Radioactive Dump Sites
* Frank Clifford’s article (“Uranium Mill Waste Imperils Colorado River,” April 20) does a good job demonstrating how close to home the nuclear legacy really is. One cannot help but think of the proposed radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley as a corollary to the mill site in Moab, Utah. Like Moab, officials (this time it is the California Department of Health Services) are looking for the least expensive and most primitive method available. Burying long-lived, highly toxic radioactive waste in unlined trenches only 19 miles from the Colorado River is not the “environmentally preferable” method either. And like Moab, the potential for contaminating Southern California’s major source of drinking and agricultural water is enormous.
“Out of sight, out of mind” practices, demonstrated by the uranium mill waste in Moab and the proposed radioactive waste dump in Ward Valley, are no longer acceptable. The people of Los Angeles, and other cities dependent upon the Colorado River for their drinking water and livelihood, deserve sound policies and practices that provide real environmental health safeguards.
DEREK J. CHERNOW
Executive Director
Americans for a Safe Future
Santa Monica
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