July 30, 2025 • 43 mins
Located just 25 miles south of Miami, Florida, the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station provides power for hundreds of thousands of people -- and has done so for decades. However, since at least the 1970s, Turkey Point has struggled with an issue literally beneath the surface. Water used to cool the station has increasingly leached into the ground beneath the plant, spreading closer and closer to the local aquifer used by millions of people. Join Ben, Matt and Noel to learn more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Bed.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are you. You are here.
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
And folks, tonight's episode is one for our neighbors slightly
to the south. It's for our Floridian friends over in Homestead.
(00:53):
Homestead might not be familiar to everybody, but essentially it's
a pretty beautiful suburb.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Of Miami in the Miami Dade area.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Oh yeah, we were just talking about how I think
some of us have never been to Miami, me specifically,
and we are about to go there for a work thing.
So I'm excited to check out some of that beauty
you describe.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, Noel, I don't want to blow up your spot, bro,
but you look like you are ready right.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Right now in that tank top, I mean Bucky's tight
I tent top. I just got back from my bike ride.
I look like a Goofbaul. You'll be wearing a lot
of this on the ship. Guys. This is going to
be me. This is the new me, beach Nol.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Because we are indeed going on at Conspira Cruise.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's our term, not their term.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We're going with virgin voyages this October October tenth through
the fifteenth. That's what we'll find us in Miami and
then through the Caribbean. We'd love for you to join us.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Yeah, and also they can have Conspira Cruise if they like,
right Ben, of course, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
This one is a true crime cruise, So you're into
that kind of stuff. You know the shows we've made,
you've to all of the varying thank you sagas that
the three of us have executive produced and even voice sometimes.
So come on out and let's talk true crime.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
And we'll be joined with two other badass true crime
pods as well.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yep, that's right, Betrayal and Buried Bones. So we're excited.
We've got Miami on our minds, we've got the Caribbean
in our cognition, and today we're looking at a story
that may be unfamiliar to a lot of people outside
of the area, but it's very much a big deal.
It's very much a arguably it's a conspiracy of Foot
(02:37):
and Matt. This is something that you brought to us
a while back, and we've been busy researching some of
this just to verify it. I was interested to learn
that Homestead, Florida, is also home to the subject of
one of our early episodes, Coral Castle. You guys remember
Coral Castle.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Totally one of the speaking of roadside attraction. Aren't we
talking about that recently? That's a great one.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
How did ed do that thing?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah? Right?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
For years and years people in Edward's neighborhood were thinking,
what's he building in there? So do check out the
story of Edward lead Skalnon and the tragedy that inspired
him to create a fascinating, stunning, very weird thing called
Coral Castle. Tonight, however, we're in this area for a
(03:28):
very different reason. It's something called the Turkey Point Nuclear
Generating Station. As we record, there is an environmental disaster
and possible genuine conspiracy afoot or a plume.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Oh wow, yeah, yeah, it's it's conspiracy.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
I was thinking of Turkey puns. I don't know why
a turkey plume.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So many levels. Beautiful, ben beautiful guys. I would I
would categorize this one as stuff they'd rather you not
think about.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
They'd prefer if you would ignore.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah, and actually I try to be environmentally conscious, but
for this one, I'm gonna be drinking bottled water.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Cool. Yes, I use tap water for my iced coffee,
so it evens out.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, here are the facts, all right, Turkey Point. You're
gonna find this place in this game bay. That's about
twenty five miles south of Miami proper. It's just a
tick east of the Homestead area. It's a pretty fascinating operation.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, as we said, it's a nuclear generating station. So
this is a nuclear power plant, the kind that is
only used for generating electricity. That's it, full stop. You
don't have that there for any other reason. That's it.
It's also a gas fired plant. They have all kinds
of different power generation abilities there. One that we are
(05:00):
really focusing on is that nuclear power unit, or rather
the two that are there.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, it's weird because okay, it's a hybrid station. Right,
Like you said, natural gas plus the big ticket nuclear stuff.
The first two nuclear power units here are called, weirdly enough,
Unit three and four because they had natural gas before
and they are kind of older. They both date back
to the nineteen seventies. The first one started running in
(05:29):
seventy two and the second one in nineteen seventy three.
And the cool thing if you're flying over this, the
cool thing you'll see first that you'll clock is there
are no Simpson esque big cooling towers. Instead, there's a
ton of canals.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Yeah, this is a type of setup that I was
not personally aware of. I guess when I think of
these sorts of facilities, I always picture what you're describing Ben,
the Simpsons esque version.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, I would say, pop on to Google Map if
you can, while if you're driving, obviously don't, but when
you have a moment, go to FPL Turkey Point. That's
you can find it that way. It's Turkey Point Nuclear
Generating Station. And just when you look at the layout, man,
as you're saying, I don't see a nuclear power plant there.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
No, No, I do see an interesting grid network. It's
pretty sophisticated.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
And I guess to what I was saying, this is
super uncommon. So yeah, don't kick yourself if you haven't
heard of this type of arrangement for a nuke site either.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Dude, it looks like capacitors. That's what I would say, the.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Network of interconnected kind of like circuitry.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, like a tattoo of a circuit board across go dirt.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
You're right, it's I mean, it's something that we're fascinated by.
Just from a design perspective. There are thirty two canals,
but all told, they stretch one hundred and seventy miles
and they're also old. This is your point about the
speed unusual. This is unique. This is an improvised reaction
(07:03):
to a problem they figured out in nineteen seventy three,
after they already started running the nuclear reactors.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
They had an oopsie, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
There's ah crap, we should build thirty two giant canals.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Trying to think of what Butters would say when he
was upset about something. Crackers, crackers, there you go. Yeah,
I got South Park on the brain from that season
premiered Love Fuddy.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Just the whole family was at the cabin when this
all went down. We all gathered together in the game room,
put it on the TV, and we all watched it together.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Cultural moment. There's no question there. Love it or hate it.
It's an interesting called they got the White House to
yell at them. Yeah, I respect that, whatever your perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Right right. I remember we were texting about that.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
It was it was an odd moment of timing because
you don't see that kind of destination watching with so
many things now.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
But it was like when a new.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Episode of Lost or Game of Thrones dropped because Matt,
you had texted us, and as you were texting it,
I was watching the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And I don't know if other people experienced that, but
maybe we'll have more of that good Luck South part
with episode two and going forward.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
I had something spoiled before watching it, just because you know,
the Internet, but I will say that it did not
detract from my enjoyment of watching it. It's sort of
unspoilable because you ritually something you just got experience.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
There, you Yeah, and we know that the boffins who
originally designed the nuclear power plant, they realized this was
in a very meaningful, diverse area, so they didn't want
to spoil that natural beauty despite you know, building a
nuclear reactor on it. So when they realized that the
water from the bay that was used in cooling the
(08:42):
nuclear reaction. When they realized this water was coming out
super hot and ruining the bay and the wetlands surrounding it,
they said, Okay, we've got to figure out a way
to get the water temperature back down. We know it's
not being irradiated, they said, but it's been it's too
hot and it's going to kill animals, it's going to
(09:03):
kill plants. So we're going to pump it through all
these canals before it gets back to the wider world,
and that is going to bring the temperature down. Anyway,
It's a pretty unique solution, and it seemed to work
from seventy three on, as long as you ask the
officials at FPL.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, and again and sorry. If you look at it
from Google Maps, it's interesting the way the different, you know,
because it's a collection of satellite images, right, and you
get this thing where if you look at it in
its current form today on July twenty eighth, at least
the one that I'm looking at, the color of the
water changes to this green as you go down a
(09:46):
little bit. That is just a different satellite image than
the one that's used above, and in that one you
can see the water color looks the same or very
similar to the water color in the surrounding areas. It's
very interesting to see it in that green though, because
it looks fully irradiated like Hulk level something.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
It does that that's not just a movie magic.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, I mean it's hard. Can you guys see that
if you look at Google.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, it got a glow to it.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Yeah, there's different. We were talking about the different times
the satellites took photos exactly. But it does look super sketchy.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
But there's a clear line between the two images there, which.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Is how you know it's photo timing and thankfully not
uh gamma radiation throughout the bay. This is a Westinghouse operation,
through and through. They built most of the crucial components,
but the day to day aspects of the planet are
run by Florida Power and Light Company or FPL, so
they're the owners operators. This thing is a powerhouse. If
(10:56):
you are in the Miami Dade area, it's the re
in your light switches work. This has enough energy to
power nine hundred thousand homes year round, so it's a big,
big deal. Obviously, we want to keep it running if
we can. This was made, especially the nuclear aspects of
it that were made in the nineteen seventies, and we've
(11:18):
got to remember the context in which this was built
in the first place. You know, fear of nuclear power
or approval of it waxes and wanes, almost always punctuated
by some mishap or another. Like you can look at
the stocks of nuclear associated companies and you can see
how they dip when a chernobyl or a Fukushima occurs.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Oh, I'm sure, yeah, one hundred percent. I mean that's
sort of an extreme case of like the news impacting
the price on the stock market.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I mean, as long as everything goes according to plan,
nuclear power can be a safe, consistent, and low cost
source of electricity. And also, you know, if we travel
back into the seventies, maybe the public wasn't as aware
of this, but insiders all knew there were some serious
consequences to fossil fuel, both on the supply side.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Right do we have to go to war in the
Middle East again?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And on the environmental side, And they were already at
this point actively bearing studies about fossil fuel, So everybody
was kind of pushing for nuclear stuff, and I was
hoping that nothing went wrong. That's where that's the milieu
in which Turkey Point emerged and Turkey Point. We got
(12:33):
to say this, The Turkey Point property is not Turkey
Point Station. The actual station is very small part of
like eleven thousand acres all told. And yeah, I mean
so if you're walking around there, you're actually more likely
to run into a canal or a crocodile than you
(12:53):
are to walk up to the station itself.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah. I'm just looking at the air Force base that's
right there, I guess to the north west of the
actual station itself, and then just the amount of wetlands
in between that base and then where the actual station is.
