[ RadSafe ] FW: Sunday "Patriot" Exit signs in landfills could taint water

[Steven Dapra]

Apr. 9


>[Courtesy of] Norm Cohen
>Subject: FW: Sunday "Patriot" Exit signs in landfills could taint water
>
>Exit signs in landfills could taint water
>
>Sunday, April 09, 2006
>
>BY GARRY LENTON
>Of The Patriot-News

[edit]

>Leachate tests at 54 of the state's 108 landfills revealed that 97 percent
>contained tritium, more than half at levels above the U.S. Environmental
>Protection Agency standard for drinking water. Leachate is water that
>filters through the trash. Leachate is collected and treated before it is
>released into waterways.

         Hey, Norm!  How many people do you know who drink leachate?

[edit]

Each sign contains 20 trillion picocuries of tritium. The EPA limit for
>drinking water is 20,000 picocuries per liter of water. At that volume, one
>improperly disposed sign could "easily cause the tritium ... concentrations
>we're observing," concluded a DEP report released in October.

         Hey, Norm!  Did you know 20 trillion picocuries of tritium is the 
same thing as one (1) curie of tritium?  Of course the objective of the 
reporter is to get people into a panic, isn't it?  Reporting the contents 
as one curie won't panic anyone except for the anti-nukers who will go into 
a panic because the general public isn't being put into a panic  (I wonder 
what the words are that the reporter left out of the DEP official's quote?)

[edit balance of article]

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com