I was going to save this for later this afternoon, but everybody and their mom has a copy of it in their e-mail, so, here goes:
Update: Now YouTube clip.
My colleague, Mary Alice Murphy, touched on this in yesterday’s edition of the Silver City Daily Press, but here’s data from some of the air-monitoring sites set up around Hurley for Tuesday’s demolition. Most of the trend lines appear to show an increase in the early morning prior to the demolition, with particulate levels dropping during the event and until the winds picked up later that afternoon:
Site 81
Site 82
Site 83
Site 84
Site 94
You can view all the data by checking this Web site.
This video was shot by Jeramiah Portillo, an Eastern New Mexico University student whose father, John, grew up in Hurley. John won the raffle sponsored by the Hurley Pride Committee to push the plunger that brought the smokestacks down: you can see him in the video. I hope to have a higher quality version available for download later, but this footage should work for now.
For more photos from the demolition, and to read more about the day’s events, check the Daily Press web site.
Phelps Dodge has announced the new date for the demolition of the Hurley Smokestacks: Tuesday, June 5. The time will again be 10 a.m.
I meant to post this earlier, but this is the plan (PDF) for monitoring air quality during the demolition.
You can find my and Meredith’s story on the public hearing here (PDF). I just had a few observations from the hearing:
- It seemed as though Doug Littlejohn, the GRIP lawyer, was almost trying to purposefully antagonize District Judge J.C. Robinson. After Robinson made a point of saying he had viewed a video of the Morenci smokestacks demolition, Littlejohn insisted on playing it for the court.
- During an exchange with John Zamar, the Phelps Dodge head of demolishing obsolete buildings (not his actual title), Littlejohn questioned why a hotline — to be manned by PD spokesman Richard Peterson — was established Tuesday, when Peterson was in court Wednesday morning. Robinson halted the questioning, saying “This is getting us nowhere, and your questions are borderline facetious.”
Finally, the quote of the day came after Zamar was excused as a witness. As he left the stand and walked toward the exit he knocked over a microphone stand, breaking a piece. Robinson:
“Can I file a claim against Phelps Dodge for that?”
Hopefully, this will give you a little indication of the courtroom atmosphere.