It's pretty protected. And the rest of them see in
Biscayne National Park areas and all kinds of you know,
stuff that makes this difficult to get to.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yeah, Biscay National Park is directly adjacent. As you said,
there are untouched mangroves and wetlands. It's a place with
a ton of natural beauty and we don't always associate
that with nuclear power plants. There are more than sixty
different species of animals and birds on this property alone.
Seventeen of those are currently considered endangered, and if we
(13:42):
go to the official sources, we'll see FPL has put
in some work to maintain this environment, and one of
the stories they love to share is about how they
played a surprisingly big role in crocodile conservation. If you
go there and get bit by a crocodile, you should
also thank FBL.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Do they found one in the cooling canal system like
a nest? Yikes?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah, back in the nineteen seventies they found an American
crocodile nest that was in the cooling system, and they said, Okay,
we're going to get in trouble if we don't move
carefully on this, because these creatures are endangered. So we
are going to establish the American Crocodile Monitoring Program, which
(14:30):
they did in nineteen seventy eight, and under this program,
they've actually grown the population of crocodiles there from just
a few hundred to over two thousand.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So yeah, pretty significant results.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
More crocodiles.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I think I've mentioned this in the past, certain that
I have, but when I worked for public radio where
I was based it was near Plant Vogel and also
the Savannah River site which is a nuclear waste kind
of remediation site where nuclear weapons were disposed of. And
I actually went there and talked to some of the
ecologists that were working on site, and they actually tagged
(15:07):
turtles and like drilled little holes in their shells and
put these kind of like markers in them so that
they could kind of determine check them for radiation literally
with Geiger counters, and sort of use them as a
way like sort of a benchmark for how well things
were going with the cleanup. And these these waist pits
kind of I guess you could call them. There's a
name for them, but it was one of those super
(15:28):
fun sites people talk about.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
They turned them into canaries right in the cold.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It reminds me of the electro fishing thing we talked about.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, shocking results.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
So we know that the conservation efforts for the crocodiles
here were so successful that the species was downlisted from
endangered to threatened in two thousand and seven. So, however
you feel about crocodiles, it does show that the company
was actually making an effort to help the environment. There's
(16:00):
a cool video about this you can watch from PBS,
which used to be a thing in the United States.
They explored the story just last year, in twenty twenty four,
and they've got pretty great, unbiased reporting about it. But
we're giving you the good news at the top. It
appears there's much more to the story of Turkey Point,
and not all of it is pleasant.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Correct. For years, activists and experts have you know, enjoyed
with concerned citizens have raised their fears of how aging
nuclear power plants may be affected by climate change, How
clean and secure are these facilities, especially in the face
of these sorts of existential threats.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And when you imagine the possible side effects of generating
nuclear power, maybe you're like me and you think, oh,
irradiated materials of some sort leaking out, or you know,
some part of the uranium or plutonium that's used to
create the energy is affecting the environment in some way,
or a water.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Source or like mutant crocs.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Maybe maybe, But in this case, that's not really what
we're dealing with. It's a whole other, different problem, which
is why we thought it was so fascinating.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah, it's a unique problem caused by a unique solution,
you know what I mean. There's a bit of a
Cobra effect kind of parable a play.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Here keeps coming.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Up, it keeps coming up, and just like these questions
about nuclear power, right in the case of Turkey Point,
these questions become more and more relevant, especially as time
goes on. It turns out that something may have been wrong,
deeply wrong, for decades. So here we're gonna pause for
a word from our sponsors, and then we'll dive in
(17:44):
to the Turkey Point salt plu Here's where it gets crazy,
all right. If you could, like, let's say we're looking
at the map now, or we're in a hot air ble,
we're looking at the surface of Turkey Point. If we
were to drop from that balloon or that vantage point
(18:06):
under the water, under the surface, under the dirt, and
into the aquifer, we would encounter a gigantic plume of
hypersaline water, very salty water, at a weird temperature, and
it's going everywhere.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Ben, Is it possible that the reason we haven't heard
a lot about these canal situations is that maybe they
weren't the best thought through.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Maybe well, let's just get let's get our general perspective
here again, we're in the southern tip of Florida, Everglades
is on the western side, and then this nuclear plant
with all the canals is on the east side of
that very very southern tip of Florida. It's all salt
water right surrounding it. But the thing you're talking about here, Ben,
(18:50):
is that aquifer of fresh water that is deep beneath
the surface, right That's where the salt plume is going into.
And that's why it's so strange to imagine, and I
think because it is surrounded by salt water like ocean water.
So you think, how would all of this ocean water
seep so deeply into that awquarfer And and to be honest,
how does that not happen already? Right right?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Yes, it's weird too because as you're describing this sort
of meeting point of different ecosystems fresh water and wet water.
Wet water, fresh water, salt water. Yeah, well we're gonna
sell dry water. I think we should give it to go.
Really time it's come, why not?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
So anyway, because of this, we see various life forms
that have to live in a specific kind of mix
of fresh and salt water. They need brackish water. So
if you mess with this at all, your It sounds
like a line from a mad scientists. You're messing with stuff.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
You don't understand the salinity, right, I mean there are
you know, the tolerances are not maybe as broad as
as folks might think. They could cause significant fish kills.
We've heard about bodies of water where it's silinity has
risen unexpectedly and caused entire you know, like apoc fish apocalypses.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
But guys, we're talking about the aquifer. What do we
do with aquifer water?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Usually, well, if you're human, you drinking.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
So in a recent interview with WPLG Local ten, who
did some great reporting on this a little while ago,
one doctor Rachel Silverstein, who is the CEO of Miami Waterkeeper,
she describes it like this. She says, the plume is
going down about eighty feet, it's hitting what is called
the confining layer, and it's spreading out in every direction. So,
(20:36):
without getting to into aquifer science, essentially what she's saying
is this thing four years has been getting closer and
closer to the drinking water of thousands and thousands of people.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And it is like a little monster that's growing. It's
it's weird. To imagine it like a corruption or something.
