Dan,

Interesting research you report of landfills in my area reported to have a problem with lead. Years ago I called the suppliers of public drinking water in my area and inquired about lead in their supply water. The answer I got was that the lead level is in the single digit parts per billion and is not increasing. They control the lead as measured at their customers' faucets by controlling the pH. So even though the EPA may be concerned about lead in landfills, the mechanism for transfer to drinking water doesn't seem to exist. Years ago I posted info on a scuba diving school conducted in an abandoned lead mine: http://www.2dive.com/. Lead in the ground does not translate into lead in the water.

The EPA, remember, is the organization that invented the TCLP leaching test to drastically overestimate the amount of lead that would be leached, by using test conditions (including acetic acid) that are totally unrepresentative of any landfill in the world. Actually, the EPA should be measuring the lead in the ground along roadways. The lead that was added to gasoline for over half a century didn't cease to exist when it was burned. It is deposited nearby, making the whole world a Superfund site.

As for blindly trashing the planet with no consequences, I recommend taking each issue on its own merits rather than lumping unrelated things together. If you personally feel that money forcibly extracted from taxpayers and consumers should be used to subsidize the recycling of electronics, I'd say you have the burden of proof to show how the people paying for it benefit.

Gordon Davy 
Baltimore, MD 
[log in to unmask]
410-993-7399 

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