Monsanto Making Areas Radioactive in Idaho

[@listenup872]

Ah Monsanto with us from cradle to grave and working diligently to shorten that time.

[@donnacsuti4980]

Well put

[@itcanwait]

Is that where 3M gets it's name? I thought I read or heard that somewhere, but could be mistaken...

[@ADHDsquirl]

You forgot Dupont and Bayer.

[@donborvio]

@@itcanwait 3M is Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. It is not Monsanto. They have had some chemical issues near their land in MN but nothing like this.

[@skankhunt3624]

​@@ADHDsquirl yeah you can definitely think Dupont for the PFAS in all of our blood right now.

[@matthewbeasley7765]

There are two methods commonly used to make phosphorous. What was covered in this video is the "less bad" from the waste standpoint. The method used here is the thermal process, where the ore is mixed with sand and coke (carbon from coal or oil) and then heated. The phosphorous is reduced by reacting with the sand and coke and comes off as gaseous P4 (pure phosphorous in a +4 ionization state - AKA white phosphorous). The phosphorous is condensed to produce the end product. The rest is molten slag that is discarded. The bulk of the slag is Calcium Silicate and Calcium Fluoride. Being dumped as a liquid the slag solidifies into glass. Both of the products are low solubility and the inability of water to leach through glass locks in much of the radioactive contaminants in place. Glass also doesn't make a lot of dust so it spreads the waste less. The thermal process produces purer phosphorous but because of the energy needed is the more expensive one. The other process is the "wet" process where sulfuric acid is used to dissolve the phosphorus out of the rock. The wet process is cheaper, but the phosphorous is less pure. The wet process is primarily used in agriculture where the purity isn't important. The byproduct is gypsum. It could potentially be used for wallboard or other products, but isn't _in the US_ because of the radioactivity. The gypsum is much worse from a waste standpoint because it both leaches water through and creates dust. Both make the radioactive elements in the waste far more mobile.

[@tm1182]

That is super interesting, thank you. I do think this video is informative but mostly pointless if "the radiation levels are not harmful" but saying monsanto made a town radioactive will definitely get a lot of clicks.

[@matiasishere1487]

@@tm1182 wtf is safe level of radioactive material?? Dollars to donuts Monsanto helped set that safe level. Or someone equally as invested in the products and not our health.

[@jackandblaze5956]

So THAT'S why the wallboard I get cheap from Mexico glows in the dark! Wow. I was wondering about that !

[@ElbowShouldersen]

@@tm1182 Monsanto Co. was recently bought up by Bayer Crop Sciences... But before that happened Monsanto was actually trying to buy up another ag company themselves for a merger... So the amusing thing about that effort was the way Monsanto pitched the deal to the potential merger candidates... They basically told them: "We want to buy you... But we want it to be a friendly deal... And to prove our good intentions we will stop using our name and instead use your name for the combined company!!"

[@chickenfishhybrid44]

@@matiasishere1487 you understand there's natural radiation all over the place right?

[@jmd1743]

The city kicked out the EPA over the fears of damaging the almighty property values. The city's leadership is just as complicit as Monsanto at this point.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Agreed.

[@jmd1743]

@@RadioactiveDrew The city also likely got kick backs from Monsanto which is good reason for the city to keep out EPA from poking their noses around. One lawsuit from a single property holder would bankrupt a city council member. The clean up can be done in a economical manner. You could use the stripped soil as a way to close dumps in layering such as the lowest layer would be this toxic soil that would be buried under say 50ft of clay & soil to cap the garbage dump. You would load the dirt & material onto a train that would be transported to near where a dump is closing, maybe build temporary train tracks for this contaminated city to make the whole transferring process convenient . Once you're done replacing material you would remove the train tracks for another major job site. We'll need to do something like that to clean up the fly ash legacy.

[@americansmark]

The EPA is more of a cancer than radiation will ever be.

[@LeCharles07]

Someone should tell them that the presence of radionuclides does a pretty great job at tanking property values on it's own. You could *pay me* to move there and I wouldn't.

[@jmd1743]

@@LeCharles07 I like Renewable energy, EVs, and Nuclear power, but what I hate most about the problems they have is that it's largely a matter of having the will to engineer the flaws out. People use the flaws as a justification to not address those flaws so they won't exist. Remember How NiCad & NiMH batteries had a flaw where you need to hold down a drill's trigger to 100 percent drain the battery before you charged the battery due to "memory"? We came out with batteries that not only got rid of that flaw but they charge faster, and have more charging cycles/life span. --- The nuclear waste problem is really the lack of a desire to reprocess the waste. With current technology you can reuse the fuel rods 5-6 times before they have to go into storage. Perhaps with refinement of the technology and new fuel rod materials we could reuse a fuel rod 6-10 times. What you would do is re open the following. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository Then implement this concept inside of that facility. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_borehole_disposal That way with the same physical real-estate you could hold substantially more nuclear waste that would be reprocessed to the max because you're storing the waste in a 3 dimension( Up,down,side to side) and not just side to side each other in tunnels. Let's say with the bore holes you're able to store 5-10 times as much waste than you would with conventional waste storage means. If you were to reprocess the waste as well as putting the waste down a bore hole shaft we could perhaps store 25-50 times as much nuclear waste before the facility would be maxed out.

[@deadbrother5355]

My uncle lived in soda springs for much of his life. He never smoked, he was a Mormon. He died of undetected lung cancer which seemed to come from nowhere, and progress rapidly about two years ago. He just collapsed one day, and died. Correlation is not causation. But it is an odd anomaly to consider. I remember watching slag dumps at night when we were visiting for a family Christmas party one year and thinking how neat it was to watch. Now I feel like its possible those slag dumps played a role in the death of my kind uncle.

[@lorigearhardt2371]

Possibly Radon? But wow.

[@nottenvironmental6208]

Yes, the corporate socialism is stealing our health, prosperity and even life for profit. Democracy is just a distraction so they can increase wealth inequality

[@jeffgodfrey6449]

I have lived 1/2 mile from that toxic mountain for the past 40 years. I’m blind in one eye I was hoping to grow a third eye so I would have 2 again but it just hasn’t happened yet.

[@philiphorner31]

I'm rooting for you.

[@jeffgodfrey6449]

Thanks Philip. There is only about 3 or 4 thousand people in Soda Springs and 2 ladies not to far from my house one lived to be 102 the other 103 been in Soda there whole life. Another lady a little further is about to become 104. I’ve been wondering if we need a little extra radiation to be healthy and live a long time.

[@PaulBigwood]

My wife's grandmothers both lived in Soda. They lived to 92 and 97 respectively.

[@jeffgodfrey6449]

Ya I don’t think the radiation is as scary as the music he has playing in the back ground.

[@WQQKIE]

I was born around there and have a third leg, all my girlfriends like that, so I can’t complain.

[@DellaJones-tc8ue]

My husband worked at the phosphate mine in Soda Springs during the mid-1970's. He would come home just coated with the dust. He passed away at age 46.

[@japanstation1]

Wow that's rough. I'm sorry to hear that Della.

[@joshua.snyder]

How did he pass?

[@SepticFuddy]

That's so screwed up

[@lorigearhardt2371]

Oh Delia, so very sorry.

[@dannyrocket77]

That is sad, so sorry.

