Guarding groundwater

For five years, state lawmakers sensibly have declined to pass a bill that would lower the standard for staving off the potential for polluted groundwater. That hasn't stopped a powerful manufacturers and chemical industries lobby from hoisting the legislation again onto the public agenda, gaining a hearing last week in the House Finance Committee. This year's legislature is nearly done, so let us hope the bill will be bypassed again, for good this time.

Current law says that companies must clean up polluted property to the extent that there are no restrictions on the future use of groundwater under the land. Simply put, that means returning a polluted site to its original state so that groundwater isn't endangered. The pending bill would base the level of clean-up on the future use of a site and the risk that groundwater might be polluted.

The dumbed-down standard would save companies clean-up money, to be sure. But protecting a firm's profit margin should fall far lower on the legislature's priority list than protecting the public's health.

It's safer and cheaper to prevent pollution in the first place. But when prevention fails, clean-ups must be rigorous. Half measures, of which this legislation is a glaring example, rarely make sense where pollution is concerned.