Aerojet goes from rockets to real estate

Sacramento Bee ^ | February 1, 2004 | Mary Lynne Vellinga

[farmfriend]

Half a century ago, when Aerojet arrived in town, Rancho Cordova seemed like a great place to test rocket motors.

There were few people around to be bothered by noise and smoke near the 21 square miles of eastern Sacramento County land Aerojet purchased from the Natomas Mining Co.

[farmfriend]

We are doing a new compilation of keywords and ping lists.
Keywords and Ping-lists

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[Odyssey-x]

GE and GM make more from real estate finance and lending then they do from their industrial operations. Just goes to show you how distorted our economy has become in the current real estate bubble.

[Boot Hill]

The Bee reports:   "For years, [Aerojet] dumped wastes from rocket building and the production of pharmaceutical chemicals and pesticides into evaporation ponds and fields or injected them underground...Aerojet successfully argued it was working at the behest of the government when the contamination occurred."

I could be mistaken about this, farmfriend, but I've heard rumors in certain technical circles (not enviro) that "pharmaceutical chemicals and pesticides" is merely a euphemism for what they were really working on very secretly for the government. If any of that is true, then that means the pollution is some really nasty stuff that you don't want to be around.

--Boot Hill

[farmfriend]

I knew the chemist out there. Here are some of the chemicals that were dumped.

Al aluminum AP ammonium perchlorate CMDB composite-modified double base CTPB carboxyl-terminated polybutadiene HMX tetramethylene tetranitramine HTPB hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene

I don't know about other projects but the rocket fuels alone were bad enough.

[Boot Hill]

Yup, all those chemicals are rocket fuels, oxidizers, binders, etc. That is, except for the HMX, which is an extremely brissive high explosive that's used to implode the plutonium core to create critical mass in a nuke. (That's strange, what the heck were they doing with that stuff?)

It's the so-called "pharmaceutical chemicals and pesticides" and what I've heard about them, that would have me concerned. If you still have contact with your chemist friend, you might try this; ask him about the security clearances required at those other projects. If they very high (top secret + EBI), then that would tend to confirm what I've heard about them. Avoid the temptation to ask him straight out about what you really want to know.

--Boot Hill

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Boot Hill]

Hmmm...I think I may have just answered my own question about why Aerojet was fooling around with that HMX. I did a Google on "Lawrence Livermore" + "Aerojet" + "nuclear weapons" and got 164 hits! Didn't go any farther than that because of the late hour, but that sure peaks my curiosity!

--Boot Hill

[farmfriend]

Unfortunately he has passed on. He was a Vice President out there. He was one of the German scientists that we brought over after the war. He was 93 when he passed. Great man. One of my heros.

[Joe Hadenuf]

GE and GM make more from real estate finance and lending then they do from their industrial operations. Just goes to show you how distorted our economy has become in the current real estate bubble.

There is no realestate bubble. Fact of the matter is, *prime land* in desirable areas wont ever be going down much, or ever at all for that matter.

There is just too many people, with less and less land to go around. Supple and demand, and the demand just keeps going up, as they simple just aren't making anymore realestate. Realestate in prime, desirable areas is the investment to have now, and in the future.

[Spruce]

I would not live within 20 miles of this area. Nasty, nasty nasty.