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View Full Version : Wheel weights to be banned in CA



StanDahl
08-21-2008, 01:01 PM
As California goes, so goes the nation...so they say.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wheels21-2008aug21,0,6289041.story

Chrysler is at the head of the appeasement line. We're always told here how clean our water supply is, there's never any mention of lead at all. What's this really about?

Shed ww's start by getting chewed up by car tires, then after the clip separates they start to get flattened. After a while they get pretty thoroughly molded into the asphalt.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/StanDahl/100_1802.jpg
I suppose if any of the metal gets ground off, it ends up settling in a storm basin below the street level, and is probably dense enough that it stays there. All of the storm drains around here empty into the ocean, not the water supply. I used to find lead fishing sinkers nearly every time I went scuba diving, and they were always intact, maybe with a coat of oxide, nothing worse. I'm guessing that in other parts of the country the lead particles go into ditches, along with the road salt, oil, rubber particles and other crap. Entering the water supply? I don't know. Bullets are found in near pristine condition from CW battlefields, so I doubt it.

I collected a full pound of shed ww's on a bike ride Tuesday. Sometimes the best places to collect are in intersections, specifically the triangles on the outside edge of the right turn zones. There, I have to either kick the ww to the curb on my way by, or get off and walk out to get it. My son (age 10) told me to stop doing that. He's not embarrassed by my behavior (yet), just annoyed that his bike ride keeps getting interrupted.

Looks like I built my bullet collector box just in time for the great 21st century wheel weight famine. Stan