So to make it less like a fairy-tale and more of an object lesson – you can’t blame the “community” when the community had nothing to do with it.

I drove by it every single day for 20 years, drank well water, and am fit as a fiddle with no issues whatsoever. A good job has been done keeping any contaminants out, and it really is a beautiful piece of land. I say that we let nature continue to restore the land.

“It’s a pity that Alliant and the DoD, who created the problem in the first place, are in charge of the cleanup. Not that they have to pay for it, of course–that’s only fair–but that they seem to have a fair bit of control and decision-making power over the day-to-day operations. It’s hard to imagine they’ll do it right this time, since they made such a mess of things the first time around.”

The MPCA and EPA are in charge of the cleanup. I had to submit reports monthly and quarterly to these agencies and to the Army. There is a great deal of oversight involved, I talked to the MPCA rep every day when I worked there.

“All persons in governmental positions dealing with construction of plants dealing with toxic materials– or responsible for the disposing of toxic waste should read this article. It’s a terrifying aspect of our era.”

The pollution occurred before we really knew what we were doing, i.e. pre-1960′s environmental movement. The problem with the groundwater from TCE was from burn pits from the 40′s to the 50′s. We know better know. But your point is valid.

“I have been reading with interest the developments over the last couple of decades in bioremediation, particularly the ability of some plants to sequester several heavy metals, to the extent that some of them are actually like a low-mid grade ore in terms of percentage of dry mass. Has anyone studied this technique for d.u.? There are a lot of places around the world that could use this.”

AND

“In fact one type of bioremediation was used at the site – but for the lead in the area rather than DU. TCAAP included a test site of about 2 acres for phytoremediation.”

This experiment worked on one site, failed miserably on another. The technology is most likely sound in most cases but the problem on the failed site was the groundwater was only about 5 feet below the surface. So, the lead bonded (as it was supposed to do) with the kealate agent but instead of being absorbed by the plant material it leached into the groundwater. Getting lead out of groundwater is not difficult, but when it is bonded to something else it is a pain. I found a pump-and-treat solution that from my knowledge is still being used.

The site in question that I worked on is not really a problem unless someone wanted to put a well on site. It may take years to completely remediate the site (depending on what standards developers/government wants), but it may not be worth the money since I don’t see how any lead from this groundwater would impact Rice Creek. We tested for over a year, groundwater moves slowly but it can be quantified that there was no negative impact.

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