Wednesday, August 7, 2013

And If WisDOT Gets 11 Acres Of County Grounds For Concrete Crushing...

What's left of your Milwaukee County Grounds is looking less and less like your father's public green space out Wauwatosa way these days.

These photos shot by blog reader Paul Trotter show debris piled west of the Milwaukee County Parks Department Administration building on Watertown Plank Rd., next to its parking lot.

I put in a call to the Parks facility Tuesday. It reports the work is related to UW-M's research park construction.

WisDOT recently said it wanted 11 acres on the County Grounds for crushing concrete removed from the Zoo Interchange project.  Imagine what that will look like.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The location they are proposing to do this is the DNR property and they would literally sever the woods from the basins---this is fragmentation at its worst.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Is that being used for surcharging the soil?

James Rowen said...

Also violating the spirit of the habitat preservation deal.

PT said...

There was no mitigation of dust from the concrete crushing. The dust traveled north on that day - towards the butterfly area.



http://www.lafarge-na.com/MSDS_North_America_English_-_Crushed_Concrete.pdf
Airborne dust may cause immediate or delayed irritation or inflammation. Eye contact with large amounts of concrete dust can cause moderate eye irritation and abrasion. Eye exposures require immediate first aid and medical attention to prevent significant damage to the eye.
Concrete dust may cause dry skin, discomfort, irritation and dermatitis.
Concrete dust, in association with sweat and friction, can lead to skin irritation and dermatitis. Skin affected by dermatitis may include symptoms such as, redness, itching, rash, scaling, and cracking. Irritant dermatitis is caused by the physical properties of concrete dust such as abrasion.
Breathing dust may cause nose, throat or lung irritation, including choking, depending on the degree of exposure.
Risk of injury depends on duration and level of exposure.
This product contains crystalline silica. Prolonged or repeated inhalation of respirable crystalline silica from this product can cause silicosis, a seriously disabling and fatal lung disease. See Note to Physicians in Section 4 for further information.
Concrete is not listed as a carcinogen by IARC or NTP; however, concrete contains trace amounts of crystalline silica which is classified by IARC and NTP as known human carcinogens.
Some studies show that exposure to respirable crystalline silica (without silicosis) or that the disease silicosis may be associated with the increased incidence of several autoimmune disorders such as scleroderma (thickening of the skin), systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and diseases affecting the kidneys.
Silicosis increases the risk of tuberculosis.
Some studies show an increased incidence of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease in workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica.
Do not ingest concrete. Although ingestion of small quantities of concrete is not known to be harmful, large quantities can cause distress to the digestive tract.
Individuals with lung disease (e.g. bronchitis, emphysema, COPD, pulmonary disease) can be aggravated by exposure.