Abstract

Pollution Goes Underground

A few years ago, cyanide, oozing from the ground, was found in the Buffalo, New York drinking water. Recently, a well on the shore of Lake Erie blew out and spewed 150,000 gallons of stinking paper-mill waste into the lake every day for three weeks. People hear a lot these days about pollution: smog in the cities; dead fish in the lakes and rivers; poisons in food, and a silence of birds in the land. As yet, they have heard little about pollution of the earth beneath their feet, but they should and will. As laws are passed to clean up the air and water, government agencies and industry are turning to the earth itself as the next great dumping ground. The right way to fight pollution is to decide that waste must be re-used when possible, or that production methods must be revised so that disposal is unnecessary.