[@jakelangevin301]

How does this have such little attention. The filming narrating and charisma is amazing. Everyone should care about this

[@TeddyBullard]

Because it's conspiracy theorist , alarmist nonsense. Just more fodder for the lemmings

[@superdavepumpkinpatch5205]

I was one of the workers who helped build those gypsum mountains. I lived in Pocatello and drove there to Soda Springs for some 60 hour work weeks building the mountains, I was one of like 2 engineers on site testing the ground before plastic was laid down for the mountains to be built on. I was doing Geotechnical testing on the ground for stability and testing the gravel thickness and consistency in the drianage culverts underneath the mountain, I was one of the only workers who had my hands in the gypsum for many days, and was out working in the blowing dust on my hands and knees while everyone else was in massive rock trucks and bulldozers, nobody told me it was toxic waste for a while and I was just a young technician without a clue. Wore a little geiger counter thing on my shirt but that wasn't doing anything in real time. We also worked with INL south of Pocatello to test the concrete cylinders they bury their toxic waste underground in as well, they were planning for the end of the world scare of 2012 and added 6" extra thickness of concrete on the walls of the concrete vessels they planned to bury, in case of natural disasters, they had about 15 people supervising me for that one, Montesano outsourced to Kiewit who were just a bunch of dozer and loader operators, then there were the plastic liner welders, and ditch diggers/drainage pipe layers. Then me, on my knees amongst 20 massive rock trucks testing random holes in the ground with a radioactive probe, collecting Ziplocks of hazardous waste. 🤣

[@B01]

I prob speak for everyone when I say I hope you found a more rewarding job than one destroying our planet. That being said, you defffff need to apply to get on that dirty jobs show. I bet radioactive gypsum would prob top their lists for sureeee

[@superdavepumpkinpatch5205]

@B I'm long gone out of that industry..wish I had known what it was at the time, but if i hadn't done it the other guys would have, so there's no regrets on my end. Maybe I'll get a hush settlement someday to keep quiet about some other secrets I know about that Gypstack mountain 😆

[@indigenoussober407]

Please record your experience Dave. Your perspective sheds light on just what goes on behind the Corporate Curtain.

[@lorigearhardt2371]

@@superdavepumpkinpatch5205 Yes, please record your experiences. Have a copy (copies) placed elsewhere. Heck, even a book (hard work). Would be an important contribution.

[@zudemaster]

Monsanto has a long history of contaminating wherever they are. Near Dayton Ohio they created a huge contaminated mess and tried to up and leave it a number of years back.

[@dougr6397]

I am in the Dayton area. Thankfully The Mound is "cleaned" up and the facilities have been all repurposed. For those that arent aware, the Mound Laboratory was responsible for making the neutron triggers for the plutonium bombs as well as other components. In later years they produced energy sources that were used in the US Space Program.

[@LeCharles07]

It's almost as if they are an evil capitalist corporation that cares more about money than people. 🤔

[@taylorsessions4143]

I don't know how many nights driving through Soda I saw that glow and wondered what it would be like to have a birds eye view. We would joke that they were trying to harvest the power of a volcano. Driving through during the day you see the mountain of slag, which unfortunately your footage did not do it justice. It's simply unfathomable how expansive it is. Thanks for sharing, this video was well done.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Its very hard to capture how big that slag mountain is.

[@taylorsessions4143]

@@RadioactiveDrew yeah even with a drone, how do you capture something that goes on for so long? It's enormous. A farmer's field that has been mounded up 8 or 10 stories high. Is this truly the only thing they can do with their byproduct?

[@dougelick8397]

With a sufficiently sensitive GM counter or scintillator, you can detect when farm fields have been fertilized. Phosphorus is common in fertilizer. Great video; that night drone footage is fantastic.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Yeah, I feel I should have said that in the video...that phosphorus is also used as a fertilizer. There are even other smaller phosphorus processing plants in the area...but none of those sold radioactive slag, to my knowledge.

[@wyliesdiesels4169]

the phosphorus isnt whats radioactive. its the polonium 210 that is mixed in the phosphorus....

[@orcoastgreenman]

@@wyliesdiesels4169 - which is exactly what makes tobacco grown with such phosphate fertilizer, extra carcinogenic.

[@alfredsutton4412]

Also potassium.

[@caveone-365]

@@orcoastgreenman Agreed. I believe most tobacco contains Polonium-210 correct??

[@Morrisonleary]

I grew up in Idaho. It’s not a mystery why so many people get MS and other neurological diseases. And it’s not a mystery why there are so many specialty clinics and hospitals, especially up by Spokane 😉

[@benrichards9667]

Exactly. CDA is known to have high pancreatic cancer levels. The water table I think is tainted from mining, etc. Well known. And yet 10's of thousands are moving into these areas thinking they are so good and safe. Yikes!

[@B01]

The newest Research which can identify microbes far easier than before (SEM microscopy accessibility and better staining techniques) which shows the bacteria mostly (among others) are similar from that on our food surfaces to that within our own bodies. Our microbiomes. Our microbes are harmed the same way the ecosystem is harmed, and the chemicals continue inside our bodies. Washing off foods is not always sufficient as many of these "icides" are applied in ways to make it not just wash away with the rain. Remove parts of a complex functioning system, and some parts fail "unexpectedly". TLDR you're so fucking right

[@JimmyRussle]

and yet the people who live in those areas are almost violently opposed to any environmental regulations. Now that the supreme court has pretty much gutted any kind of regulatory body, you will start to see this stuff pop up all over the US. Cant wait to live in a toxic nightmare country.

[@jakobstengard3672]

The same thing happened in sweden in the 70’s. They used burnt alun slate from mines to make blueish sponge like concrete blocks which are light because they have air bubbles inside. These where manufactured by a company named Y-tong. They were often used in building foundations of homes. It was later discovered they are in fact radioactive and also gives of radon gas.

[@jakobstengard3672]

In fact we played with these blocks as kids because there were some dumped in the forest next to the daycare centrer. Very inapropriate.

[@jeremyO9F911O2]

All minerals give off radon gas. There are traces of uranium and thorium which slowly decay and become radon in all mineral deposits. Just some deposits have less than others. It's really only hazardous in a confined space, good ventilation and placing a sealant on mineral surfaces is generally sufficient. Something as simple as drywall and paint will do it. Radon is chemically inert and doesn't exist for all that long before it decays back into a solid.

[@Cruznick06]

I live in Nebraska, USA, and we naturally have Radon due to the geology of the region. My home's basement has a measurement if 27 pCi/L without the venting system running. That is nearly 7x the "high" acceptable measurement. It was expensive to get the mitigation system but worth every penny. It makes me really sad to hear homes were built with something that releases Radon over time. The stuff is dangerous and can cause cancer. I hate to say it, but the best option might be to carefully demolish those homes.

[@jeremyO9F911O2]

@@Cruznick06 radon is released by ALL MINERALS you have a radon problem not because you live in Nebraska. But because you have a poorly ventilated basement on planet Earth. Also the the salesman for the HVAC company cherrypicks "acceptable levels" your's were probably high enough to justify mitigation, just not as scary high as you were lead to believe.

[@ZeroPointZap]

and radon gas breaks down in to lead particles.