I play a lot of games where there's like a
there's something that, Yeah, corrupting like a surrounding area. That's
what it's doing. It's just in this if you if
you can really imagine in your mind, just the salt
water entering this fresh water and going down and down
(21:15):
and down all the way to eighty feet and spreading
out in every direction, corrupting all of that fresh, beautiful
aquaf for.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Water because we can't drink salt water. It's the idea
like water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
What happens, It just doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
It probably, you know, causes us to die of thirst
over time, or you know, gets into systems and causes
all kinds of other knock on consequences.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, it's it's a terrible way to go.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Uh, we know that it contains essentially your kidneys can't
handle it. It's your human It's too much salt for
the kidneys. And so when you're drinking salt water, like
people who are in a really bad bad way lost
at sea or something, when you're drinking it, you're dehydrating
yourself faster.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
That's what I thought.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
It's pretty it's it's pretty gross way to go.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Yeah, And that expression in the water water thing refers
to that situation of being marooned and it's the irony
of being surrounded by water but it being you know,
totally inaccessible.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And it turns out that those canals may not have
been the permanent solution everybody across their fingers and hoped
for back in the nineteen seventies. These canals pretty much
had to be built because without them, the water was
going through the plant and as we said, it was
wrecking everything. So FBL didn't just decide to fix this
(22:32):
one day. They were ordered to do so by the
Department of Justice. And the problem is, to your point, Matt,
these canals have been leaking for some time. This salt
plume thing is leaving the canals and it's drifting west, spreading,
you know, like mold across a ball, and it's going
(22:52):
off the Turkey Point property, off those eleven thousand acres
and into the surrounding round water. Or the eternal optimist
in the crowd will say, hey, guys, I mean that's
not great, but it's not you know, it's not as
bad as a meltdown, right, but we should we should
talk a little bit more about why the water has
a bad effect.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I do agree that's not as bad as a meltdown,
or doesn't feel as bad as a meltdown. Right, It
doesn't sound as alarmist as that, but.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
It's it's a related consequence to you know, the processes
they're being done at the site, for sure. I mean,
it's another way that these types of facilities can impact
you know that you know, very delicate ecosystem we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah. Well, and and let's not forget it's not according
to everybody involved, none of this water is irradiated. It's fine,
it's cool, there's no isotopes in there.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
It's just really well, it's not cool. It's really hot, right, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Traces of tritium, but that's.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
It within allowable limits, it's right. Right.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So this is where we see some chemistry a play
that makes it a more dangerous issue. Because the water
gets so heated, the stuff inside of it salts, contamination,
and you get just traces of tritium. They get condensed this,
they get condensed so much that the water itself actually
becomes heavier than the other water around it, which puts
(24:22):
it down to the bottom of the canals. The canals
are made of limestone, which is a notoriously porous substance.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So it basically, what's the words you were using, Matt,
corrupts the groundwater like, it seeps further further down into
the system.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, a little monster diving deeper.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
It leaches through.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah, And experts now are not totally united on the
extent of the damage at present. Some people will put
it more apocalyptic terms than others, but every expert agrees
that if it hasn't compromised the aquifer for the Miami
Dad area, if that hasn't done it yet, it is
(25:02):
spreading for miles up to one foot per day, And
it's not a matter of if it gets into the
water of those three million people. It's a matter of wet.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And what what the heck do we do? Then? Guys,
We're going to do some emergency desalination. And it's cool,
it's fine, It's going to be totally fine.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
I mean, we've talked about how much energy that takes.
It's not a particularly practical solution.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, Yeah, it's not quite cost effective yet Hopefully there
will be more more progress in desalination in the near future,
but even the best technology of that type wouldn't be
the right fix for this problem.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
No.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Doctor Silverstein, who we mentioned, notes that the plume has
been observed moving faster and faster, up to one foot
a day. So unless something's done, it's going to reach
the public.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
And of course the public begins to grow awareness about this,
and locals are looking around, especially in this area of
the United States, there are a lot of people who
are very close to the natural environment. You know, there
are conservationists, they're outdoorsy types.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
They yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And as a result, as soon as more and more
people are talking about this, the lawsuits begin to roll in,
think around twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and they're they're like
class action suits, basically a lot of nonprofits, a lot
of groups of concerned citizens. Eventually, the rulings give Florida
Power and Light a window of ten years to fix
(26:38):
the problem, based on testimony from experts, based on testimony
from the owner operators and so on, and they say, look,
here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna dig some more stuff.
Now we know digging didn't one hundred percent work the
first time, but this time we're gon we're gonna dig
a different kind of pattern and that's going to solve it.
We're gonna make extraction wells. We're going to drink the milkshake.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
And it just occurred to me that, you know, the
US Army Corps of Engineers typically has at least some
say so or oversight in these types of kind of
public private partnerships where the ecosystems are concerned, and it
does up here that they consulted with the Turkey Point
Nuclear Generating Station through the Jacksonville District, and also the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, you know, got in on it as well.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Ben, Let's talk about the drink and the milkshake. So
we're saying they've got their drilling wells into the areas
where the salt plume is theoretically to slurp it up.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, yep, exactly, So they're creating more wells to take
the bad dense water out. And what we should do
now is maybe pause for a word from our sponsors
and then try to extract the meaning of extraction wells
and well whether or not they'll actually work.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
And we have returned all right, drink your milkshake.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
As we said, these wells function like giant straws. Straws
for giants. They sucked the plume back behind the property
line of the plant, and as of February of this year,
twenty twenty five, FPL stated they're not going to make
the deadline. Said, Okay, we know we had ten years,
we had all loopsie. We're working on it, but we're
(28:23):
not going to have this thing eradicated at the time
that we hoped.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
But they are making progress. And when you see a
figure like the following that we found in I think
this came from local ten dot com local news there
in the area. They discussed how or at least the
company made a statement that they've extracted thirty six billion
gallons of this quote hyper saline groundwater and they call
(28:51):
it a significant reduction. It is a significant reduction, thirty
six billion gallons of water. Holy lord, Right, But then
you start to understand the scale of the problem, because
that's a dent.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Yeah, because that that's one of those pieces of disturbing
good news. You know, we talk about it all the time,
like your favorite your favorite soda or whatever advertises itself
with you know, now completely uranium free. Amazing and you
know it's like, thank you, guys.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Now with only traces of tritium.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Right, yeah, welcome to our town where a child has
not disappeared for the last.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
Two weeks and the life expectancy has has risen to.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Thirty exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
And guys, let's also remember we've said some really nice
things about FBL and what they're doing there, and they're
doing a good.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Job and they are true things they are.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
But then let's also remember that they're not working to
fully fix the issue. They are working to reach the
levels in the legal agreement of course that was handed
down to them by the Department of Justice.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
And you know, let's be honest. I mean, that is
how any profit making organization would behave, Like there is
no built in benevolence in business most of the time, right.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Right, most of the time.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I mean we also, I think the most disturbing think
here is that we don't know the full reliable estimate
for how many billions of gallons of contaminated water we're
out there. We know that if you look at the
hypothetical pizza pie overall, thirty six billion gallons is a
big slice, but far from the whole thing. So that's
(30:33):
pretty disturbing.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
We're not going to put out that big number. What
there's gonna be. We're gonna sit on that one for now.
I mean, it's available, but we're not going to put
it out. Thirty six billion of X.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, right, And guys, let's also remember this, where is
that thirty six billion gallons of water going?
Speaker 5 (30:50):
It's a good question.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
It's going somewhere on the property. That's all that is stated.
It needs to be on the property of this power plant.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And it's the turkey.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, it's pulled back just across across the property line,
somewhere in that eleven thousand acres yep.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
So what they're holding onto it? Like it's in tanks?
Like I don't understand what you mean by on the property.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, that's a great question. Where is that water actually
being held? Is it at risk of leaking? Again?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Is it possible that we're pulling it back and then
it's rejoining the plume?
Speaker 5 (31:26):
You know, couldn't you vaporize it or in some way
isn't there a way of like turning water into you know,
sta And then yes, I wonder there's gotta be bad water.
How do we dispose of bad water?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Well, now we sound like we're nestley trying to come
up with the next drink to market.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
How do we get rid of bad water?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
You guys, let's sell it to the public. Let's call
it bad water, and let's just see how it goes.
Mile Taylor Swift tie.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
In liquid death could step up.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Like, yeah, gosh, it's their new flavor, liquid illness, traces
of tritium. So we also hear more from the spokes
folks at FPL Bill orlov is the guy we're quoting
for that thirty six billion gallon stat. He also adds
that there have been ongoing efforts to reduce the size
(32:17):
of the plume and they've been successful. They've reduced the
size of the plume by quote almost half, and the
salinity levels of the water are also decreasing, to Matt
your earlier point, they are decreasing to quote close to
those of seawater, bringing the contamination closer to legal agreement limits,
(32:39):
which is not the same thing as one hundred percent
untouched and clean.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, and according to the cool down, which is a
cool sourcet. Literally, it's a neat source that I've found,
and I clicked on one article guys in my Apple
News app with those with that outfit, and now I
get at least one a day from them. But the
cool down check it out. I don't know much about
the actual you know outlet in the journalistic integrity of it.
