WWII Era Radioactive Waste Leaking into Lake Ontario Tributaries

The past can and does come back to haunt us. Nuclear material from a World War II era nuclear research project appears to have leaked into tributaries leading to Lake Ontario.

Radioactive uranium stored at the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works site is likely to have leaked into local creeks that empty into Lake Ontario, a scientist said at a meeting there Thursday.

Ronald J. Scrudato said his analysis of publicly available data leads him to believe it is likely that remnants of material stored at LOOW from the World War II atomic bomb project have run off the federal property over the years.

He said two major drainage ditches and several smaller ones on the site probably carried radioactive matter into Four Mile Creek and perhaps into Six Mile and Twelve Mile creeks, too.

I believe Peter Garrett, lead singer for Midnight Oil said it best when he said "when this stuff gets in, you cannot get it out."

Though I think nearly as disturbing is this statement by an environmental researcher who suggested core samples of the tributaries be taken:

He said the Defense Department could do it, but, Scrudato said, “I think it would be a hard sell, and if you found something, it would be a nightmare.”

Apparently it would be a hard sell to get core samples, cuz then something would have to be done if anything were found. Well, that's just precious.