[@Roorocks821]

Thank you for making this video! I used to live in Idaho, lived there for all my childhood. In 5th or 6th grade, they took us down to Soda Springs to see the "World's Only Captive Geyser". The tour guide there was talking about how Soda Springs had its own "Volcano" of sorts, where every 15 minutes we could watch red hot slag being poured out from the Monsanto plant. And as if right on que, there it was, a truck carrying red hot slag pouring it down into the slag pit. Now watching this video and realizing that the slag poured out was actually radioactive is crazy, because we drank the water there, from that exact same well you shot in your video, and we even stopped by a lake for a pitstop, and we discovered all the fish were washed up and dead. These weren't little fish in any way, but rather large ones. We could see bones poking up behind the decaying fish flesh. I wonder now if the fish has died due to the radiation. No idea, I didn't have a geiger counter on me then, wish I did lol! Again, thank you for this video!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Yeah, its pretty interesting to learn more about an area that you've been to in the past. I have stopped in Pocatello on my way up to see family in Montana since 2011. It was only in 2016 that by accident I found that radioactive parking lot at the Taco Time. I had no idea at the time why it was radioactive but it was super fascinating to me. In regards to your story about the dead fish. I'm certain it wasn't from radiation exposure. Could have been chemicals that killed the fish or even an algae bloom. The radiation isn't strong enough to kill something like fish.

[@Roorocks821]

@@RadioactiveDrew I didn't think that was enough radiation to do damage, but thank you for clarifying!

[@caseybray4321]

The fish died from selenium.

[@dustys5512]

My uncle worked for FMC in Pocatello for most of his career. He stayed at the plant after it closed down and was in charge of clean-up and finding a way to remove the waste without it getting into the ground water. He then worked out at Soda Springs for Monsanto for a few years before he finally retired. Out at FMC he allowed me to open a barrel of radioactive waste water and peek inside. It wasn't dangerous to be around, but the real danger was if someone drank it. I visited FMC a few times. Once while the plant was fully operational, and a few times after it was closed down to help box some stuff up to be sold. FMC handled their waste properly, but it doesn't look like Monsanto is doing a very good job of handling their waste correctly. It is no surprise that they kicked the EPA out though. Pocatello is a hot-spot for the "good old boys" club and there is a lot of corruption in that town.

[@threeten310]

my Dad was a Chemical Engineer for 40 years out there at the same FMC plant in Poky He Retired and it gave him Cancer of the lymphnoids He DIED at 80 years old in 2010 he wasnt the Only One and thats wy they Skinned Out & Left they used to say the weather was sunny w\ a chance of FMC My dad would say all the pollution was from Simplot Next door but Simplot Only Produces Steam

[@rjsimpkins2911]

In 1979, I asked the plant manager why there was so much serious disease clustered in the workforce and he was speechless. HR manager lied for him and they jerked me around for a couple of years as I pushed for an answer. That's why I started working in the 80s to put FMC on the Superfund list and finally got it done. FMC got away with most of this. Who were the relatives that worked there?

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I’m going to revisit this topic. Believe me, it’s far from done.

[@rjsimpkins2911]

@@RadioactiveDrew About 10 years back or more, FMC forced the ShoBan Tribe into a federal lawsuit over unpaid hazardous waste storage fees of about $2M yearly. US District Court Judge Lynn Winmill ruled in favor of the tribe and if memory is correct, his decision was upheld by 9th Circuit and left in place by Supreme Court. You will be shocked to see Windmill's findings on environmental issues. Over 30 years ago, I sat at my kitchen table with a couple of EPA people from Seattle and told them where and what to look for. EPA used say this former FMC elemental phosphorus plant, known as the Michaud Flats Superfund site, was one of 50 worst in the nation. Radioactive slag dust is just the very tip of this iceberg. The political suck they bought and developed is mind blowing!

[@raginroadrunner]

There is corruption border to border, coast coast.

[@twistedpipes04]

One of the largest phosphate mines is in Mulberry FL and is owned by Mosaic. The people that grew up in that area and would now be in their 60s, are either cancer survivors or passed away from cancer. My mother has thyroid disease and has had cancer twice. She grew up less than 5 miles from the mine.

[@BaronVonEvil1]

I lived in Pocatello for a about two years. The locals referred to it as "Smokatello" due to the Simplot and FMC plants located there. Both plants were in operation when I lived there in the early 80's. Luckily, I moved away but, about 6 years later, I moved back to a town north of Pocatello. Blackfoot, Idaho was where I lived for about 4 months where I worked for Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Basically it is a nuclear power research facility. The funny thing is, at work at the lab, they (The Operators of the Lab) monitored radiation levels of the facility, air, water, sewage, the comings and goings of everyone and everything. We had workers who commuted from Pocatello to the lab everyday. If there had or ever was a contamination issue with an unknown radiation source, the place would have been on a Stand Down until the source could have been determined. Because the Lab and the phosphate processing had both been around for a long time, perhaps the Lab wasn't aware of what the normal background levels should be?

[@davidleadford6511]

My Dad worked for Westinghouse. The Naval Reactors part of the lab when it existed. We lived in Pocatello the entire time. He passed away because of asbestosis.....from the lab. And he or the family will not get any compensation. The FMC slag pile still exists. They just buried it.

[@lorigearhardt2371]

@@davidleadford6511 Oh wow. Wow.

[@Meggligee]

@@davidleadford6511 where did they bury it?

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I would imagine it’s so big they just put material over it to cover.

[@davidleadford6511]

@@RadioactiveDrew Exactly what they did. There was talk of trucking it all to a waste disposal site at the west side of the state, but the costs were extremely high for that. They could have sent it all by rail, but again, that would have been expensive.

[@lifeisgood339]

Great job thank you for helping spread the word

[@demoniack81]

Kinda reminds me of the Solvay plant at Rosignano Solvay (yes, the town is called after the plant) here in Italy. They've dumped so much rock processing waste into the sea that they CHANGED THE COLOR of a large part of coast, and there are elevated levels of mercury and other heavy metals all around the area. They made this beautiful white sand that actually causes people to go bathe in it. Everyone knows it's happening but nothing is being done.

[@christopherwhull]

A lot of coast lines have changed color due to industry. If they are unsafe due detectable levels of xyz is a matter of comparison. There is a community somewhere that has exsisted for 200+ years that has natural xyz levels that has been researched and some government has not cleared the town. We as a species need to have a mature discussion about detectable vs impactful. I as an individual want nice things, it has to get mined, grown or manufactured. Even recycling has impact all needs to be managed by someone understanding elevated xyz does not mean harmful, the press is very bad at this.

[@solodad7999]

Lava Hot Springs, McCammon and ranchers all around the area have been using the slag to gravel roads, driveways, livestock pens, barns for years. Now we know why it was so cheap to buy.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Plus concrete, asphalt and general fill. No telling what else.

[@theclearsounds3911]

Cheap to buy? 5 years ago I was interested in buying a house in that area, and housing prices there were much higher than the Idaho Falls area, an hour north.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

@@theclearsounds3911 H wasn't talking about houses. He was talking about the SLAG!

[@theclearsounds3911]

@@lewiemcneely9143 Oh, OK, I stand corrected. I misinterpreted that. Sorry. 😳

[@lewiemcneely9143]

@@theclearsounds3911 NO problem but folks are making a beeline out of large cities and uban stuff has passed pluto a long time ago. BLESSINGS!

[@golfprocrastinator9519]

The town looks lovely, your cinematography was beautiful and the whole thing was incredibly well presented, better than TV. Also something TV no longer does.... Edifying. Cheers Drew.