(33:04):
I just know that they've got some really interesting stories recently.
In there, they discuss one of the major problems with
the fixes the FBL is doing is that it's not
reaching deep enough. So these wells that they've drilled are working,
at least to the extent that we're talking about here,
reducing it by half, but it's not getting deep enough
(33:26):
to get the you know, we talked about how heavy
this stuff is, right, you can't get to the stuff
that's way way way down there.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Yeah, exactly. And that's not an issue of incompetence, it's
not an issue of malice or anything like that. It's
just scientifically, it's very difficult to get down there. Yes,
And I mean it's also incredibly difficult to clean all
of this water. The extraction wells are working, but everybody
(33:57):
knows they're a mitigating factor, So it seems like they're
reducing the size of this salt plume, and they're slowing
down its speed, but still just like Godzilla strolling to Tokyo, Right,
you can slow the guy down, but you can't necessarily
stop it.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, just yet, Just one more piece of info from
that cool down article. Let's not forget that we've been
talking about drinking this aquafer water. Theoretically, the other thing
a lot of this water is used for is agriculture, guys, irrigation. Unfortunately,
salt water doesn't have what plants crave. It's got the
(34:37):
stuff it doesn't want.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
It's a mediocracy reference, it is.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Yeah, And that's a fantastic point because what we're seeing
here is that even if the plume somehow never reaches
the crisis level, people are worried about it's wrecking everything
along the way. You know what I mean, Godzilla walking
through the ocean to Tokyo. Even if never reaches Tokyo,
(35:02):
he's ruining the day for a lot of fish, right,
and a lot of plants. Just by the size of
the activity and the salt plume, Kaiju like is expanding
throughout the area, and it is wreaking having on every
living thing it touches. Yeah, things are going great, you guys,
everybody's doing their best. County authorities said the same thing,
(35:25):
and I'm being a little glib here. What I mean
is the county authorities acknowledged, yes, this is something, This
is a series of good faith efforts to fix the problem,
but it's not enough. Neither the county nor the power
company at this point have issued any statement about when
or whether they expect the plume to be fully retracted
(35:46):
from the water. Understandably, that's got a lot of people
worried about the future. And an important point to make
here that sometimes gets lost in the reporting is that
this is all occurring in step with some pretty rest
of extension and expansion plans for Turkey Point. So even
as people know things are not functioning one hundred percent ideal,
(36:10):
they're making the operation bigger while they're trying to fix it.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Which is great.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
It's better than some that's that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I mean, it's also it's also a question of can
the area function without this thing?
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
What happens if they shut it down?
Speaker 5 (36:29):
You know, I'm a little confused then, because you pointed
out that those new units were approved to continue operating,
you know, well into the future. But I did find
that the two units that we're talking about here, three
and four, were approved to be built back in twenty sixteen,
and that there was no environmental impact, And this is
(36:49):
like ongoing.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Oh yeah, this is confusing again because the first two
units from the nineteen seventies were often called Units three
and four.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
The other ones, the ones you're talking.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
About, the new ones that are approved to be built
from twenty sixteen, they're a different category. I think they
should give them all cool individual nicknames, like we do
with the studios in the office, just to make it
easier for people to remember. But yeah, there are a
lot of expansions and approvals. The original units from the
nineteen seventies have actually gotten their license to continue operation
(37:25):
until twenty fifty two and twenty fifty three, respectfully, and
that's from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission back in September
of twenty twenty four. So there's still again to your point,
on multiple levels, expanding operations.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah. I guess what kind of makes me scratch my
head a little bit is that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
and the Army Corps of Engineers jointly approved the construction
of those new units back in twenty sixteen when it
seems like a lot of this stuff had not been
sorted out fully yet. And you know what I mean,
Like it just seems like a bit of a rubber stamp,
is all I'm implying.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Well, Miami is a very populous area, isn't. Aren't there
around three million people that live in the immediate Miami
Dade area, and then you've got Boca Raton just above
that a bunch of other fully hugely populated areas. So
I imagine that the power generation here at this plant is crucial,
as we've been saying throughout the episode, right.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
And the water it's touching is crucial exactly.
Speaker 5 (38:25):
It's a balancing act.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
And there are still, you know, to the credit of
all the scientists involved, there are still active brainstorming sessions
on how to, like new solutions, how do we fix
these canals, And there are a lot of ideas in
the mix, things like another wave of wells. These wells
would be horizontal, deeper and further away from the existing
(38:50):
milkshake straw extraction wells or the recovery ones. So the
big concern there is they may swing the pendulum too
far in the other direction. The horizontal wells may remove
too much water from the aquifer, meaning that again we
would create a new problem while we were trying to
solve a previous problem.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Uh. And how do you do a horizontal well into
that area? You probably got to go from the outside in, right,
and the outside's got a bunch of salt water in it.
So good luck.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yes, tricky, it's a tricky one. And as all these
strategies wax and wighing as people argue back and forth
about this, the wheels of industry grind on. Turkey Point
is still very much an active power plant, and like
I said, millions of people rely on it. That's where
we have to leave it for now. We're going to
be sure to update as the situation develops, and we
(39:46):
hope everybody in the area is safe and hopefully able
to still enjoy clean water. Have you guys ever been
to a place like on a road trip or a
vacation and you realize the water tastes noticeably better or
wor then your hometown.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
Absolutely? Yeah, oh man, I mean it doesn't necessarily make
me question whether it's safe or not, but yeah, maybe
I should. But you do get used to your your
local water, and it can be pretty jarring.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
You know the place where I've almost always detested the
tap water taste, Florida.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Yeah, well, it's got that like briny quality to it
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
It's got something that you wouldn't want a bottle and sell.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I don't think so, guys.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Sometimes sulfurous tastes like fireworks, says Dylan.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
Fireworks.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
Yes, yeah, and not in a great way. Also, we're
not condoning eating fireworks.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
And also, sorry, Flora, no shade. It's just for.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Everybody, you know, everybody. I think you know, we're not
being like Burkie filters and stuff. I mean, you know,
Decatur water doesn't taste great. You know, We've got ways
around it.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
I like the positive spin of going to a place
and thinking, wow, this water tastes them. That's happened to
be one or two times.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
You know what, I guess spoiled guys. Yep, up here
in like forty five to an hour north of Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
We live in the country bra gream water, Yes, clear
and clean and crisp, the water of beautiful them.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
I forgot to tell you.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
A friend from out of town sent me a picture
of the coming water tower.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Yeah, they didn't come. Yeah, be funny, it'll not be hilarious.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Head on over to Coming Beaver Toyota or coming No,
the coming Dick's location fantastic.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah yeah, and the uh I think the coming water
Tower used to have the logo coming home.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I think they were.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Trying to save it from being the hilariously evident wordplay.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
We came here to comm It's all I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
And we came here to go, as we can readily
admit our Hello friends. Neighbors in Florida already have too
much to deal with, so let's not add some grand
nuclear conspiracy as well. We want to hear your take
on this, folks. What can be done here? What should
be done? What will be done?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
What do you think? Let us know.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
We try to be easy to find on the phone.
You can always send us an email. You can find
us on the lines.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
You sure can. You can find us in the handle
conspiracy stuff where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook
group here is where it gets crazy. On xfka, Twitter,
and on YouTube with video content Glora for your perusing enjoyment.
Soon to be more thereof on Instagram and TikTok. However,
we are Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three st DWYTK. It's a voicemail system. When you call it,
you'll find yourself inside there. You've got three minutes. Give
yourself a cool nickname and let us know if we
can use your name and message on the air. If
you'd instead like to write us some things, maybe send
some hyperlinks or attachments, why not instead send us a
(43:01):
good old fashioned email.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back. And if you'd like to play a reindeer
game with us, hit us up on our email address
and ask for a random fact and we will give
you what. It might not be related to anything that
we touch on the show. It'll just be like one
(43:23):
strange line of something true. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Bed.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are you. You are here.
