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In 1947, this was how they disposed of hazardous materials. 20,000 pounds of sodium were dumped into Lake Lenore in Washington State. You may remember tossing small amounts of sodium into water in high school chemistry class, so you can guess what happens. -via Metafilter and Fully Geek
"Let's find a lake we can roll these barrels of sodium into! It'll be wicked cool!"
2 Na + 2 H2O ---> 2 NaOH + H2. Which is basically, 2 moles of Na and 2 moles of H20, yields Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) and Hydrogen Gas.
They dump it in a lake because no carrier will deliver it to a purchaser? If they could deliver it to a lake, why couldn't they deliver it to a purchaser?