The salt flats of south San Francisco bay are hard to believe when you first see them. They're vast geometric shapes that are often bizarre colors--red, maroon, yellow, green--depending on the time of year as you fly overhead. They change color depending on what kind of halophlic creature is currently living in the water. As the sun evaporates the bay water, the salinity goes up, and a variety of animals take over at different degrees of saltiness.
They're also very controversial as they're the remnant of the marshlands and estuaries that once supported millions of migrating birds (and local, year-round fauna). But they were diked a long time ago, and the question these days is how to best use the marshlands.
A key player in these controversies over land-use policy is the giant chemical manufacturer Cargill. They've been in the bay for a long time, and own many of the salt evaporation ponds around the bay.
The other day as I flew into SFO, I passed over the south bay, and looking down from my window, I couldn't help but notice that one salt manufacturing facility looked slightly different than the others. I later found its GPS coordinates, 37.518372, -122.032700 (aka: +37° 31' 6.14", -122° 1' 57.72" ) and tried to look up which branch of Cargill actually owned that site.
Question for today: Can you figure out which branch of Cargill owns that location?
They're also very controversial as they're the remnant of the marshlands and estuaries that once supported millions of migrating birds (and local, year-round fauna). But they were diked a long time ago, and the question these days is how to best use the marshlands.
A key player in these controversies over land-use policy is the giant chemical manufacturer Cargill. They've been in the bay for a long time, and own many of the salt evaporation ponds around the bay.
The other day as I flew into SFO, I passed over the south bay, and looking down from my window, I couldn't help but notice that one salt manufacturing facility looked slightly different than the others. I later found its GPS coordinates, 37.518372, -122.032700 (aka: +37° 31' 6.14", -122° 1' 57.72" ) and tried to look up which branch of Cargill actually owned that site.
Question for today: Can you figure out which branch of Cargill owns that location?
Search on!
Found on wikimapia:
ReplyDeletehttp://wikimapia.org/18810/Morton-Salt
Morton Salt (Newark)
7380 Morton Avenue
Newark, CA 94560-4200
Telephone: (510) 797-2281
Website: www.mortonsalt.com/
The colored ponds near here are filled with different concentrations of salt water. The bluer and greener ponds have low levels of salt, just having been pumped in from the Bay. The redder ponds have higher concentrations of salt, the color coming fron halophyllic or salt loving bacteria and algae living in the ponds. The organisms actually help the salt to dry faster, The white ponds are dry salt ready for harvest.
agreed, merely searching the lat/long in google maps is enough to figure out that this is Morton Salt
ReplyDeleteTried searching the Alameda County tax assessor's maps, only to find out that in California it's against the law to include a parcel's owner in the online tax records. First time I've ever seen that before.
ReplyDeleteFound by doing a simple Google Maps search for the cords. It was kindly marked by Google as Morton Salt.
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.518372,+-122.032700&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x808fbf26748901ab:0xc1b6c4c00b02749a,%2B37%C2%B0+31'+6.44%22,+-122%C2%B0+1'+58.44%22&gl=us&ei=hFKgToymD4SjtgfKkKmPBQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ8gEwAA
It is Cargill Salt - San Francisco Bay
ReplyDeleteKey string - inurl:Cargill.com "CA 94560"
I found the same answer as Hans in about 1 minute. A more traditional way to find that out though would be to find out what town that is in, and then call the local library to find out what that parcel of land is zoned for and who the owner/occupying tenant is.
ReplyDeleteWhile there is indeed a Morton Salt at that location, I believe there is a Cargill Salt facility adjacent.
ReplyDeleteMorton Salt.
ReplyDeleteAssessors Office list the value of the property
http://www.acgov.org/MS/prop/index.aspx?PRINT_PARCEL=537-751-6-3
https://www.acgov.org/ptax_pub_app/RealSearchInit.do?searchByParcel=true&parcelNumber=537-751-6-3
Googled what county Newark, CA belonged to. Found County website. Found property information page.
ReplyDeleteFrom the assessors page. Done by using the map provided and zooming to the same parcel, and using the assessors tool to identify parcel.
APN: 537-751-6-3
Property Address: 7380 MORTON AVE, NEWARK 94560
Currect CA law removes the owner information from online, but past records indicate Morton International Inc as the Assessee name
Although another site i found idicated it was leased from Cargill to Morton. So i would think its owned by the Cargill Salt division.
