RE: [CPEO-MEF] natural attentuation -- the reality

[andersa@spot.Colorado.EDU]

"Natural attenuation" is a governmental euphemism for "we're not going to do
anything".  At the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, for example, the groundwater
contamination plume (which includes by-products of nerve agent, and spreads
for several miles north of the Arsenal and into the South Platte River), is
virtually identical in its present configuration as it was depicted on plume
maps of the huge underground contamination documented by the U.S. Public
Health Service in the 50's.  Typically, this is a palliative term, in
effect, to disguise the fact that the PRP has prevailed in its lobbying to
the federal agency responsible for the clean-up against the public and
environmental interest.  The government and polluters say "attenuation"
hoping that citizens will not pay "attention".

Adrienne Anderson
Environmental Ethics Program
University of Colorado at Boulder - CB 339
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0339
Phone:  (303)492-2952 (message)
Fax:    (303)329-0217


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