[@boojum402]

I used to work at a scout camp several miles West of Soda Springs back in the 80's. Sometimes we would sit out on the ridge at night and watch the sky light up as they'd dump the slag out at Soda Springs. Fun fact, it was a common thing to take your kids to Hooper Spring with all the makings of Kool-Ade and make a carbonated version with the water there. We always looked forward to it when I was a kid.

[@dannyrocket77]

I grew up there, doing the same thing, in the winter or on a cloudy night was the best.

[@woodsmn8047]

here I am learning stuff about my home town that I never heard before and now at age 78 I'm still living in Pocatello ..it's a little late for me ..but I seem no worse for wear ...still .. great video ..!

[@allRadioactive]

Awsome video! Here in Germany we also have a few contaminated cities such as Oranienburg or Dresden, and while the elevated background from the contamination shouldnt pose much risk, it is still disturbing that people live there and the government never conducted a clean up of these places 🙁

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I'll have to look up those cities and see what the deal is with them. In Pocatello and Soda Springs the contamination could have been cleaned up but the people there didn't want to do that. Again, this contamination is pretty low and I think it is extremely unlikely to cause any health problems with the residents living there. Problem is this contamination hurts the property values as I can't imagine anyone would want to buy a house that was built using radioactive slag.

[@mfbfreak]

I looked at the Safecast map. Although the map is not comprehensive, there are quite some streets mapped in those places. There doesn't seem to be elevated background radiation. In Berlin, there are a few streets that have slightly higher than average radiation, no higher than 0,6µSv/h. I think that if you were to rip out whatever is causing that ever so slightly higher than average radiation level, would cause more illness and death (major building projects cause stress for the inhabitants and the diesel powered, unfiltered machines used pollute a lot) than the slightly higher radiation levels. In the dutch city of Groningen, you can see exactly on the map where the city is paved with a specific type of paving stone. But still, radiation levels are low in those areas, perhaps 0,25µSv/h where 0,15µSv/h is about average. That said, it really is not comprehensive - there could be streets where the radiation level is much higher because of a big mistake somewhere.

[@prinzeugenvansovoyen732]

@@RadioactiveDrew in Germany and other countries coal powerplant ashes and unfiltered coal fire exhaust have caused radioactive contamination of the surrounding lands - especially wherever ashes were dumped

[@caveone-365]

@@prinzeugenvansovoyen732 I'd be interested in seeing if there was still any kind of residual effects from the big catastrophe from BASF back in the day in Germany. I believe it was in 1929, supposedly the biggest disaster ever in Germany, but don't quote me on that.

[@lanthanumlanthanium6373]

That's all propaganda. It's killing many citizens in those areas. Look up the elevated cancer rates in those cities.

[@matthewhartman5088]

I grew up in Pocatello. I was worried (and still am) about all the DDT they found in the third house my parents lived in (old barnwood decorating the basement where my room was- made my Dad really sick). He worked at the University and had the wood tested & had it all ripped out. Now I learn about all the concrete in those basements being radioactive!

[@cainabel2553]

Radioactivity is a trivial hazard

[@RadioactiveDrew]

@cainabel2553 the radiation isn’t much of a concern there. But it was contaminated that could have been easily avoided.

[@markgoecke2323]

My Father in Law worked at the Monsanto Plant for years, until his death. (old age) They lived about two blocks south of the Monsanto Property Line. I toured the plant once, was very interesting.

[@tomturtle400]

Excellent video Drew! I was born in Pocatello in the 1940's and as a child owned a Gilbert "Toy" Geiger counter In probably the early 50's. I remember the grey slag being damped on the parking lot of the Farm Bureau Insurance building in the 200 block of South Gargield Avenue and hearing my Geiger Counter clicking as I got it near the slag. WESTVACO, eventually bought out by MONSANTO, still has a phosphate processing plant west of Pocatello by the Airport, so that's where the stuff in "Poky" came from. There was also a parking lot for the Bannock Hotel right next to my house and sometimes there would be trucks with nuclear waste casks from the Idaho, at the time, Navy Nuclear Training Facility near Arco Idaho, on them parked there and my G- counter would activate, pretty exciting for a kid!!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

That would be pretty exciting for a kid. It was exciting for me when I first saw my Geiger counter making some noise pulling into Pocatello.

[@tomturtle400]

@@RadioactiveDrew Thanks so much for the reply Drew. You really ROCK! I have a Radiacod 102 on order and plan to visit Pocatello, also have a pancake style G-counter. Take care!

[@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork]

Holy cow dude! Thanks for sharing this! I know a lot about that company... NONE of it "favorable".... but this is another atrocity they have committed! It would be great to see another round of law suits after them for this in addition to the glyphosphate suits that are ongoing. That slag pile is a HUGE amount of material!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

That slag pile grows every day.

[@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork]

@@RadioactiveDrew You mean every 15 minutes.. :) Man that is BAD stuff! No need for any of this "modern chemical ag" with the knowledge we have and the ability soil and microbes have to produce truly healthy food more abundantly than most anything that is currently being done in the US.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I totally agree. We could have a so much healthier food source with what we know now.

[@dannyrocket77]

My grandpa died of cancer 5 years after he retired from Monsanto where he worked at for 35 years. Its probably why I was totally grey at 30.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Chemical exposure can be very bad for people. Much worse than radiation exposure in my experience.

[@SixOhFive]

@@RadioactiveDrewtotally grey at 30? That's crazy

[@mniswonger]

You should come to Hazelwood and Bridgeton, MO where radioactive byproducts from Mallinckrodt producing yellow cake were improperly disposed of and leached into creeks and the soil. Some of the waste is buried in the landfill and there is an underground fire not far from reaching them. I used to play in the creek and my Grandpa farmed in the soil that the creek would often flood. Several of their neighbors died of various cancers and the cancer rates around Cold Water Creek are WAY higher than anywhere else in the surrounding area.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I’ve heard of this area. I do want to check out our in the future.

[@benfranklin9156]

There is lots of good work to do in this world. Your ahead of your time, keep on Trucking Drew.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Thanks.

[@edmundfimbres]

The use of phosphate for Roundup was minuscule. Most of it (90%+) is used for fertilizer. The rest is for phosphoric acid used in food. Just read the back of a can of Coke.

[@joemoore1433]

Thought that was Simplot's mine

[@rakfarms9898]

I am in ag sales and can confirm, most phosphate us used in farm fertilizer. Get spread on millions of acres a year and helps our farmers be very successful and grow spectacular crops.

[@B01]

@@rakfarms9898 while destroying the ecosystems so much you need to buy more and more every year vs Regen ag where you use less and less 🤣

[@pearsonbrown6740]

Phosphoric acid is a precursor to the phosphate fertilizers, so 90% actually goes to phosphoric acid. This guy is also wrong when he says glyphosate is toxic to humans. He's likely conflating organophosphates to glyphosate.

[@B01]

@@pearsonbrown6740 no harm to humans? Let me guess, you weren't part of the huge swaths of people that received part of billions of dollars in settlement money for their health and other injuries sustained from working around their chemicals including glyphosate? Go drink some glyphosate, let us know how you feel afterwards. No harm to humans, what a joke🤣🤣🤣 We have better medicine than the majority of the world in America but our farming practices are causing the highest rates of hundreds of illness and diseases. This is due to our horrendous farming practices. With better staining techniques and more SEM microscopy available to more scientists, pcr testing more readily available to geneticists, we are able to realize it's similar bacteria and other organisms on our food surfaces as inside our bodies. Here's the thing...our own microbiomes contain many of the same exact, and similar species of bacteria. By using products which distrupt these organisms outside our bodies, those foods contaminated with glyphosate among other common "icides" continue to wreck havoc on our systems upon contact/ingestion. Not all of it washes off, not to mention there's typically additives used to ensure it DOESN'T just wash right off, surfactants and other additives to ensure it remains on the intended surfaces. Our microbiomes are suffering and we only just now are seeing why. You can chose to believe it or not, but science really doesn't care if you agree with it for it to be correct and true. Time to stop spraying and start regenerating.

