FTM wrote on Nov 24, 2008 4:41 PM:Fer crying out load, all of us who mover here from Los Angeles know about the rat problems on all the ball fields in Southern California since the 1970's! (Those rats love the palm trees too) - It's no big secret.
I hope they learned thier lesson. The next time they have a rat problem the voters in Carlsbad will be more willing to pay a small fee of 5 or 10 grand to have a professional exterminator take care of the problem. As you can see, the cost of trying to fix your rat problem on your own is 100 times more expensive. Lessons learned by many in the Los Angeles school district back in the 80's (It was a common problem up there).

FTM wrote on Nov 24, 2008 4:48 PM:Arsnic on the playing field was a common problem up in the Los Angeles School District back in the 1980's. They too learned the hard way that it's 100 times less costly to spend 5 or 10 grand for a professional exterminator than to try to solve your rat problem yourself. (Those rats just love the palm trees too).

Oh well, live and learn - at least the taxpayers of Carlsbad will be more likley to spend the money the next time the High School asks for a little money to exterminate the rodents from football practice.
Carlsbad folks are pretty rich, so this is really a cheap lesson for them.

FTM wrote on Nov 24, 2008 7:11 PM:Sorry for the double post - I thought the first one didn't take.

to ftm wrote on Nov 24, 2008 11:54 PM:respectfully FTM you clearly read the article wrong. the soil that they are removing from our school will be used to make rat poison, meaning the field itself does not have a rat problem. the problem originates from back before the field was there and there were pine trees and the pesticides they used to maintain them were extremely toxic. so maybe FTM the next time you get on your high horse about something you should read the article correctly.
oh and GO LANCERS!

To to ftm wrote on Nov 25, 2008 7:12 AM:Please don't make us C-Bad folks look bad! No where in that article does it say they are going to use our field to make rat poison. The dirt is being sent to two land fills, one in Chula Vista, and one near Yuma, AZ. What the article says is, "Arsenic is frequently used to make rat poisons and other pesticides." Not that our field will make it.

FTM wrote on Nov 25, 2008 7:33 AM:I did not say they were using the field to make rat poision.

I said employees of the school put rat poision on the field years ago to control a rat problem they have had there for many many years. I know the rats were there, and then they were gone, so I can make a pretty good assumption about where the poision came from.

Why would arsenic appear only on the football field and nowhere else on the school grounds?

Arsenic is not a naterally occuring chemical - especially at that location. It's so freaking obvious that the arsenic was PUT there that the lengths NCT's is going to make excuses for the occurance further discredits the already tarnished reputation of NCT regarding any news about Carlsbad. Maybee the owner of the paper lives there, I don't know, but the reporting is a laugh.
If this happened in Oceanside the paper would be digging up the records of every coach and interviewing employees and going crazy. because it's Carlsbad they try to cover it is up with excuses that are not plausible. I have never understood the connection between NCT reporting practices and Carlsbad but i assume it has somthing to do with money. (Follow The Money).FTM The reason I rail against this is because these cover ups about this and crime and other things are costing Carlsbad residents and could make matters worse in the long run. If the people are told the truth about things they are more likely to prevent it from happening again.
What's to prevent this from happening again?
Do you really want to tell all of North County that this arsenic is a "naturally ocurring thing?" THINK!

Do you know that now every visiting school football team is going to demand a test of the field before they play any games there? Have you considered that some teams might refuse to play on the Carlsbad feild?

At least if it's just employees puting rat poision on the grass to stop the rats it's a simple clean up (expensive, but simple) but if this is a naterally occurring arsenic, what's to stop it from coming back??

You see how dangerous mis-information can be?

Chemical Scientist wrote on Nov 26, 2008 2:09 AM:This was a common practice to use arsenic to make rats leave the area, this was most likely something thats been going on for years, im not aware why would anyone test the football field for arsenic, maybe someone got sick from it but is being covered up, Sadly to say NCT is known for making carlsbad look good.

FTM wrote on Nov 26, 2008 12:12 PM:I think there really was no reason to test the field up until the days they were starting construction. It was probably caught by the normal process of soil tests that are always done befor construction so I really doubt the city officials had any idea the arsenic was there.
As for anyone getting sick I really doubt that too because the arsenic gets soaked down deep into the soil when it rains and does not really pose a big health hazard except right after it's applied. I also doubt anyone has put rat poison on the fields for many years. I'm only speaking from the experiance I had with this issue up in Los Angeles years ago when I lived up there (I was in construction).
It's 900 grand to remove the soil.
That's a drop in bucket for Carlsbad residents - they spend more than that just to advertize thier hotels - very rich people over there so I don't think this is a big issue in general.
It's the slanted reporting by NCT that is the real story. (I just can't figure it out). But they have the right to publish whatever they want so I guess they have thier reasons. (I'm still looking for the money connection - you know FTM : Follow The Money?)