Dirty Jobs

There's an overlying theme to each of the segments within this episode. Nothing seems to go right with any of these dirty jobs. Equipment repeatedly breaks down, Mike runs over stuff and even the weather doesn't cooperate when it gets too windy to release a bird.

First Mike is at Searles Valley Minerals where they are mining one of the richest mineral deposits on Earth. Borax was discovered here by John Searles while looking for gold in 1862. Half of the 86 naturally occuring elements on our planet are found here in the brine of a 52 square mile underground salt lake. The borax is generally used in fiberglass for insulation, curtains and even tires. Other minerals found here are used for making detergents.

We meet Rod, the director of mining and manufacturing at the Argus, CA plant. They take the brine off of the lake to turn it into soda ash. Unfortunately, everything here is automated so there are no jobs for Mike to do. First they will pump 10,000 gallons of brine from the lake into a million gallon storage tank. Then they pump the brine from the tank into the carbonators. They inject carbon dioxide into the bottom which will create a chemical reaction that will begin to create a crystal. The next step is to remove the liquid from the crystals. Drying is next where temperatures get up to 400 degrees to remove the moisture. The last step is screening the soda ash.

Finally Mike finds a job to do. Of course it involves cleaning up the waste of the mineral processing. Rod shows Mike the rope skimmer operation. Here they treat the outfall from the plant before it goes out to the lake. Mike is given a broom and a large hose and works with Mark who lost a bet to do this job today in the settling pond. The cameramen get stuck in the muck trying to get footage.

One day a year, they hold a large gem and mineral show here called Gem-O-Rama. The day before the show, they drill holes and set off dynamite to break up crystals which will be blown out for people to pick up at the show. We meet Arzell, Jim and Gordon who are doing this dirty job today. They have a nitroglycerine based seismic explosive and putting one hundred pounds of it in each hole. Thirty-three one pound canisters will be strung together with three strings in each hole. They attach detonating cord and lower the strings into pre-drilled holes. Mike gets to push the detonator button.

Unfortunately, they had too much explosive near the surface this time. The hole is too big so they can't get the drill rig backed up over the hole. They have to abandon the hole and drill new ones. This gives the crew a chance to set up more cameras closer to the blast. They assume these cameras will be ruined, but the cameras seem to be the only thing that don't break down on this day.

A derrick is set up over the hole. Two connected pipes are lowered into the hole. Air pressure is used to create a vacuum that sucks nine hundred cubic feet of brine per minute to the surface. When they're not using this rig for the gem show, it's used to drill wells and pump brine out of the lake and into the processing plant.

Once the brine is skimmed of harmful chemicals, it is pumped to a 1000 acre holding pond called Searles Lake in Trona, CA. This leads Mike to his next dirty job. Even though the water is clean, it is full of salt which can be harmful to birds. We meet Bambi who is a wildlife rehabilitator. She catches the birds, rinses the salt off and rehydrates the birds.

There are propane cannons going off randomly to scare the birds to deter them from landing on the lake. However, the noise doesn't keep all the birds away. Loons and western grebes flying over think they can stop for a rest, but get covered in salt which can be harmful to them. This lake is checked every day, 365 days a year, for sick and wounded birds.

Mike and Bambi have boat troubles. Three boats later, they finally catch an eared grebe with a net. They take it back to the rehab facility. First they take the bird's temperature and get a blood sample. Then they put a tube down it's throat to rehydrate it with 10cc of water. They will put the bird in a pool of fresh water that will wash the salt off the bird.

Bambi has a red hawk that is ready to be released back into the wild. Mike is a bit scared to take it out of its cage. He expects either the talons or beak to rip him apart. They finally get the bird outdoors, but it's too windy to let it go. They try, but the hawk only flies a few feet away. Mike chases the bird hoping for a majestic ending to the segment and it lands hard in the dirt. Mike grabs it to take it back to the rehab center to be released on another day.

Mike's last job is at a rice farm in South Carolina. They originally were supposed to be there for harvesting cotton, but were too late. Luckily they found an alternate story at the Plumfield Plantation in Darlington County. Owner Campbell Coxe puts Mike to work. Here they produce gourmet rice that sells for about $8.50 for a two pound bag.

South Carolina is the first place in America where rice was grown. The rice on the plantation today has already been taken from the fields. First Mike and Campbell go inside a silo to shovel the rice down to a tractor-run auger that will load the rice into a truck. The husk is so abrasive that the auger wears out twice as fast with rice compared to any other grain.

Once the truck is filled, Mike drives it to the mill. Campbell has machinery from all over the world here. Mike pushes some buttons and gets the process going. This auger pulls the rice straight up to the seed cleaner where bugs and foreign matter are removed. Another machine removes the husks from the rice with two wheels moving in opposite directions. The gravity table separates the rice that has slipped through with husks intact and takes those back to the de-husking machine. Polishing is next and the final step is to pour the rice into giant tote bags.

Campbell explains that his rice is not bleached like at most companies. He says bleach is not necessary and compares it to eating scallops that are all the same size. Apparently Americans think pretty food tastes better. He checks his rice for quality three times per tote which is about three times per hour. There are about two tons of rice in each tote. Mike gets to take a tote to the packaging room with a forklift. He makes a huge mess by accidentally dumping nearly $3000 worth of rice onto the floor.

After cleaning up the mess, Mike then has to hang the bag at the top of the packaging machine. From there, the rice flows into a funnel down to the packaging table. We meet Lena and her daughter Janis who fill and sew up the two pound bags that will be sold to consumers. They do nearly 1000 bags a day. One tote takes them about five hours to complete. They finish the show with a homecooked meal made by Lena.