[@sleeplessinthesummit8505]

sold sold sold my family property in soda.. thanks for bringing this to light

[@kailashbtw9103]

As a radiation nerd this is fascinating. As a human, terrifying!

[@raginroadrunner]

This only the tip of the iceberg. The Grand Junction Colorado area is built on uranium tailings so widespread they gave trying to remove it. It is practically endless.

[@psychicrenegade]

Holy cow...those hot springs in Soda Springs are advertised as a natural hot tub, and a great place to go swimming in the winter!! 😧

[@davidgeorge4696]

I think you're mixing up Soda Springs with Lava Hot Springs; two different towns about 22 miles from each other.

[@benrichards9667]

Lava hot springs is a fun place in summer. Been there. My aunt has a cabin there too.

[@djwhite8490]

Soda Creek (the poisoned water you speak of) drains into the Bear River near Soda Springs which is the water source for every town from there, to Logan UT, then South West to Salt Lake City UT. I am curious if I could get a source for the stories of livestock drinking this water and dying? When my mother was a little girl in the 60s they would make rootbeer out of the carbonated water. It's a tradition that we continue to this day.

[@NickFrom1228]

The selenium issue is based on concentration and form. By the time that creek hits the rivers etc, it is so dilute the selenium concentration is not an issue. Also note that people need selenium to survive. There are selenium supplements. I don't recall the form it comes in, certainly not elemental...

[@kasiar1540]

@@NickFrom1228 spot on about selenium. One Brazil nut contains enough selenium for a proper daily (tiny) dose

[@rebeccaj.2606]

@@NickFrom1228 Oh, thank you for your knowledge on this. Being that my sister and her family lives in Logan, I was getting very concerned.

[@NickFrom1228]

@@rebeccaj.2606 If your sister is not drinking out of that stream then there is almost no issue at all. Using Kasia R post as a jumping off point, it's true Brazil nuts have lots of selenium. Now, I know they are a big large and crunchy but myself and many people have eaten a dozen or so in a day which means I/we ingested many times the daily "recommended" dose, with no ill effects. So, even if you sister drank from the stream, unless it happened at a time when there was enough concentration (varies by location, time, disturbance of streambed, etc) to cause an issue then she would still likely be just fine. I just wouldn't want to drink from the stream as a matter of course since frankly if there is selenium in water there are probably other metals that you really don't want to be ingesting a lot of either.

[@rebeccaj.2606]

@@NickFrom1228 Ok, thank you. She doesn't.

[@karis3647]

This makes me so sad. I live in northern UT. Soda Springs has been a favorite Sunday drive for years. We only go once or twice a year, but I'm not willing to put out health at risk anymore.

[@portnuefflyer]

This needs to be more widely known, to keep more people from moving to the area, and don't forget about the hobo spiders and wood ticks.

[@BenotzJoe]

Yes, the slag is particularly dangerous to those moving from California.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

@BenotzJoe hahahaha…I’ve heard it’s instant cancer for Californians.

[@othoapproto9603]

Thanks for all your hard work. Please consider including into EACH video a reference point of safe exposure. It would be a great service to educate about safe and not safe in the context of each video. You understand it, but we don't.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I’ll see what I can work in for future videos.

[@othoapproto9603]

@@RadioactiveDrew thanks and I really have enjoyed your work.

[@alexkitner5356]

Have you considered or done anything on Middlesex NJ? It was the location they brought unprocessed uranium ore during the Manhattan Project and separated it to usable levels that then could got to true processing/enrichment plants. It was declared a superfund site in the early years of that program and supposedly there's still plenty of pollution remaining and the site hasn't been turned back to normal use.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Well if they were bringing in uranium and classifying the pieces out, where did the plutonium come from?

[@alexkitner5356]

@@RadioactiveDrew I have no idea, I would assume it was thru one of the other redundant supply lines for the Manhattan Project or maybe it's a processing thing, you'd know better than I, am no expert in fuel production of chemistry. All I really know is about the site and it's history, that it was an early part of the process to go from mixed ore to something usable in the downstream process for making atomic bombs. Not sure if the question is meant as is or if it's questioning the validity of the site. I can't speak for the overall logistics of the program or different isotopes so I can't answer that but as to the site, it's well known locally for what it did and what lasting contamination was caused. On that I can speak for it's legitimacy.

[@alexkitner5356]

@@RadioactiveDrew personally I didn't say the word plutonium anywhere, I just asked about a historic site where I know uranium ore of low purity was processed into a grade of ore that could go to further processing on its journey from mine to munition.

[@alexkitner5356]

@@RadioactiveDrew here is a clip from the Wikipedia page on the location. "The Middlesex Sampling Plant on Mountain Avenue in Middlesex, New Jersey, is a 9.6 acres (38,800 m2) site which was initially used to stockpile pitchblende uranium ore. From 1943 to 1955, under the direction of the Manhattan Project and its successor agency, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), it was used to crush, dry, screen, weigh, assay, store, package, and ship uranium ore, along with thorium and beryllium ores, for the development of the atomic bomb." So if your question was meant to test or to throw shade on my question like I pulled this from my rear end well there's a citation for you, I'm not pulling this out of a conspiracy theory or urban legend or my arse...

[@alexkitner5356]

@@RadioactiveDrew here's the rest, like the remediation that was supposed to be performed, the additional contamination from refuse that the site generated and so on. "It was later discovered that radioactive waste had been disposed of a half mile away at the Middlesex Municipal Landfill. The site was used from 1955 to 1967 for the sampling and storage of thorium residues, and was decontaminated, certified, and released for unrestricted use in 1967. During the decontamination process, radioactive materials were carried away by wind and rain to the yards of nearby residents.[citation needed] The facility was used by the United States Marine Corps as a reserve training center from 1969 until 1979, when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) took over and cleaned up the residential properties. Excavated soil was stored at the site in a specially constructed pile, known as the Vicinity Properties (VP) pile. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) disposed of 33,000 cubic yards (25,000 m3) of contaminated soil from the Middlesex Municipal Landfill pile in 1998 and 35,000 cubic yards (27,000 m3) from the VP pile in 1999. As of 2007, the USACE is doing ground water testing and has proposed a remedial action plan with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Closure of the site is pending, and long-term surveillance and maintenance requirements will be determined once final site conditions are known."

[@dougdunnick3041]

The State of Florida and The Mosaic Company are mining phosphate in the Bone Valley region currently. This mining activity directly contributed to my daughter's Stage 3 ovarian cancer diagnosis back in 2015. In Florida the land pebble phosphate rock is striped for uranium to make yellow cake. The large mountains of gypsum waste are eroding into the local waters and food chain since mining was expanded greatly back in the 1960's. Just like Idaho, central Florida is suffering the effects of phosphate/uranium mining and all the accompanying radiation. #FloridaPoisonedMyDaughter, #MosaicCausesCancer.

