But there's a stream right by my house that turns into a rainbow every summer, blue and yellow with chemicals. Remembering how the water used to smell like chlorine when they first moved there, Vohs went to the water department, too. They asked why she suspected the water supply and not the air. She didn't know what to say. By now, Kleba's office was piled high with files and documents people had pressed upon him.
Water seeps through limestone.
But MCLs aren't based on health. They're compromises that consider the cost of remediation and the availability of technology. And the goal , for TCE and radionuclides and many of the other Weldon Spring contaminants, is zero. In the real world of environmental remediation, though, zero's risible. Generally we believe there is some risk at every level of exposure.