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
And folks, tonight's episode is one for our neighbors slightly
to the south. It's for our Floridian friends over in Homestead.
(00:53):
Homestead might not be familiar to everybody, but essentially it's
a pretty beautiful suburb.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Of Miami in the Miami Dade area.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Oh yeah, we were just talking about how I think
some of us have never been to Miami, me specifically,
and we are about to go there for a work thing.
So I'm excited to check out some of that beauty
you describe.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, Noel, I don't want to blow up your spot, bro,
but you look like you are ready right.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Right now in that tank top, I mean Bucky's tight
I tent top. I just got back from my bike ride.
I look like a Goofbaul. You'll be wearing a lot
of this on the ship. Guys. This is going to
be me. This is the new me, beach Nol.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Because we are indeed going on at Conspira Cruise.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
That's our term, not their term.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We're going with virgin voyages this October October tenth through
the fifteenth. That's what we'll find us in Miami and
then through the Caribbean. We'd love for you to join us.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Yeah, and also they can have Conspira Cruise if they like,
right Ben, of course, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
This one is a true crime cruise, So you're into
that kind of stuff. You know the shows we've made,
you've to all of the varying thank you sagas that
the three of us have executive produced and even voice sometimes.
So come on out and let's talk true crime.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
And we'll be joined with two other badass true crime
pods as well.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yep, that's right, Betrayal and Buried Bones. So we're excited.
We've got Miami on our minds, we've got the Caribbean
in our cognition, and today we're looking at a story
that may be unfamiliar to a lot of people outside
of the area, but it's very much a big deal.
It's very much a arguably it's a conspiracy of Foot
(02:37):
and Matt. This is something that you brought to us
a while back, and we've been busy researching some of
this just to verify it. I was interested to learn
that Homestead, Florida, is also home to the subject of
one of our early episodes, Coral Castle. You guys remember
Coral Castle.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Totally one of the speaking of roadside attraction. Aren't we
talking about that recently? That's a great one.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
How did ed do that thing?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah? Right?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
For years and years people in Edward's neighborhood were thinking,
what's he building in there? So do check out the
story of Edward lead Skalnon and the tragedy that inspired
him to create a fascinating, stunning, very weird thing called
Coral Castle. Tonight, however, we're in this area for a
(03:28):
very different reason. It's something called the Turkey Point Nuclear
Generating Station. As we record, there is an environmental disaster
and possible genuine conspiracy afoot or a plume.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Oh wow, yeah, yeah, it's it's conspiracy.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
I was thinking of Turkey puns. I don't know why
a turkey plume.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So many levels. Beautiful, ben beautiful guys. I would I
would categorize this one as stuff they'd rather you not
think about.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
They'd prefer if you would ignore.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah, and actually I try to be environmentally conscious, but
for this one, I'm gonna be drinking bottled water.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Cool. Yes, I use tap water for my iced coffee,
so it evens out.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, here are the facts, all right, Turkey Point. You're
gonna find this place in this game bay. That's about
twenty five miles south of Miami proper. It's just a
tick east of the Homestead area. It's a pretty fascinating operation.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, as we said, it's a nuclear generating station. So
this is a nuclear power plant, the kind that is
only used for generating electricity. That's it, full stop. You
don't have that there for any other reason. That's it.
It's also a gas fired plant. They have all kinds
of different power generation abilities there. One that we are
(05:00):
really focusing on is that nuclear power unit, or rather
the two that are there.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, it's weird because okay, it's a hybrid station. Right,
Like you said, natural gas plus the big ticket nuclear stuff.
The first two nuclear power units here are called, weirdly enough,
Unit three and four because they had natural gas before
and they are kind of older. They both date back
to the nineteen seventies. The first one started running in
(05:29):
seventy two and the second one in nineteen seventy three.
And the cool thing if you're flying over this, the
cool thing you'll see first that you'll clock is there
are no Simpson esque big cooling towers. Instead, there's a
ton of canals.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
Yeah, this is a type of setup that I was
not personally aware of. I guess when I think of
these sorts of facilities, I always picture what you're describing Ben,
the Simpsons esque version.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, I would say, pop on to Google Map if
you can, while if you're driving, obviously don't, but when
you have a moment, go to FPL Turkey Point. That's
you can find it that way. It's Turkey Point Nuclear
Generating Station. And just when you look at the layout, man,
as you're saying, I don't see a nuclear power plant there.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
No, No, I do see an interesting grid network. It's
pretty sophisticated.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
And I guess to what I was saying, this is
super uncommon. So yeah, don't kick yourself if you haven't
heard of this type of arrangement for a nuke site either.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Dude, it looks like capacitors. That's what I would say, the.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Network of interconnected kind of like circuitry.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, like a tattoo of a circuit board across go dirt.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
You're right, it's I mean, it's something that we're fascinated by.
Just from a design perspective. There are thirty two canals,
but all told, they stretch one hundred and seventy miles
and they're also old. This is your point about the
speed unusual. This is unique. This is an improvised reaction
(07:03):
to a problem they figured out in nineteen seventy three,
after they already started running the nuclear reactors.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
They had an oopsie, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
There's ah crap, we should build thirty two giant canals.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Trying to think of what Butters would say when he
was upset about something. Crackers, crackers, there you go. Yeah,
I got South Park on the brain from that season
premiered Love Fuddy.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Just the whole family was at the cabin when this
all went down. We all gathered together in the game room,
put it on the TV, and we all watched it together.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
Cultural moment. There's no question there. Love it or hate it.
It's an interesting called they got the White House to
yell at them. Yeah, I respect that, whatever your perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Right right. I remember we were texting about that.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
It was it was an odd moment of timing because
you don't see that kind of destination watching with so
many things now.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
But it was like when a new.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Episode of Lost or Game of Thrones dropped because Matt,
you had texted us, and as you were texting it,
I was watching the same thing.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
And I don't know if other people experienced that, but
maybe we'll have more of that good Luck South part
with episode two and going forward.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
I had something spoiled before watching it, just because you know,
the Internet, but I will say that it did not
detract from my enjoyment of watching it. It's sort of
unspoilable because you ritually something you just got experience.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
There, you Yeah, and we know that the boffins who
originally designed the nuclear power plant, they realized this was
in a very meaningful, diverse area, so they didn't want
to spoil that natural beauty despite you know, building a
nuclear reactor on it. So when they realized that the
water from the bay that was used in cooling the
(08:42):
nuclear reaction. When they realized this water was coming out
super hot and ruining the bay and the wetlands surrounding it,
they said, Okay, we've got to figure out a way
to get the water temperature back down. We know it's
not being irradiated, they said, but it's been it's too
hot and it's going to kill animals, it's going to
(09:03):
kill plants. So we're going to pump it through all
these canals before it gets back to the wider world,
and that is going to bring the temperature down. Anyway,
It's a pretty unique solution, and it seemed to work
from seventy three on, as long as you ask the
officials at FPL.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, and again and sorry. If you look at it
from Google Maps, it's interesting the way the different, you know,
because it's a collection of satellite images, right, and you
get this thing where if you look at it in
its current form today on July twenty eighth, at least
the one that I'm looking at, the color of the
water changes to this green as you go down a
(09:46):
little bit. That is just a different satellite image than
the one that's used above, and in that one you
can see the water color looks the same or very
similar to the water color in the surrounding areas. It's
very interesting to see it in that green though, because
it looks fully irradiated like Hulk level something.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
It does that that's not just a movie magic.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, I mean it's hard. Can you guys see that
if you look at Google.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Yeah, it got a glow to it.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Yeah, there's different. We were talking about the different times
the satellites took photos exactly. But it does look super sketchy.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
But there's a clear line between the two images there, which.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Is how you know it's photo timing and thankfully not
uh gamma radiation throughout the bay. This is a Westinghouse operation,
through and through. They built most of the crucial components,
but the day to day aspects of the planet are
run by Florida Power and Light Company or FPL, so
they're the owners operators. This thing is a powerhouse. If
(10:56):
you are in the Miami Dade area, it's the re
in your light switches work. This has enough energy to
power nine hundred thousand homes year round, so it's a big,
big deal. Obviously, we want to keep it running if
we can. This was made, especially the nuclear aspects of
it that were made in the nineteen seventies, and we've
(11:18):
got to remember the context in which this was built
in the first place. You know, fear of nuclear power
or approval of it waxes and wanes, almost always punctuated
by some mishap or another. Like you can look at
the stocks of nuclear associated companies and you can see
how they dip when a chernobyl or a Fukushima occurs.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Oh, I'm sure, yeah, one hundred percent. I mean that's
sort of an extreme case of like the news impacting
the price on the stock market.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
For sure.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
I mean, as long as everything goes according to plan,
nuclear power can be a safe, consistent, and low cost
source of electricity. And also, you know, if we travel
back into the seventies, maybe the public wasn't as aware
of this, but insiders all knew there were some serious
consequences to fossil fuel, both on the supply side.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Right do we have to go to war in the
Middle East again?