[@mrtruth1748]

Disaster waiting to happen there

[@twistedpipes04]

My mother grew up near Mosaic and had had cancer twice and has a thyroid disorder. A lot of her classmates have passed away from cancers. She used to tell me stories of her childhood when the mine would clean out their smoke stacks. She said everything would stink for days afterwards

[@lorigearhardt2371]

@@twistedpipes04 Wow.

[@mrtruth1748]

@@twistedpipes04 A lot of residential areas are build on old mined land. They're still trying to cover for that huge sink hole.

[@Muonium1]

Millions of people are diagnosed with cancer in the US ever year, what leads you to believe your daughter's cancer was specifically caused by this mine?

[@mikeholmstrom1899]

There's the Vitro tailings site in Salt Lake City UT, that still has issues from uranium milling there. There was also some radiation at the Stringfellow Acid pits near Riverside CA, a waste dump, but it was suspected that was from granite rock in that area.

[@thekillerpandas]

St. Cloud mine in Bowie Arizona mines zeolites, specifically chabazite they process to treat places like Fukushima and 3 Mile Island. Definitely gave me some ideas on how that could be used to treat our homes, land, and surroundings. Also used in treating toxic water by federal land managers. There are cured for things like this in nature too. We have to invent them. Zeolite is amazing, already used widely to treat water and air, and in you cat litter, and that stuff at the gas station to clean up spills, etc..

[@lorigearhardt2371]

Indeed, that i great stuff! I've read it' awesome for agriculture, gardens.

[@Muonium1]

Neat. The smoke itself may be radioactive, but this is the place that makes smokING radioactive too. The phosphate is, or at least was, used to make fertilizer for tobacco farms, and the plants absorb polonium from the soil which is then inhaled while smoking the product cigarettes and ultimately induces a massive radiation dose to smoker's lungs over time. There must be studies on cancer rates of this town compared to others nearby, but I doubt they'd be able to see anything the levels are so low. Maybe the workers inhaling the dust at the plant might be affected though.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

The phosphate mined has been historically used as a fertilizer everywhere. Not just for tobacco. So I don't know if that makes a bunch of sense. Unless the tobacco plants concentrate what little polonium there is left...hard to say.

[@Muonium1]

@@RadioactiveDrew the seminal paper is from 1964 by Radford in Science. Local lung doses are actually VERY high, estimated to be many hundreds of REM per decade. Food is much less because it's an element poorly absorbed by the gut.

[@dougelick8397]

@@RadioactiveDrew Polonium is in U-238s decay chain. Plants are little chemical factories. Tea dramatically concentrates fluoride, for some reason...

[@Juan-Dering]

@@RadioactiveDrew Yeah it does actually. The actions of the plant and it's life cycle concentrates the radioactive elements. "Deposits on the surface of the tobacco leaf via fine, sticky hairs (trichomes), which bind airborne radioactive dust particles generated during the application of fertilizers..." as well as "PO-210 is thought to be encapsulated with calcium phosphate and lead-210 into insoluble radioactive particles inside the plant, which are subsequently transferred directly into the smoke." Made worse by the fact that the companies were aware of this, and attempted to reduce the effects and concentrations by using filters and the like, but not letting anyone know of the potential risk factors or sources. Plus, ingesting alpha sources is exactly what you DON'T want to do.

[@dananorth895]

Certain plants are bio-accumulators, but what is accumulated variers per species. Rice in particular picks up a vast number of toxins, poisons, pesticides etc. IF they are availible in the soil.

[@swamp-yankee]

I think this was a well put together story and I appreciate you taking the time. In your conclusion you missed something. Those people have to live with that radiation because our current agricultural system requires it. It’s only viable because costs like this are externalized. I would really like to see you interview some regenerative farmers. Specifically Bob Quinn, but also Gabe Brown would be interesting too.

[@lorigearhardt2371]

That sounds really interesting! I concur.

[@davidleadford6511]

When I was a kid, I remember my Dad got a pickup load of that slag and put it down in a driveway at our house. As far as I know, it's still there. FMC is responsible for it in Pocatello, and they were a fertilizer plant. Monsanto did it in Soda Springs.

[@kellikelli4413]

I'd like to know why people think this synthetic petroleum based fertilizer is better than chit from vegetarian animals‼️

[@davidleadford6511]

@@kellikelli4413 This isn't a petroleum based fertilizer. What they WERE making was the key ingredient in Round Up.

[@kellikelli4413]

@@davidleadford6511 Yes I know it was for weed/bug killer which always have an oil base in order to adhere to the subject (plant ). Slag is a waste biproduct isn't it. If you read the comment by Matthew Beasley, he said that the method used here is the thermal process, where the ore is mixed with sand and coke (which is carbon from coal or OIL), ie petroleum.

[@davidleadford6511]

@@kellikelli4413 NO. It WASN'T for fertilizer. I specifically stated they were making the key ingredient in Round Up. Round Up isn't a fertilizer.

[@kellikelli4413]

@@davidleadford6511 You must have missed my reply from about 10 hours ago which mentioned weed / bug killer /insecticide.

[@_Musashi_13]

You are a great documentarian. Keep up the excellent productionsDrew. I’d like to see you come do a few in Australia :)

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I would really like to head down there down on these days.

[@radioactive_disco5363]

I'm amazed more people aren't watching this. Excellent footage and incidental music. The slag dumping footage was amazing!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Thanks. I think it turned out pretty good as well.

[@JoeL-kn9tc]

@@RadioactiveDrew Drew, you are terrific! I just recently noticed your videos. The videography has stunning clarity and your knowledgeable talks add great depth. How about St. George, Utah, which was downwind from the Nevada Test Site?

[@RadioactiveDrew]

There are places I want to check out around that part of Utah.

[@JoeL-kn9tc]

@@RadioactiveDrew All your work is fascinating. Good luck.

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Looked like a steel mill.

[@keepastures7894]

Check out the book Fateful Harvest by Duff Wilson. A documentary that traces contaminated fertilizer from a town in eastern Washington to Soda Springs that was making people and horses sick. Really interesting

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Now that sounds interesting.

[@ml4350]

I grew up in Inkom, 8 miles south of Pocatello! Oh my goodness I had no idea! So glad I moved!

[@wendyrobertson3899]

The phosphate mining in Florida was haulted because of the same reason. My dad was offered a job at the mines as a dynomite blast specialist but when he read the contract for employment he said no because of the radioactive exposure. He hsd seen the damages done to the desert in New Mexico and Bonneville salt flats. He said the death of the wild life hit him pretty hard. It's disgusting what Monsanto gets away with. Daily exposure to ANY radiation causes cancer! Ask any Pine Islander in Lee County Florida where the cancer rates are 30x to 50x the average for brain cancer, lung cancer and other cancers that are fast growing.

[@katiedid1851]

Chromosomal damage from cumulative radiation damage is to be avoided if possible. I would not buy in Soda Springs and Pocatello. Wonder what cancer profiles look like in these areas. Thank you for your video - I like having information to guide me.

[@Greenteabook]

From the comments, it looks like half the population can anecdotally claim grandparents in their 90s and 100s. They might just be claiming the same people though, considering the population numbers. I wouldn't bet that their parents or themselves will get to that age if they ignore radiation effects.

