Greetings from the not-so-wilds of Taos, New Mexico, where I picked up this morning’s Albuquerque Journal to find this (sub/ad req), on the surprising discovery of PCBs in the Rio Grande just downstream from the main Albuquerque storm water outfall:

If the nuclear weapons lab were responsible, dealing with this problem would be simpler. Attentive activists and state regulators are pushing hard to try to ensure the lab does not contaminate the Rio Grande, and the lab’s federal sponsors have deep pockets with which to respond.

But the Albuquerque PCB problem, which appears at this point to be far larger than any PCBs linked to Los Alamos, seems so far to be an orphan.

It’s the latest in a series of columns in which I attempt to move beyond the current discourse over environmental contamination in New Mexico, which seems to be skewed by political concerns regarding the source of contamination, rather than an assessment of where the greatest risks actually lie.

See here for the previous installment.