Trump's ego trip at Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day risks an awful lot just to make the

Trump's ego trip at Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day risks an awful lot just to make the President look good.


During a typically clueless moment, President Trump has decided it's safe to shoot off fireworks at Mount Rushmore. Why? Because “it’s all stone.” Yes, he said that. It came out last Friday as part of a ramble about how safe it is to shoot fireworks at the Memorial and it included this doozy: "For 20 years or something it hasn’t been allowed for environmental reasons. You believe that one? It’s all stone."

First off, it hasn't been twenty years. It's been ten. Second, it's all about fire danger, and yes, you better believe that one. Third, it isn't "all stone." Did anybody think to inform the President that the carving site itself is surrounded by 1200 acres of forested land - and that's just within the memorial's boundary? Beyond the boundary are thousands of acres of land, much of it part of the Black Elk Wilderness.

I went to a couple of those shows and, impressive as they are, I could see the burning embers floating around the crest of the the mountain and knew there had to be some serious danger there. As it turned out, 60 to 80 firefighters (as exemplified by the image above from FireEngineering) had to be stationed around the mountain for every show, and by 2010, the pine beetle infestation had created so much fuel for a potential fire that the shows were called off. The fire danger is real enough.

Then there's water contamination from a chemical called perchlorate, which is used in the making of fireworks. Perchlorate goes into the wells that supply the memorial with water and it's still showing up in Mount Rushmore's wells at a rate of 14 to 16 micrograms per liter. This is within the safe range established by the EPA, but considering that it's still lingering after nearly a decade with no new fireworks pollution, people should know that water supplies at the memorial are already contaminated. Trump wants to add even more of that stuff to the local water supply.

Read more: https://www.sdstandardnow.com/home/trumps-ego-trip-at-mount-rushmore-to-celebrate-independence-day-risks-an-awful-lot-just-to-make-the-president-look-good