Toxic Waste

The Bush administration plans to stop the cleanup of toxic wastes at 33 federally designated Superfund sites in 19 states, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report released Monday.

Kudos to Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn for refusing to submit to President Bush's recommendation that Yucca Mountain become the repository of the nation's toxic nuclear waste ("Nevada Governor Vetoes Nuclear Waste Dump Site," April 9). This is a much larger question than using Yucca Mountain as a toxic waste dump; it behooves us to think critically about the folly of creating nuclear waste in the first place. Why are we investing our tax dollars in nuclear energy when no one in his or her right mind is willing to store the noxious stuff?

The debate over whether high-level nuclear waste should be stored in a nearby mountain has become so heated that there is now even disagreement on simply where to hold a public hearing on the proposal. The purpose of the meeting is to solicit feedback on the U.S. Energy Department's progress in examining whether Yucca Mountain can safely contain highly radioactive material for thousands of years. Initially, the session scheduled for Wednesday was to be at a casino's community room.

More toxic barrels have been found buried at the former Casmalia Resources toxic waste dump in Santa Barbara County, and there's evidence that hundreds more may be underground. Work crews last week discovered two barrels beneath a heavy metals landfill they were preparing to permanently seal. The barrels were 13 feet underground.

Site 5 is a pool of muck and goo, coated with slimy pea green algae on top and lined with heavy metals below. It is one of 18 old contamination sites that sit on wetlands and sensitive habitat scattered across the Point Mugu Navy base in Ventura County. And it is part of a bold experiment to clean up a legacy of waste dumping during the environmentally lax 1940s and 1950s.

Two managers of a circuit board maker with a history of covertly dumping hazardous waste have been charged with putting copper and acid into a sewer system in Santa Ana, the Orange County district attorney's office said. Nandell Patel, 38, of Cerritos and Vijay Merchant, 53, of Mission Viejo were charged Thursday with 11 felony counts. Merchant is president of Golden West Circuits in Santa Ana.

Her husband threatened to divorce her. Her son is embarrassed to come home. Her business is a shambles. Everyone thinks she is mad. But Tian Guirong has been infatuated with the martyrs of the Communist revolution for too long to worry about personal interest. She is now a self-anointed soldier in China's grass-roots green revolution. Her mission: collect used batteries before they can unleash their poison on a battered Motherland, already one of the world's most polluted countries.

A handful of protesters yelled and waved signs Monday as trucks loaded with hazardous waste drove past them outside Boeing's Rocketdyne division's Santa Susana Field near Chatsworth. For the next three to five months, trucks will transport 14,000 tons of chemically contaminated dirt from the former Santa Susana sodium disposal facility to a dump in Kern County, said Rocketdyne spokesman Dan Beck.

A handful of protesters yelled and waved signs Monday as trucks loaded with hazardous waste drove past outside Boeing's Rocketdyne division's Santa Susana Field near Chatsworth. For the next three to five months, trucks will transport 14,000 tons of chemically contaminated dirt from the former Santa Susana sodium disposal facility to a dump in Kern County, said Rocketdyne spokesman Dan Beck.

Searching for the source of contamination in local water supplies, officials say they have found evidence suggesting that Lockheed Martin Corp. discharged chromium 6-laced water directly into the San Fernando Valley aquifer. Reviewing old records and probing the memories of water quality workers now in their 70s and 80s, officials have zeroed in on waste water discharges at Lockheed's former Plant B-1. It was the heart of the firm's defense production from the 1930s through the Cold War.