Savannah’s Sludge
October 13, 2004
Because of our Republican leadership (and Zell Miller’s lapdog strategy) in the Senate, the citizens of Savannah are the recipients of an exciting new environmental disaster-in-waiting.
With the stroke of a pen last weekend, Congress changed high-level radioactive waste at the Savannah River Site into “waste incidental to reprocessing.” ... The rewording means the tons of radioactive sludge left over from Cold War bomb-making won’t be subject to the most stringent cleanup standards.
Originally, all the sludge in the SRS tanks was slated to be pumped out, immobilized in glass rods and buried in a federal repository. The new plans calls for most of the sludge to be immobilized in glass and buried, but allows SRS to leave a layer of sludge in each tank.
The residents and Savannah and the lowcountry have three senators to thank, Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who introduced the reclassification as an amendment to the defense authorization bill. Georgia’s own senators, Saxby Chambliss and the indomitable Zell Miller, let it happen. The final vote approving this measure in the senate was 48-48. Either one of Georgia’s senators could have brought the measure down, but they both chose blind devotion to the Republican party over the health and well-being of the citizens of their own state.
Savannah’s mayor, Otis Johnson, whom I am more grateful for every day, said:
”...in this particular case the experts are divided on the potential for success in permanently eliminating the leakage by grouting,” Johnson wrote. “Combining this with the impossibility of reversing the effort, places an unacceptable risk on the long-term use of the Savannah River, and unduly jeopardizes the long-term physical and economic health of the entire Savannah Region.”
For more information: Savannah Morning News: Radioactive Sludge Won’t Budge.
There are only two things in this world that I hate:People who are intolerant of other peoples way of life, and Catholics.