Ann Arbor from the 1970s to the 1980s suffered from a large amount of toxic chemicals filtering from a corporation into the water supply.

The groundwater contamination began in 1976, when dioxane was used as a solvent by Pall Life Sciences’ predecessor, Gelman Sciences, Inc., as part of its process of manufacturing medical filters. The waste stream from this process included wastewater contaminated with dioxane. This wastewater was stored in open lagoons and began to enter the soil below and around the lagoons.

The 1980s and 1990s saw a flurry of lawsuits regarding who would have to deal with the problem, with very little or no cleanup at the time. Now, the city has a very real problem with its water supply and very few comforting answers for residents about where the toxic “plume” is headed and what can be done to protect their water supply:

PLS [Pall Life Sciences, a medical filter manufacturer and source of pollution] projections show the plume continuing on an eastward pathway toward the Huron River, which is approximately 8,000 feet from the current leading edge of the plume. If projections are correct, the point of entry into the Huron River would be downstream of the city’s water supply intake at Barton Dam. PLS has projected that the 85 ppb contour of the leading edge will reach the Huron River in 12 years, and domestic wells in 24 years. (PLS Limited Feasibility Study 1/04)

The problem seems to be that, if projections are only slightly incorrect, the point of entry could be upstream of the intake supplying 80% of the city’s water supply, and cover many of the city’s wells. What is the cost of containment/cleanup versus the cost of treating cancer, or cleanup ten years from now?

Where is Godzilla (or the Lone Ranger) when you need him to battle the evil plume? But seriously, this is a crisis worth reviewing as clean water becomes an increasingly scarce resource and there are no easy answers. One thing stands out, however: corporations get an easy break when the government follows a neo-con policy to privatize all the profits while socializing the risks.

The Guardian has a nice write-up of the issues surrounding pet RFID tags. They point out the compatibility issues with varying standards and readers, and claim that a bigger market wouldn’t have the same interoperability challenges:

Finbar Heslin, a vet in the Irish Republic who has worked to try to streamline Irish microchipping standards, says part of the problem is that RFID chips have been developed for a different market. “The idea behind microchipping is excellent. The downside is that you’re taking the technologies from the logistics industry and trying to apply them to animals.”

Logistics is a huge market for RFID and so there is a greater incentive to adhere to standards. “But with animals, the RFID market is small, and there are no standards, even across Europe,” says Heslin.

In both Britain and Ireland, the situation has been what he calls “a free for all”, because distributors weren’t licensed and cheap, non-ISO chips were sometimes brought in from abroad.

I’m not so sure about that. Even huge lucrative markets see the same interoperability hurdles and a lack of consistency across vendors. I brought up something similar back in early October 2005 on Schneier’s blog, specifically with regard to the debate in Congress about how and when to upgrade America’s animals.

Somewhere someone is busy designing the next generation of skate-board proof railings and curbs.

The irony I see is that the market has generated overly bland and simple rails and curbs to begin with, which has led to exploration by skaters looking for something challenging to do with themselves.

Had the railings been more integrated and delicately created from the start (e.g. more thought/creativity = more expensive) then they would be less likely to be turned into the very thing they seemed destined for — cheap thrills. Some might think that a quick fix will remove the vulnerability of the lowly hand-rail to the threat of eager kids on wheels, and they’re probably right.

Think about it, though. Would you rather a handrail have the look of “damn kids, these metal poop-strips will teach them a thing or two about respecting property” or something more like “grab me and I will help you be safely on your way”. Come to think of it, should we first look at whether stairs are even necessary or just less expensive landscaping?