In
Fall 2014, my
wife and I drive from our permanent home in Tehachapi California to
our temporary home in Round Mountain Nevada with our three dogs. We
get an early start on the six hour drive because of reports of
upcoming bad weather.
The
drive from
Tehachapi to Round Mountain is long but beautiful. The first portion
is on Highway 395, which runs in a valley east of the Sierras, At
Bishop, we turn onto Highway 6 for the climb to Montgomery Pass,
just across the Nevada border. Then down the mountain and across a
high desert basin to Tonopah, past salt flats, sand dunes and sage
brush. Hills of sandy soil are stripped away by winds, flash floods
and historic mining, exposing a kaleidoscope of rock layers- orange,
dark brown and white volcanic tuff.
From
Tonopah, we
head north for the final hour of driving. It’s starting to
rain. The road goes up and down over rolling hills. There are no
culverts in the low spots. Instead, runoff is allowed to pass over
the road. It starts raining harder. Some of the low spots have a thin
layer of water across the road. We plough through with no problem, so
far.
Now
it starts to pour buckets, with booming thunder and brilliant flashes
of lightning. Wild horses are running alongside the road in the
opposite direction we are traveling. Not a good omen.
It’s getting more treacherous and scarier by the minute. We are
still hoping to make it home.
Up
ahead, a huge
lake of water sits across the road. I slowly approach, but it is
clear we won’t be able to make this crossing, so reluctantly we
head back to Tonopah for the night. Because we are traveling with
three dogs and many other travelers have already laid over in
Tonopah, it isn’t easy finding a motel room. Our last resort,
the National 9 Luckily, it has vacancies and allows dogs.
Opening
the door to
the room, my wife and I look at each other and say “Oh well.” Directly
through the door is a small bedroom with very well-worn
shag carpeting. A mattress and box spring are directly on the floor
in the corner of the room against the wall, a very low bed without a
bed frame. The bed is covered with an old-school, shiny polyester
quilt, underneath a linty, ratty blanket. A small kitchen, with a
linoleum floor, is on the other side of the bedroom. At least it’s
better than sleeping in the car with three dogs. Perhaps we should
have checked out the Clown Motel across the street.
So
two people and
three dogs huddle on the mattress. Upstairs, a group of cowboys are
playing country rock music very loudly, with lots of drinking. We are
so tired we fall asleep anyway.
It
turns out to be
an entertaining night for the dogs. In the middle of the night, we
hear dog nails scuffling in the kitchen, followed by barking and
tussling. Upon investigation, we see an army of cockroaches scurrying
across the floor, too much fun for dogs not to chase. Enough
excitement for one night.
Part
2- The
Interview
Six-thirty
AM. Dawn
breaks on a very cold winter day in early 2015. Scrape ice from the
windshield. Watch the temperature gauge quickly drop. Wonder if it
will register temperatures below zero. It does. Fifteen below. A
slight dusting of snow. Sage brush is covered with frost. Snow will
stay on the ground for weeks. Pull into the parking lot. Brave the
cold as I trudge towards my office.
Most
office jobs
have a slow start. Stand around drinking coffee, shooting the bull. Not
this job. I quickly glance at my calendar for the day and walk to
the Mine Office for the daily production meeting. The Mining
Department wants to build a new access road. It is on the edge of
the area permitted for disturbance. We give them a map. We will check
later today. Then back to my office for a stand up Environmental
Department staff meeting to talk about what everyone is up to.
Finally after an hour and a half, I can take a breather.
Round
Mountain is an
immerse open pit gold mine in a remote area of Central Nevada- one
and a half mile long, a mile wide, 900 feet deep, located in a high
desert basin between towering mountain ranges. The mine operates 24
hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year. Tens of thousands
of tons of earth are moved each day to recovery pounds of microscopic
gold. Over 900 people work here and there are many, many moving
parts.
The
company built
this mining town. Grocery store, gas station, pizza joint/bar,
schools, churches, fitness room. The homes are all modular. Most of
the salaries employees go home on the weekends, four hours to Las
Vegas or four hours to Reno.
Everything
is big,
including egos. Haul trucks are immense. Each truck carries 170 tons
of earth. A person stands about half way up the truck tire. These
trucks are filled by a loader with a 30 yard bucket. The dozers and
graders make highway construction equipment look like Tonka toys.
I
head into the
managers’ meeting. Many topics are discussed of little interest
to me, but Environmental has to be at the table. The General Manager
hands out papers and reads the contents to us during the meeting. My
mind wanders.
To
clear my head, I
get back in my work truck and head out to the area where the Mining
Department is grading the new road. The road is on the wrong side of
the line, outside the approved disturbance area. I can’t
imagine how we could have communicated more clearly. I prepare an
“Incident Report”. The regulators will have to be
notified. This will get the shit flying.
I’m
interviewing an Environmental Engineer candidate over lunch. There
are two restaurants in town. The Full Moon serves edible American
food in a Western atmosphere. The Half Moon is a pizza joint and bar.
The Full Moon is closed today (Monday). The interviewee is traveling
with his family and has limited time. So the Half Moon it is. I ask
my wife to come and entertain
the family
during the interview. The candidate is a Black man.
We
sit at a table in
the back. Some off-shift miners are sitting in front at the bar,
loudly swearing. One wears a T-shirts that says “Fuck Obama”. My wife
sees a sign at the bar that we haven’t seen before
that says, “Parents must keep their children under control or
they will be sold into slavery.” There was never a second
interview.