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And on the environmental side, And they were already at
this point actively bearing studies about fossil fuel, So everybody
was kind of pushing for nuclear stuff, and I was
hoping that nothing went wrong. That's where that's the milieu
in which Turkey Point emerged and Turkey Point. We got
(12:33):
to say this, The Turkey Point property is not Turkey
Point Station. The actual station is very small part of
like eleven thousand acres all told. And yeah, I mean
so if you're walking around there, you're actually more likely
to run into a canal or a crocodile than you
(12:53):
are to walk up to the station itself.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah. I'm just looking at the air Force base that's
right there, I guess to the north west of the
actual station itself, and then just the amount of wetlands
in between that base and then where the actual station is.
It's pretty protected. And the rest of them see in
Biscayne National Park areas and all kinds of you know,
stuff that makes this difficult to get to.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yeah, Biscay National Park is directly adjacent. As you said,
there are untouched mangroves and wetlands. It's a place with
a ton of natural beauty and we don't always associate
that with nuclear power plants. There are more than sixty
different species of animals and birds on this property alone.
Seventeen of those are currently considered endangered, and if we
(13:42):
go to the official sources, we'll see FPL has put
in some work to maintain this environment, and one of
the stories they love to share is about how they
played a surprisingly big role in crocodile conservation. If you
go there and get bit by a crocodile, you should
also thank FBL.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Do they found one in the cooling canal system like
a nest? Yikes?
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah, back in the nineteen seventies they found an American
crocodile nest that was in the cooling system, and they said, Okay,
we're going to get in trouble if we don't move
carefully on this, because these creatures are endangered. So we
are going to establish the American Crocodile Monitoring Program, which
(14:30):
they did in nineteen seventy eight, and under this program,
they've actually grown the population of crocodiles there from just
a few hundred to over two thousand.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So yeah, pretty significant results.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
More crocodiles.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I think I've mentioned this in the past, certain that
I have, but when I worked for public radio where
I was based it was near Plant Vogel and also
the Savannah River site which is a nuclear waste kind
of remediation site where nuclear weapons were disposed of. And
I actually went there and talked to some of the
ecologists that were working on site, and they actually tagged
(15:07):
turtles and like drilled little holes in their shells and
put these kind of like markers in them so that
they could kind of determine check them for radiation literally
with Geiger counters, and sort of use them as a
way like sort of a benchmark for how well things
were going with the cleanup. And these these waist pits
kind of I guess you could call them. There's a
name for them, but it was one of those super
(15:28):
fun sites people talk about.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
They turned them into canaries right in the cold.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It reminds me of the electro fishing thing we talked about.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, shocking results.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
So we know that the conservation efforts for the crocodiles
here were so successful that the species was downlisted from
endangered to threatened in two thousand and seven. So, however
you feel about crocodiles, it does show that the company
was actually making an effort to help the environment. There's
(16:00):
a cool video about this you can watch from PBS,
which used to be a thing in the United States.
They explored the story just last year, in twenty twenty four,
and they've got pretty great, unbiased reporting about it. But
we're giving you the good news at the top. It
appears there's much more to the story of Turkey Point,
and not all of it is pleasant.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Correct. For years, activists and experts have you know, enjoyed
with concerned citizens have raised their fears of how aging
nuclear power plants may be affected by climate change, How
clean and secure are these facilities, especially in the face
of these sorts of existential threats.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And when you imagine the possible side effects of generating
nuclear power, maybe you're like me and you think, oh,
irradiated materials of some sort leaking out, or you know,
some part of the uranium or plutonium that's used to
create the energy is affecting the environment in some way,
or a water.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Source or like mutant crocs.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Maybe maybe, But in this case, that's not really what
we're dealing with. It's a whole other, different problem, which
is why we thought it was so fascinating.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah, it's a unique problem caused by a unique solution,
you know what I mean. There's a bit of a
Cobra effect kind of parable a play.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Here keeps coming.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Up, it keeps coming up, and just like these questions
about nuclear power, right in the case of Turkey Point,
these questions become more and more relevant, especially as time
goes on. It turns out that something may have been wrong,
deeply wrong, for decades. So here we're gonna pause for
a word from our sponsors, and then we'll dive in
(17:44):
to the Turkey Point salt plu Here's where it gets crazy,
all right. If you could, like, let's say we're looking
at the map now, or we're in a hot air ble,
we're looking at the surface of Turkey Point. If we
were to drop from that balloon or that vantage point
(18:06):
under the water, under the surface, under the dirt, and
into the aquifer, we would encounter a gigantic plume of
hypersaline water, very salty water, at a weird temperature, and
it's going everywhere.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Ben, Is it possible that the reason we haven't heard
a lot about these canal situations is that maybe they
weren't the best thought through.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Maybe well, let's just get let's get our general perspective
here again, we're in the southern tip of Florida, Everglades
is on the western side, and then this nuclear plant
with all the canals is on the east side of
that very very southern tip of Florida. It's all salt
water right surrounding it. But the thing you're talking about here, Ben,
(18:50):
is that aquifer of fresh water that is deep beneath
the surface, right That's where the salt plume is going into.
And that's why it's so strange to imagine, and I
think because it is surrounded by salt water like ocean water.
So you think, how would all of this ocean water
seep so deeply into that awquarfer And and to be honest,
how does that not happen already? Right right?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Yes, it's weird too because as you're describing this sort
of meeting point of different ecosystems fresh water and wet water.
Wet water, fresh water, salt water. Yeah, well we're gonna
sell dry water. I think we should give it to go.
Really time it's come, why not?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Why not?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
So anyway, because of this, we see various life forms
that have to live in a specific kind of mix
of fresh and salt water. They need brackish water. So
if you mess with this at all, your It sounds
like a line from a mad scientists. You're messing with stuff.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
You don't understand the salinity, right, I mean there are
you know, the tolerances are not maybe as broad as
as folks might think. They could cause significant fish kills.
We've heard about bodies of water where it's silinity has
risen unexpectedly and caused entire you know, like apoc fish apocalypses.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
But guys, we're talking about the aquifer. What do we
do with aquifer water?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Usually, well, if you're human, you drinking.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
So in a recent interview with WPLG Local ten, who
did some great reporting on this a little while ago,
one doctor Rachel Silverstein, who is the CEO of Miami Waterkeeper,
she describes it like this. She says, the plume is
going down about eighty feet, it's hitting what is called
the confining layer, and it's spreading out in every direction. So,
(20:36):
without getting to into aquifer science, essentially what she's saying
is this thing four years has been getting closer and
closer to the drinking water of thousands and thousands of people.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And it is like a little monster that's growing. It's
it's weird. To imagine it like a corruption or something.
