we live here...Amazing what they don't tell us. And we still live and breath...

[TC Smith]

If you look carefully, you can see all the old oil well vents - some right through houses.

But back in the days our parents let us play outside in the dirt so our immune systems got a good workout - we can handle anything !


TCS - hot, hot dirt

[Holloran Grade]

(02-25-2011 02:37 PM)TC Smith Wrote:  If you look carefully, you can see all the old oil well vents - some right through houses.

But back in the days our parents let us play outside in the dirt so our immune systems got a good workout - we can handle anything !


TCS - hot, hot dirt

20 years ago we looked at some new houses off Alta Vista that had been built on an old oil field and I noticed some weird pipes in the garage.

I looked around and found a sign warning not to remove or alter the pipes since they were part of a Methane venting system.

The documentation also stated that the house was on a sealed slab and that cutting into the slab would damage and negate the warranty on that.

I told my wife about my observation and she said she was just looking and didn't really like the style of the house and not to worry, we were not going to buy one.

So just for Sh_ts and giggles I asked the lady in the sales office about the pipes and she was forced under the disclosure laws to state what they were for and that we were standing on an old oil field.

At the time there was about 20 people looking at the stuff in the office and they all left at that point.

All those houses are now occupied and so far I have not seen any three armed children walking around town, so perhaps it was no big deal, but I didn't want to live there.

At the time I was doing dirt work, my understanding was that the simple green was sprayed into, and over hydrocarbon contaminated dirt to sequester any volatile compounds that would evaporate during the trip to the dump.

I sent tons of dirt to Utah, or Kettlemen City or up to a treatment site in McKitterick that would allow bacteria to eat the stuff, but I never used simple green for any of that.