pnyway.

pnyway. 3 Much of the contaminated soil and toxic liquids were jiauled from the site to another, newer and presumably more pecure disposal facility about 40 miles away. Now, it too is leaking. j So far, experts have traced the 300 foot-wide flow of Contaminated groundwater 8,000 feet away from the site — houghly a mile and a half. No one is predicting how much farther it will go. Four hundred families in the town of Glen Avon, near the dump site, have been using bottled water, provided by the state, for two and a half years, since their Jvells showed twice the allowable levels of radiation. 1 “It can’t happen here,” you say. “Those were toxic jiquids, and besides, the technology has improved.” j True, as was stated before, the Stringfellow facility was Resigned for hazardous wastes. And, in the thirty years since |t was opened, there is no doubt that the technology of waste disposal has advanced considerably. * But, there must still be problems. If not, why has the EPA mandated stringent new regulations to control sanitary andfills? Groundwater contamination is said to be one of the :oncems which motivated the new restrictions.

So far, the EPA Superfund has spent $34 million on the ! Stringfellow clean-up, with the total needed to complete the , ob estimated to be at least 10 times that amount. Technology las not solved that problem - remember, the second dump site is leaking as well. } The lesson is simple. I Caution is the only word to use in planning for waste disposal. Nobody wants a dump in their backyard. But if there must be one, the officials responsible for its siting have | responsibility to the residents of the county to make sure — to the best of their abilities - that there is no danger to the public. j Nothing can be absolutely certain. But caution and prudence, as exhibited by Washington’s water protection ordinance, can go a long way toward recognizing potential problems, planning for them, and thus preventing them from happening at all.