I play a lot of games where there's like a
there's something that, Yeah, corrupting like a surrounding area. That's
what it's doing. It's just in this if you if
you can really imagine in your mind, just the salt
water entering this fresh water and going down and down
(21:15):
and down all the way to eighty feet and spreading
out in every direction, corrupting all of that fresh, beautiful
aquaf for.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Water because we can't drink salt water. It's the idea
like water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
What happens, It just doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
It probably, you know, causes us to die of thirst
over time, or you know, gets into systems and causes
all kinds of other knock on consequences.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, it's it's a terrible way to go.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Uh, we know that it contains essentially your kidneys can't
handle it. It's your human It's too much salt for
the kidneys. And so when you're drinking salt water, like
people who are in a really bad bad way lost
at sea or something, when you're drinking it, you're dehydrating
yourself faster.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
That's what I thought.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
It's pretty it's it's pretty gross way to go.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Yeah, And that expression in the water water thing refers
to that situation of being marooned and it's the irony
of being surrounded by water but it being you know,
totally inaccessible.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And it turns out that those canals may not have
been the permanent solution everybody across their fingers and hoped
for back in the nineteen seventies. These canals pretty much
had to be built because without them, the water was
going through the plant and as we said, it was
wrecking everything. So FBL didn't just decide to fix this
(22:32):
one day. They were ordered to do so by the
Department of Justice. And the problem is, to your point, Matt,
these canals have been leaking for some time. This salt
plume thing is leaving the canals and it's drifting west, spreading,
you know, like mold across a ball, and it's going
(22:52):
off the Turkey Point property, off those eleven thousand acres
and into the surrounding round water. Or the eternal optimist
in the crowd will say, hey, guys, I mean that's
not great, but it's not you know, it's not as
bad as a meltdown, right, but we should we should
talk a little bit more about why the water has
a bad effect.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I do agree that's not as bad as a meltdown,
or doesn't feel as bad as a meltdown. Right, It
doesn't sound as alarmist as that, but.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
It's it's a related consequence to you know, the processes
they're being done at the site, for sure. I mean,
it's another way that these types of facilities can impact
you know that you know, very delicate ecosystem we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah. Well, and and let's not forget it's not according
to everybody involved, none of this water is irradiated. It's fine,
it's cool, there's no isotopes in there.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
It's just really well, it's not cool. It's really hot, right, right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Traces of tritium, but that's.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
It within allowable limits, it's right. Right.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So this is where we see some chemistry a play
that makes it a more dangerous issue. Because the water
gets so heated, the stuff inside of it salts, contamination,
and you get just traces of tritium. They get condensed this,
they get condensed so much that the water itself actually
becomes heavier than the other water around it, which puts
(24:22):
it down to the bottom of the canals. The canals
are made of limestone, which is a notoriously porous substance.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So it basically, what's the words you were using, Matt,
corrupts the groundwater like, it seeps further further down into
the system.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, a little monster diving deeper.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
It leaches through.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah, And experts now are not totally united on the
extent of the damage at present. Some people will put
it more apocalyptic terms than others, but every expert agrees
that if it hasn't compromised the aquifer for the Miami
Dad area, if that hasn't done it yet, it is
(25:02):
spreading for miles up to one foot per day, And
it's not a matter of if it gets into the
water of those three million people. It's a matter of wet.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And what what the heck do we do? Then? Guys,
We're going to do some emergency desalination. And it's cool,
it's fine, It's going to be totally fine.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
I mean, we've talked about how much energy that takes.
It's not a particularly practical solution.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, Yeah, it's not quite cost effective yet Hopefully there
will be more more progress in desalination in the near future,
but even the best technology of that type wouldn't be
the right fix for this problem.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
No.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Doctor Silverstein, who we mentioned, notes that the plume has
been observed moving faster and faster, up to one foot
a day. So unless something's done, it's going to reach
the public.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
And of course the public begins to grow awareness about this,
and locals are looking around, especially in this area of
the United States, there are a lot of people who
are very close to the natural environment. You know, there
are conservationists, they're outdoorsy types.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
They yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And as a result, as soon as more and more
people are talking about this, the lawsuits begin to roll in,
think around twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and they're they're like
class action suits, basically a lot of nonprofits, a lot
of groups of concerned citizens. Eventually, the rulings give Florida
Power and Light a window of ten years to fix
(26:38):
the problem, based on testimony from experts, based on testimony
from the owner operators and so on, and they say, look,
here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna dig some more stuff.
Now we know digging didn't one hundred percent work the
first time, but this time we're gon we're gonna dig
a different kind of pattern and that's going to solve it.
We're gonna make extraction wells. We're going to drink the milkshake.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
And it just occurred to me that, you know, the
US Army Corps of Engineers typically has at least some
say so or oversight in these types of kind of
public private partnerships where the ecosystems are concerned, and it
does up here that they consulted with the Turkey Point
Nuclear Generating Station through the Jacksonville District, and also the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, you know, got in on it as well.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Ben, Let's talk about the drink and the milkshake. So
we're saying they've got their drilling wells into the areas
where the salt plume is theoretically to slurp it up.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, yep, exactly, So they're creating more wells to take
the bad dense water out. And what we should do
now is maybe pause for a word from our sponsors
and then try to extract the meaning of extraction wells
and well whether or not they'll actually work.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
And we have returned all right, drink your milkshake.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
As we said, these wells function like giant straws. Straws
for giants. They sucked the plume back behind the property
line of the plant, and as of February of this year,
twenty twenty five, FPL stated they're not going to make
the deadline. Said, Okay, we know we had ten years,
we had all loopsie. We're working on it, but we're
(28:23):
not going to have this thing eradicated at the time
that we hoped.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
But they are making progress. And when you see a
figure like the following that we found in I think
this came from local ten dot com local news there
in the area. They discussed how or at least the
company made a statement that they've extracted thirty six billion
gallons of this quote hyper saline groundwater and they call
(28:51):
it a significant reduction. It is a significant reduction, thirty
six billion gallons of water. Holy lord, Right, But then
you start to understand the scale of the problem, because
that's a dent.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Yeah, because that that's one of those pieces of disturbing
good news. You know, we talk about it all the time,
like your favorite your favorite soda or whatever advertises itself
with you know, now completely uranium free. Amazing and you
know it's like, thank you, guys.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
Now with only traces of tritium.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Right, yeah, welcome to our town where a child has
not disappeared for the last.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
Two weeks and the life expectancy has has risen to.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
Thirty exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
And guys, let's also remember we've said some really nice
things about FBL and what they're doing there, and they're
doing a good.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Job and they are true things they are.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
But then let's also remember that they're not working to
fully fix the issue. They are working to reach the
levels in the legal agreement of course that was handed
down to them by the Department of Justice.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
And you know, let's be honest. I mean, that is
how any profit making organization would behave, Like there is
no built in benevolence in business most of the time, right.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Right, most of the time.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I mean we also, I think the most disturbing think
here is that we don't know the full reliable estimate
for how many billions of gallons of contaminated water we're
out there. We know that if you look at the
hypothetical pizza pie overall, thirty six billion gallons is a
big slice, but far from the whole thing. So that's
(30:33):
pretty disturbing.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
We're not going to put out that big number. What
there's gonna be. We're gonna sit on that one for now.
I mean, it's available, but we're not going to put
it out. Thirty six billion of X.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, right, And guys, let's also remember this, where is
that thirty six billion gallons of water going?
Speaker 5 (30:50):
It's a good question.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
It's going somewhere on the property. That's all that is stated.
It needs to be on the property of this power plant.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And it's the turkey.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, it's pulled back just across across the property line,
somewhere in that eleven thousand acres yep.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
So what they're holding onto it? Like it's in tanks?
Like I don't understand what you mean by on the property.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, that's a great question. Where is that water actually
being held? Is it at risk of leaking? Again?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Is it possible that we're pulling it back and then
it's rejoining the plume?
Speaker 5 (31:26):
You know, couldn't you vaporize it or in some way
isn't there a way of like turning water into you know,
sta And then yes, I wonder there's gotta be bad water.
How do we dispose of bad water?
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Well, now we sound like we're nestley trying to come
up with the next drink to market.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
How do we get rid of bad water?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
You guys, let's sell it to the public. Let's call
it bad water, and let's just see how it goes.
Mile Taylor Swift tie.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
In liquid death could step up.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Like, yeah, gosh, it's their new flavor, liquid illness, traces
of tritium. So we also hear more from the spokes
folks at FPL Bill orlov is the guy we're quoting
for that thirty six billion gallon stat. He also adds
that there have been ongoing efforts to reduce the size
(32:17):
of the plume and they've been successful. They've reduced the
size of the plume by quote almost half, and the
salinity levels of the water are also decreasing, to Matt
your earlier point, they are decreasing to quote close to
those of seawater, bringing the contamination closer to legal agreement limits,
(32:39):
which is not the same thing as one hundred percent
untouched and clean.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, and according to the cool down, which is a
cool sourcet. Literally, it's a neat source that I've found,
and I clicked on one article guys in my Apple
News app with those with that outfit, and now I
get at least one a day from them. But the
cool down check it out. I don't know much about
the actual you know outlet in the journalistic integrity of it.
