The fight to keep toxic plume out of the Colorado River

I found this last night while searching the internet. This is an article from the Las Vegas Sun about a toxic plume of Chromium IV which is seeping underground towards the Colorado River, in the area between Lake Havasu & Lake Mead. The damage was done in the 1960’s, and is still being dealt with today:

… far from the sunshine, deep below ground, slumbering on the California side, a monster lies. Nobody is quite sure how big it is. Maybe 2,400 feet long and at least half that wide. At some points it is shallow, not far beneath the gravel. In others it is so deep that its tongue creeps along prehistoric bedrock. The only way to tell what shape it is taking, when it stretches or contracts, is drill deep and test. To those whose job it is to vanquish the thing, it is known simply as “The Plume.” The Plume is a vast cloud of ground water contaminated with Chromium VI, an industrial chemical made famous by the film “Erin Brockovich.”

Yet out on the river, in the hazy light of day, there are no warnings that The Plume may now have not only reached the edge of the Colorado River but may be lurking beneath it. The rhythm of river life seems uninterrupted as a teenager at the marina restaurant recites the daily specials.

There is also a certain sound. Far lower than the whining of power boats and Jet Skis, it is a deeper industrial pulse. This comes from the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plant, where motorized pumps work 24/7 to reverse the natural pull of ground water toward the river in dry season. This is the sound of the effort to pull The Plume away from the river and back toward its lair in Bat Cave Wash.

For the full text of the article from the Las Vegas Sun, click here.

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