PropertyShark.com says this
ReplyDelete"From Assessment Roll
Morton Salt Inc
123 N Wacker Dr
Chicago Il 60606"
Which means property tax bills go to Morton Salt. But sometimes a lessee will pay the taxes, not the owner.
Compared Google map to assessors map. Came up with same APN as @Ken Mott.
ReplyDeleteRan parcel number on RealQuest (subscription property research site)which shows owner of record as:
Morton Salt, Inc.
123 N. Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60606-1743
c/o: Real Estate Dept.
(312) 263-0679
I did a street view search and zoomed in on the sign in the parking lot, took about 30 seconds. Morton Salt (on Morton rd no less)
ReplyDeletethe address is 7380 Morton Avenue, Newark, CA 94560
ReplyDeleteCurrent owner: Morton Salt Inc
Current tenants: Morton Salt Inc, Dow Chemical Company
Building size: 18,599 SF one story
Built: 1966 (Masonry)
Acreage total: 2.41 Acres
Tax ID/ADN: 537 -0751-006-03, 537 -0751-006-04
Tax info: $1,152,000 Assessed Value, $14,974.18 Taxes
Block no. 50
Zoning: 320
Morton salt has owned the property since at least 1997 but changed and updated their tax number on record in 2/11
Mortons corp address is 123 N Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606
Contact info:
1st Contact Jim Oswald, Manager
2nd Contact Thomas Archibald, Vice-President
3rd Contact Philip Lewis, Vice-President
phone: (510) 796-6943
other tenant: Dow Chemical Company
address of corp. same as Morton Salt
contact phone: (510) 797-2281
on site being manufacturer by Dow - Industrial inorganic chemicals
on site being manufactured by Morton Salt - Space propulsion units and parts (???why???)
website for Morton salt inc - www.mortonintl.com
Found by searching: "salt plant newark central ave"
ReplyDeleteThen, by way of K+S Group (http://www.k-plus-s.com/en/standorte/index.html?continent=1), found:
Center for Land Use Interpretation
http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/CA3419/
Oh that info took 3 google searches.
ReplyDeleteone for Latitude And Longitude convertor got address
Second I searched the address for the owner got Morton Salt Inc
Third Corporation Name + Address search = all the tax and business info.
These these 1,433 acres are woned by Cargill, DMB Associates & The Federal Goverenment (you own a piece of it).
ReplyDeleteThis deal will turn Cargill's old salt harvesting site into somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000 homes. Under the banner of the "50/50 Balanced Plan," Arizona-based DMB Associates is planning to develop half of the salt-harvesting site, while restoring the other half to open space use and tidal marshes. This is all happening on a $200 million site that Cargill held onto after selling most of its other salt land to government agencies that plan to restore shoreline habitats.
Morton Salt in California seems to be a research and mining facility.
ReplyDeletePotash, Soda, and Borate.
Rohm and Haas and Dow both are tenants and owned by Morton Salt Inc. Chemical and Fertilizer are manufactured on site.
Some chemicals are used in space propulsion systems
Cargill Salt Company
ReplyDelete7220 CENTRAL AVENUE
NEWARK, CA 94560-4205
EPA Registry Id: 110000483325
http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/fii_query_detail.disp_program_facility?p_registry_id=110000483325
Cargill Salt lists it as their location on their website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cargill.com/cs/sf_bay/contact.htm
It's the central location for their Bay Area operations, apparently. Any questions or concerns you have about their environmental impact can be answered by reaching out to people at that facility. Interesting stuff!
Morton Salt - Newark Facility
ReplyDeletehttp://g.co/maps/eyxc2
Morton and Cargill are neighbours.
ReplyDeleteSee http://goo.gl/KOCgZ and http://goo.gl/J7eAh
7380 Morton Avenue Newark CA 94560 and 7220 Central Avenue Newark CA 94560
Parcel: 537-751-6-4 and 537-751-7-1 (check: http://www.acgov.org/assessor/maps.htm )
Morton Salt. Google Maps will show you this...
ReplyDeleteMorton Salt
7380 Morton Avenue
Newark, CA 94560-4225
(510) 797-2281
mortonsalt.com
and Morton Salt confirms this on their job site.
Cargill Redwood City
ReplyDeletei zoomed in and did street view to the marque sign that said "Morton Salt - Newark Facility"
ReplyDelete