[@carolinegray7510]

@katie did: the key horror is the "cumulative radiation" not mentioned in the comments til you! Chromosomal damage will probably begin to show up the births in another generation. From the "no worries" comments though, I'd say a big portion of the present generation is already suffering the affects of radiation damage to their brains. 😬

[@SpencerHHO]

It depends on what other risk factors are or aren't present. I'd take that level of radiation over some other common industrial pollution like PFAS contamination or high levels of particulate pollution but being the cite of other heavy chemical industries it's possible they are exposed to multiple hazards but the radiation alone isn't too scary, not that excuses the negligence however.

[@hylacinerea970]

not only cancer but abnormalities. I don't know my chromosomes but I suspect I have so many deletions. I have severe pcos & am in pre-menopause at 17. my father was on a nuc sub.

[@vaclavholek4497]

Wow, my father and I have hunted deer just outside of Soda for many years. We stay at the JR Inn when we hunt. I knew about the Monsanto plant, and the slag pile, but had no idea that the slag was radioactive, or that the slag was used in construction. Based on the age of the JR, I'd be willing to bet it is also "hot." 😮

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I’ll need to check out that location.

[@HighCalip]

Florida has Phosphogypsum stacks (mountains?) all over the place from phosphate mining waste, its also radioactive they are trying to use it in roads down here. You should check the stacks out if you have the chance. I liked and subbed I enjoy your content

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Thanks for the like and sub. I want to do a follow up video about Pocatello and Soda Springs. Plus how it will effect Florida using that slag for building projects. It blows my mind that anyone would use this material for anything. Its not that its dangerous per say...its contamination where there doesn't need to be any. Also if there was a radiological incident where something needed to be tracked down, having all this contamination would make the job much harder.

[@RosscoAW]

Frankly, it shouldn't even be Monsanto that's held responsible -- it should be Monsanto's collective body of shareholders, past and present.

[@randallcromer66]

I would not be living anywhere near either of those cities. I feel so sorry for the poor people who can't afford to leave.

[@isiso.speenie5994]

The Monsanto plant seems like a thousand times bigger problem than the parking lot in the streets in the town !

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Yeah that mountain of slag is huge.

[@isiso.speenie5994]

@@RadioactiveDrew Do you think that radioactive smoke is falling out on the town at all? (What you showed coming off the plant)

[@LeCharles07]

@@isiso.speenie5994 Yes. Maybe not that town but it's falling on *a* town.

[@Fatluvin420]

The shot of the dumping of the slag was so cool to see, thank you for the great content and information

[@RadioactiveDrew]

No problem...glad you enjoyed the video.

[@rpmrngr]

Monsanto was able to aquire favorable regulatory passover because they had a revolving door of EPA directors who would work for Monsanto then back to EPA over and over again.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Yeah that’s usually how it works with government agencies.

[@LeCharles07]

It's almost as if votes don't matter because the multi-billion dollar corporations do what they want and, even if they have to pay a fine eventually, the accounting spreadsheets show it as profitable because the penalties are never enough to even put a small dent their budgets.

[@Billblom]

Sounds like Florida, where there are phosphate mines between Tampa and Orlando. LOTS of issues with radon coming out of the ground... and they even set up a uranium extraction system set up to extract it from mine tailings. Now the bad thing: The tailings also get into things like drywall... Gypsum gets used all over...

[@bartekmajewski2305]

I've watched all of the videos in the last few days. Very interesting 😊👍. In many things I had no idea that there was radioactivity there. I didn't know that camera lenses could be radioactive, for example. Many greetings from Poland. There are also many mines here. But I don't know if it was ever measured.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Glad you are enjoying the videos. I have a bunch more coming up.

[@chrismack5908]

Me too! Looking forward to more!

[@HagalUlfr]

This is similar to Florida's phosphate mining. They mine the phosphate for fertilizer, they signed a bill allowing for research into adding it into roads and the such here. Thank you for this video, I wasn't thinking this idea would be great. Local places are worried about it getting into the water table if they did that.

[@garroncrashhaun5533]

Honestly, while the background radiation there isn't super high and isn't a problem imagine having to do any work on this stuff. Chip the asphalt or cut through it and now you are potentially inhaling radioactive particles. I wouldn't be shocked to learn about elevated lung cancer in that area

[@Deusstyles]

Soda Springs ID is also right in the middle of one of the largest uranium deposits in the world, so that might also have something to do with it.

[@ilubo6893]

Your videos look like those from a channel with 2 Million subs. Amazing! Keep going and best wishes from Bern, Switzerland

[@RadioactiveDrew]

That's such an awesome compliment...Thank you.

[@Rangetechus]

Excellent documentary. Really Glad I found this.

[@jwheeler1976able]

Also elevated levels of Cadmium in these areas surrounding.

[@franktoledo6342]

I glad you made this video now I know why I feel better heading West from that area strange.

[@idahofur]

I was going to tell you about the radioactive sidewalks in Pocatello from what I thought was Simplots. But, in Poky they are not suppose to sell leftover stuff anymore.

[@lowermichigan4437]

Wow. Visited Pocatello a few years ago. Lovely town. I had no idea.

[@andyhill9062]

This is scary I wish that big corporations didn't get away with whatever they want

[@20tea]

There's also nuclear waste tanks and treatment facilities that leak contaminates through the Snake River. The river then feeds contaminated water out to such cities and locations as well.

[@tbix1963]

Reminded of a story I heard once about Niagara Falls US. Supposedly during the Manhattan Project the factory that processed the uranium was located in the city due to the cheap available electricity. Due to the top secret level of security the left over waste was bought by the local paving company. They had planned to truck it to the local dump but the paving company got wind of all this great crushed stone being dumped and bought it from the dump. Secrecy kept them from interfering with the sales. Another person listening to the story remarked that explains why when i worked with satellite radiation detection in a previous job and peaked a look at my old hometown of Niagara Falls it looked like a road map including all the driveways and parking lots. Always sounded like a tall tale but without actually checking it out you will never know.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

That would be really interesting if true. Thanks for letting me know about this. I’ll have to look into it.

[@holysirsalad]

Given how Times Beach went down, this sounds like it could either be totally fake and just a copy of that story, or 100% plausible lol

[@robertshrewsbury5067]

Idaho, has one of the most concentrated source of Thorium! How about the basements of the houses? On the other hand the Ore there is the richest in in Precious metals that I ever, had analyzed, however it is a complex ore and never ever has been broken!

[@cannon440]

Monsanto should be put out of business. All the officers should be jailed for life.

[@MangasColoradas941]

Monsanto is defunct as of 2018

[@philiphorner31]

I'm sure you are without sin.

[@arcanondrum6543]

Mangas is lying or poorly informed. Monsanto and their Patents are still very much alive and causing problems now that they are part of Bayer A.G.

[@Meggligee]

@@MangasColoradas941 it is Bauer AG now like Drew stated. I was just in Soda Springs in August and the plant is very much still functional with new sites being approved for more mines.

[@MangasColoradas941]

@@arcanondrum6543 Ok but youre not understanding how that works. Monsanto doesnt exist, bayer owns what was monsanto and discontinued monsanto. In short, bayer if anyone is who should pay.

[@failedmusician5157]

There’s a big JR Simplot (synthetic fertilizer) processing plant at the bottom of the slag mountains right off the freeway just west of Pocatello, Im sure they’re part of this as well. One big problem with the EPA is the black and white bureaucratic response. Believe or not if these processing plants were shut down these sites will just pop up somewhere else in an even less regulated country, and for everyone chiming in on this issue think of the amount of materials that are affected by these products and how much more expensive and scarce agricultural foods would be. As for the slag that should be addressed by Bayer before they go bankrupt from glyphosate lawsuits. I’m surprised class action lawyers haven’t already flocked to the area.

