Wiping aside the dust: Historical perspectives on industrial waste management

Dust on a fine wood finish obscures the grain and texture of the surface and can hide many subtleties of any historical object. Mutch and Eckenfelder's recent article, retrieved an important historical subject from the dusty archives,'' but only selectively wiped aside the dust. Their historical review appeared far from thorough in drawing conclusions. Thus, the topic deserves more than a selective presentation of relevant historical facts. Mutch and Eckenfelder argue that contemporary technical knowledge did not allow advance recognition of groundwater problems associated with land disposal of hazardous wastes. A review of the historical literature offers a contrasting conclusion. Rather than groundwater contamination caused by chemical waste disposal emerging as a complete surprise in the 1970s and 1980s, technical and trade literature provided a broad array of guidance and analytical tools to predict a relationship between subterranean waters and buried wastes. The literature also sets forth a plethora of examples and explicit warnings to beware of adverse legal and environmental outcomes due to inadequate waste management and its inescapable groundwater contamination.