Together with the Civil Service Commission, other federal agencies, including the National Archives, the Office of Civil Defense (the forerunner of the Federal Emergency Management Agency), and the Social Security Administration started to save records in the Boyers – facility. JG Franz, then office manager of the Boyers Mine, told a newspaper reporter in 1966 that federal agencies “have backup equipment for everything” stored in a special area of boyers to protect the data in the case of nuclear fallout.
Franz told a local newspaper that employees “hope we never have to worry about a nuclear explosion”, but that if one would happen, the mine would be closed safely, according to newspaper archives that are assessed by Wired. “The mine is equipped with a 30-day stock of food and supplies for all employees.”
At the time, the staff of Boyers were reportedly able to process around 600 pound records every day, directly from Washington, DC. They trusted the recently constructed Interstate highway system for timely deliveries. In fact, the federal government has built up an exit for the interstate 80 of Pennsylvania, specifically for “fast access to the mine in the event of an emergency situation,” said an article in the Pittsburgh Press.
There are other practical benefits that make old mines a good place to save records. Firstly, their typically rural and remote institutions create low natural safety due to other types of threats. Reused mines offer “excellent fire protection” and immunity of events such as “flooding, theft, civilian disorder, aircraft accidents, tornados, lightning”, noted an Iron Mountain presentation from 1999 for the national archives.
Carmichael tells Wired that access to the underground facilities he has visited, tends to be tightly checked, often by heavily monitored inputs. These facilities also often have maze -like designs that would probably discourage or confuse thieves if they came in somehow.
Various current managers of recycled limestone mines told Wired that their caves naturally between 55 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, optimum temperature for most storage situations. John Smith, director of industrial real estate for the company that manages the limestone storage facility carefree industrial park near Kansas City, Missouri, said that utility costs are “dramatically lower” compared to above -ground facilities. His most important costs are associated with ventilation, because caves are often very moist.
It's all going wrong
Shortly before the Civil Service Commission arrived at Boyers, the American federal pension device was a mess. A government report from 1951 showed that “an adequate record system” was not even appropriate and insisted on the congress to “insist”. In the beginning it seemed that the team could turn things around at Boyers. De Nieuws-Herald reported in 1966 that with only 55 employees the system at the MI operated “with the same efficiency and effectiveness as in the past in Washington, DC.”
However, as the number of pensioners continued to climb, things got in disorder. By the early 1980s, the Office of Personnel Management was checked to find the root causes of excessive delays in processing pension claims. In 1981, the Government Accountability Office recommended that OpM “developed a long -term plan for automating the pension claim process.”
