The Viacom/CBS/Westinghouse conglomerate is about to successfully get away with one of the biggest environmental crimes in history. Under the "Covenant Not to Sue for Natural Resource Damages" clause in the new PCB agreement that they have drafted, all levels of government have permanently surrendered their right to recover any damages caused by the release of contaminants from the local PCB sites.

The conglomerate's eagerness to rush this pact through under a polluter-friendly Republican regime is obvious. The new agreement is a complete sellout of the future of Monroe County that would never stand the scrutiny of an honest government.

As the elementary texts on groundwater point out, the 2,000 year-old landfills of the Ancient Roman Empire are still generating leachate to this day. The PCB and other toxic substances in our local landfills were engineered to be indestructible and will also generate leachate for millennia, although at least one consultant differs from this opinion in that he predicts that the dumps will pollute our area "forever."