The inert becomes “ert”

Dredge tailings in California are unlike any other form of surface mining spoil. The unique characteristics of climatc, topography, and geology combine to give dredged land its own physical properties. To a child a sandbox is a private world where the silica particles—dry, glaring, and hard—can be transformed into great castles, battlefields, villages, farms, and a thousand forms limited only by the child’s imagination. By adding a little water, a few sticks and stones, and a toy tractor the child can create myriad worlds reflected by his moods and desires, limited in extent by the sides of the sandbox. The inert becomes “ert.” The static particles become a plastic mass at the hands of the creative being—the child. The man in control of the dredge tailings or any other similar land has a great advantage over the child in the sandbox. At his command is a vast cumulation of human and material resources backed by years of experience and knowledge.