  Saguache County, Colorado: SolarReserve®'s Final 1041 The Great Sand Dunes National Park Will Be Preserved After Explosion Creates Lake SolarReserve®! Congress Can Approve a New Name -- The Great Sand Dunes National Beach! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Many local folks were mighty concerned that the Great Sand Dunes, having just recently been designated as a National Park instead of a mere National Monument by Congressional decree, might fade into history with nary a remembrance. But the 8,200 square mile Lake SolarReserve® actually would serve to save our major tourist destination. Launches departing from the marinas in Rancho De Taos, New Mexico, perhaps on the hour, could ferry tourists from around the world to The Great Sand Dunes National Beach, where they could frolic in carefree abandon on the inviting sands. In keeping with valley tradition, ala the Orient Trust Hot Springs, perhaps some of the beaches could be set aside as "clothing optional" for visitors so inclined to frolic in even more carefree abandon. Our Grandparents' old saying is indeed true that it is an ill wind (or catastrophic explosion, for that matter) that blows no good! |  |  Peaceful Lake SolarReserve® waters lap at the Great Sand Dunes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cruise Ships Could Spend Weeks Plying the Waters of Lake SolarReserve®! Traversing the Magnificent San Juans, the La Garitas and Returning Along the Soaring Sangre de Cristos! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 One of many luxury Cruise Ships departing marina at Rancho de Taos | | We can envision survivors -- former San Luis Valley residents -- of the Big Boom!, as it will inevitably come to be remembered, capitalizing on the resultant landmark in a multitude of ways. For example, they could dress in authentic pre-Boom clothing -- work boots, overalls and similar farmer attire and a sprig of straw dangling from their lips -- while clustering on the shores of the lake near the Sand Dunes National Beach, re-enacting their lives as they were when there was still a verdant valley floor. Perhaps they could execute carefully choreographed dances similar to those they used to perform in Alamosa when it still existed. We can even imagine tourists clustering at the railings of the great cruise ships, showering coins down at the actors, shedding an occasional tear for what once was a proud agricultural environment populated by hard working ranchers and farmers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We Continue to Be Reviled By Lackeys Here and There Alleging That Explosives Can't Explode. The SolarReserve® PR Department Is Aggressively Forwarding That View As Well. Many of the so-called green blogs around the internet parrot the SolarReserve® line that their "molten salts" kept at continuously elevated temperatures from 500 °F to 1050 °F are "perfectly safe" -- that only idiots with imperfect scientific knowledge would think otherwise. Well, count us among those idiots. And we are modestly embarrassed for them for their continuation of that sad mantra. To maintain that position requires that they and their engineers are less capable than Timothy McVeigh taking 2-½ tons of "perfectly safe" ammonium nitrate fertilizer and managing somehow miraculously to make it explode in Oklahoma City. Are they really saying that their engineers must take a back seat to the Norwegian farmer named Anders Breivik who also made this "perfectly safe" fertilizer go "boom" in the capitol city of Oslo just last summer? Has the American educational system so degraded that graduate engineers working for Tetra Tech EC® to advise SolarReserve® know so very little about explosives? All three of the rapidly oxidizing nitrates - ammonium, potassium and sodium -- are classified as dangerous explosives by both Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation. Indeed, it is illegal -- you know, against the law -- to carry more than 5 kg (11 lb) of SolarReserve's® potassium/sodium nitrate mixture by passenger aircraft or by rail or more than 25 kg (55 lb) by cargo aircraft today. Dummy, you can go to jail if you do so! And you wanna call them "perfectly safe"? Here's their table:
Doesn't matter, anyhow, since our Sanguine Saguache Commissioners cavalierly abrogated our Class C status for Leach Airport, immediately adjacent to the SolarReserve® proposed site, so cargo planes (or fire retardant tankers when needed) couldn't land, anyhow. Similarly, since you can't really plan on flying 182,000 tons (364 million pounds) to rural Saguache County, you're gonna have to use trucks. And with some very specific precautions. The Department of Homeland Security's 6 CFR Part 27 Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards, Appendix A - DHS Chemicals of Interest specifically contains both of these chemicals, along with ammonium nitrate and shows a mere 400 pound screening threshold for each:
Hey! Don't blame us crazy old coots for bringing this to the attention of our Saguache County Commissioners who have a legal responsibility to protect the citizens' public safety. They're the ones who wanted the job. We're only asking that, for once, they do it! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