[@blainechandler1551]

Simplot uses a different process so the gypstack in Pocatello isn’t slag but is still slightly radiative.

[@ken2tou]

Great presentation Drew! No hype, fear mongering or BS! Just the facts. It would be good to review the incidents of cancer for this area, compared to other places. I’ve passed through and stayed in the Pocatello area a few times on MC trips. That processing plant is a beast that isn’t ever going away! The people of Pocatello must educate themselves on this issue!!! Having radiation at levels over 200 as background has to have negative effects on our body’s over a long period of time! Especially, as you said, in our homes where it gets trapped! I’d like to see some readings inside some homes and basements. I’m of the same mind as some have stated previously; you couldn’t pay me to move there.

[@joewiddup9753]

No hype or fear ? Glyphosate is basically completely harmless to anything in the entire animal kingdom because the enzymatic pathway it effects is missing. The finished blended herbicide product Roundup is adjusted to a low pH and a surfactant is added making it caustic and something to avoid splashing into your eyes. Realistically it's in the same risk category as other caustics or simple hot beverages like coffee or food ethanol because anything that causes cellular damage could damage DNA and lead to cancer.

[@TTS-TP]

I didn't believe it until my grandpa showed me with a geiger out and about a couple places that are owned by the city. I haven't been to Pocatello in so long, not the same town now.

[@waynez1025]

Wow! Who knew? That area of Idaho is really beautiful, I’ve been there. I wonder if there’s any radiation in the potatoes? Great work on this video and excellent pictures and video! Thank you.

[@ejgrant5191]

There's trace radiation in most food products as result of us entering the "Atomic Age"....Radiation is also present in nature....Your body can cope with it, it's just over a lifetime you should only have so much exposure. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are re-populated and people have healthy lives there.....

[@kasiar1540]

Lol probably, but they are really good potatoes

[@hyrumhanson3390]

Maybe from some of it from the fertilizer, however that set of hills is to rocky for potatoes.

[@kingofbrutaltheocracy9201]

This is a moving documentary. Excellent work sir, worthy of high praise and recognition from the scientific, cinematic, and environmental communities.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Thank you so much.

[@coolcat_vlogs69]

Another brilliant video! I love the inclusion of other elements and forms of chemical contamination and highlighting the corruption of industry; a topic not many others cover too often in such a concise documentary/ mini-film. I completely agree with your opinions on the use of glyphosate - horrible stuff! I will never buy pesticides when nature has so many available to grow, extract and use in plentiful supply for everyone - why pollute the environment in the process of producing such a toxic formula?!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@zzoinks]

Farmers can also use less toxic defenses against pests like predator insects. Some plants can be safely bioengineered to resist, harmless to humans but kills bugs, but you have to grow some regular plants too so the bugs don't develop resistance to the bioengineered ones too. (the regular plants provides a food source for the unresistant bugs)

[@chickenfishhybrid44]

We can quit using things like Round Up and ultimately I think we probably should. However alot of the world population is guna have to go because we won't be able to feed it. The often praised "natural ways" are often exaggerated. If you think you can use "all natural" stuff for pests on any kind of scale I'll bet you've never even had a vegetable garden in your own backyard.

[@RedcoatsReturn]

Scandalous…and…they knew it too…all those years ago…that manmade radioactive mountain is huge! Shocking…its…still going on today! 😲Why is not Monsanto being prosecuted and those dead Monsanto board managers being dug up and buried altogether in that radioactive mountain. The living Monsanto managers should be jailed in a building on top of the radioactive mountain too! The health of people living there over decades should at least be investigated.

[@Daleejr08]

You should come check out Durango. We had a uranium plant back in the day and they say they used to use the tailings for fill all over town!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

That would be interesting to investigate.

[@Rorywalks23]

Yes there may be low level readings, however this could lead to chronic exposure over time which could have detrimental health effects

[@caveone-365]

WOW! What a great drone shot of the actual dumping 'procedure.' Like you said, shouldn't pose too much of a threat unless it is your home with the elevated levels and you reside there for much of your life. Exposure for a long period of time is still definitely not good for you. Can't be extremely bad because the levels aren't that high, but they are still elevated from the background some, so over time being in the same contaminated spot isn't favorable to say the least. This is definitely a crazy and pretty twisted story that plagues these towns. I would've never known about it had I not seen this video, or just happened to stumble across the information when I do my daily 'cruising for interesting stuff' on the ol interwebz, so big thank you for taking the time to share this! Always impressed with the quality of your camera and drone footage bro! You have a real talent for this, for sure! 👍👍✌️

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@markfornefeld299]

Now that they made a documentary about this place the cat is out of the bag

[@chrishartley7493]

This is why you don't trust corporations. They knew and know the potential danger if what they sold.

[@bobblacka918]

Corporations only care about profits. If someone gets injured in the process, they don't care. But if profits drop by 2%, all hell breaks loose.

[@leonnekrotiuk1223]

I live in Alberta Canada and worked in the agricultural market as a delivery driver during spring and summer I wear a mask because I can taste roundup when spraying the prairies use a lot of chemicals sloughs and wetlands have algae

[@NWer-c5u]

How diffuse is the uranium in the ore vs coal fly ash I wonder? I wonder what the min price on U would need to be to bother extracting it for use.

[@WVgrl59]

A man I knew used to dump from Montana and filled in areas for people with slag. I guess I need to get a geiger counter and check. ❤️ From West Virginia

[@mnemosynevermont5524]

What about the dust coming off that pile?

[@kswis]

Excellent video, very well produced

[@perrycarditi5]

What was the highest dosage you found in micro rem per hr?

[@theTylerMorale]

While low levels aren’t a high risk, continued exposure is. We have figured out we can safely handle a small amount for X-ray imaging in the medical field. But we shouldn’t get X-ray scans daily. The long-term, hard to track effects of this are what concern me. I nearly grew up in Pocatello myself.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I'm not sure the increased level of radiation at these locations would have much of an effect on people. The real problem I see is with people that own these houses built with this slag. Its only going to hurt property values and people need to know about this when buying property in these areas.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

Elevated CPM but I would not be too concerned what you want to bring is a pressurized ion chamber survey meter and measure the gamma dose rate as long as its less than 20uR/hr it would be safe.

[@RadioactiveDrew]

I said in the video a couple times that this level of additional radiation should be pretty safe. I do think confined areas like a basement that is used as a bedroom made with this slag isn't great but even then the chances of anything health wise happening is very low.

[@donnacsuti4980]

Safe??? To use as your home foundation and cement slab under your rug that your babies are crawling on. I guess it's safe if you don't care if they get cancer later.

[@darkmadder9897]

Very nice work! An interesting exploration of curiosity and what we find when we look.

[@reneemoss2487]

They have not stopped these practices after the EPA was notified? As a native Idahoan from Idaho Falls this is horrific and a crime against humanity!

[@RadioactiveDrew]

Well the stopped using the slag for building material. Its still part of a mining operation.

[@donnjb83]

Similar story in Durango, where uranium smelter tailings were used as backfill around most of town...

[@ronniecb112868]

Monsanto couldn't give a crap about people just the money.

[@justintimmons7613]

You can see the sky glow pink anywhere north of the Cache Valley when they dump that slag at night