(33:04):
I just know that they've got some really interesting stories recently.
In there, they discuss one of the major problems with
the fixes the FBL is doing is that it's not
reaching deep enough. So these wells that they've drilled are working,
at least to the extent that we're talking about here,
reducing it by half, but it's not getting deep enough
(33:26):
to get the you know, we talked about how heavy
this stuff is, right, you can't get to the stuff
that's way way way down there.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Yeah, exactly. And that's not an issue of incompetence, it's
not an issue of malice or anything like that. It's
just scientifically, it's very difficult to get down there. Yes,
And I mean it's also incredibly difficult to clean all
of this water. The extraction wells are working, but everybody
(33:57):
knows they're a mitigating factor, So it seems like they're
reducing the size of this salt plume, and they're slowing
down its speed, but still just like Godzilla strolling to Tokyo, Right,
you can slow the guy down, but you can't necessarily
stop it.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, just yet, Just one more piece of info from
that cool down article. Let's not forget that we've been
talking about drinking this aquafer water. Theoretically, the other thing
a lot of this water is used for is agriculture, guys, irrigation. Unfortunately,
salt water doesn't have what plants crave. It's got the
(34:37):
stuff it doesn't want.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
It's a mediocracy reference, it is.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Yeah, And that's a fantastic point because what we're seeing
here is that even if the plume somehow never reaches
the crisis level, people are worried about it's wrecking everything
along the way. You know what I mean, Godzilla walking
through the ocean to Tokyo. Even if never reaches Tokyo,
(35:02):
he's ruining the day for a lot of fish, right,
and a lot of plants. Just by the size of
the activity and the salt plume, Kaiju like is expanding
throughout the area, and it is wreaking having on every
living thing it touches. Yeah, things are going great, you guys,
everybody's doing their best. County authorities said the same thing,
(35:25):
and I'm being a little glib here. What I mean
is the county authorities acknowledged, yes, this is something, This
is a series of good faith efforts to fix the problem,
but it's not enough. Neither the county nor the power
company at this point have issued any statement about when
or whether they expect the plume to be fully retracted
(35:46):
from the water. Understandably, that's got a lot of people
worried about the future. And an important point to make
here that sometimes gets lost in the reporting is that
this is all occurring in step with some pretty rest
of extension and expansion plans for Turkey Point. So even
as people know things are not functioning one hundred percent ideal,
(36:10):
they're making the operation bigger while they're trying to fix it.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Which is great.
Speaker 5 (36:18):
It's better than some that's that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
I mean, it's also it's also a question of can
the area function without this thing?
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Right?
Speaker 3 (36:27):
What happens if they shut it down?
Speaker 5 (36:29):
You know, I'm a little confused then, because you pointed
out that those new units were approved to continue operating,
you know, well into the future. But I did find
that the two units that we're talking about here, three
and four, were approved to be built back in twenty sixteen,
and that there was no environmental impact, And this is
(36:49):
like ongoing.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Oh yeah, this is confusing again because the first two
units from the nineteen seventies were often called Units three
and four.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
The other ones, the ones you're talking.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
About, the new ones that are approved to be built
from twenty sixteen, they're a different category. I think they
should give them all cool individual nicknames, like we do
with the studios in the office, just to make it
easier for people to remember. But yeah, there are a
lot of expansions and approvals. The original units from the
nineteen seventies have actually gotten their license to continue operation
(37:25):
until twenty fifty two and twenty fifty three, respectfully, and
that's from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission back in September
of twenty twenty four. So there's still again to your point,
on multiple levels, expanding operations.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah. I guess what kind of makes me scratch my
head a little bit is that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
and the Army Corps of Engineers jointly approved the construction
of those new units back in twenty sixteen when it
seems like a lot of this stuff had not been
sorted out fully yet. And you know what I mean,
Like it just seems like a bit of a rubber stamp,
is all I'm implying.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Well, Miami is a very populous area, isn't. Aren't there
around three million people that live in the immediate Miami
Dade area, and then you've got Boca Raton just above
that a bunch of other fully hugely populated areas. So
I imagine that the power generation here at this plant is crucial,
as we've been saying throughout the episode, right.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
And the water it's touching is crucial exactly.
Speaker 5 (38:25):
It's a balancing act.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
And there are still, you know, to the credit of
all the scientists involved, there are still active brainstorming sessions
on how to, like new solutions, how do we fix
these canals, And there are a lot of ideas in
the mix, things like another wave of wells. These wells
would be horizontal, deeper and further away from the existing
(38:50):
milkshake straw extraction wells or the recovery ones. So the
big concern there is they may swing the pendulum too
far in the other direction. The horizontal wells may remove
too much water from the aquifer, meaning that again we
would create a new problem while we were trying to
solve a previous problem.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Uh. And how do you do a horizontal well into
that area? You probably got to go from the outside in, right,
and the outside's got a bunch of salt water in it.
So good luck.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
Yes, tricky, it's a tricky one. And as all these
strategies wax and wighing as people argue back and forth
about this, the wheels of industry grind on. Turkey Point
is still very much an active power plant, and like
I said, millions of people rely on it. That's where
we have to leave it for now. We're going to
be sure to update as the situation develops, and we
(39:46):
hope everybody in the area is safe and hopefully able
to still enjoy clean water. Have you guys ever been
to a place like on a road trip or a
vacation and you realize the water tastes noticeably better or
wor then your hometown.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
Absolutely? Yeah, oh man, I mean it doesn't necessarily make
me question whether it's safe or not, but yeah, maybe
I should. But you do get used to your your
local water, and it can be pretty jarring.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
You know the place where I've almost always detested the
tap water taste, Florida.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Yeah, well, it's got that like briny quality to it
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
It's got something that you wouldn't want a bottle and sell.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I don't think so, guys.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Sometimes sulfurous tastes like fireworks, says Dylan.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
Fireworks.
Speaker 4 (40:35):
Yes, yeah, and not in a great way. Also, we're
not condoning eating fireworks.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
And also, sorry, Flora, no shade. It's just for.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Everybody, you know, everybody. I think you know, we're not
being like Burkie filters and stuff. I mean, you know,
Decatur water doesn't taste great. You know, We've got ways
around it.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
I like the positive spin of going to a place
and thinking, wow, this water tastes them. That's happened to
be one or two times.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
You know what, I guess spoiled guys. Yep, up here
in like forty five to an hour north of Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (41:09):
We live in the country bra gream water, Yes, clear
and clean and crisp, the water of beautiful them.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
I forgot to tell you.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
A friend from out of town sent me a picture
of the coming water tower.
Speaker 5 (41:23):
Yeah, they didn't come. Yeah, be funny, it'll not be hilarious.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Head on over to Coming Beaver Toyota or coming No,
the coming Dick's location fantastic.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah yeah, and the uh I think the coming water
Tower used to have the logo coming home.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I think they were.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Trying to save it from being the hilariously evident wordplay.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
We came here to comm It's all I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
And we came here to go, as we can readily
admit our Hello friends. Neighbors in Florida already have too
much to deal with, so let's not add some grand
nuclear conspiracy as well. We want to hear your take
on this, folks. What can be done here? What should
be done? What will be done?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
What do you think? Let us know.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
We try to be easy to find on the phone.
You can always send us an email. You can find
us on the lines.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
You sure can. You can find us in the handle
conspiracy stuff where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook
group here is where it gets crazy. On xfka, Twitter,
and on YouTube with video content Glora for your perusing enjoyment.
Soon to be more thereof on Instagram and TikTok. However,
we are Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three st DWYTK. It's a voicemail system. When you call it,
you'll find yourself inside there. You've got three minutes. Give
yourself a cool nickname and let us know if we
can use your name and message on the air. If
you'd instead like to write us some things, maybe send
some hyperlinks or attachments, why not instead send us a
(43:01):
good old fashioned email.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back. And if you'd like to play a reindeer
game with us, hit us up on our email address
and ask for a random fact and we will give
you what. It might not be related to anything that
we touch on the show. It'll just be like one
(43:23):
strange line of something true. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
Hosts And Creators
Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Show Links
RSSStoreAboutLive ShowsPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.