American Notes ENVIRONMENT

Recent congressional revelations of the environmental contamination produced by Government nuclear-weapons plants in Washington, South Carolina, Colorado and Ohio underscored the need for a costly cleanup. Last week the Department of Energy agreed to remove 6 million lbs. of dangerous wastes, some of it radioactive, that it had plowed into the ground or dumped into unlicensed landfills near an atomic-fuel-processing plant outside Piketon, Ohio, over the past 30 years. The much needed cleanup will not begin immediately: the final wording of the agreement is still being hammered out in a federal-court consent decree that must be approved by a judge, and the $50 million detoxification job is expected to take from two to five years. Nevertheless, Ohio officials were especially pleased that the Reagan Administration has agreed to abide by Ohio environmental regulations, some of which are more stringent than federal rules. Said Governor Richard Celeste: "It could become a model for other tough cases that we're wrestling with."