Environment: Is This Blast Necessary?

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It is precisely the Government's wisdom that the Colorado scientists question. "It took the AEC three years to acknowledge that strontium 90 appeared in milk and was a hazard to human health," says Biochemist H. Peter Metzger. "The last time they supervised anything in Colorado, they allowed uranium miners to leave radioactive tailings lying around that could be blown over homes, farms and grazing lands and carried hundreds of miles downstream by rivers. The AEC is always saying things are 95% safe. We worry about the other 5%."

Metzger is pessimistic about the possibility of stopping the Rulison blast, but he feels that the Colorado Committee has achieved something merely by asking pointed questions. "We have encouraged the AEC and the Army to release information which ordinarily they wouldn't release. In the process, we have created a tremendous amount of public awareness. People are beginning to realize they can do something about their environment." The question is, what? The Denver Post has strongly criticized Project Rulison; the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a court injunction. But Rulison's nuclear device is now firmly in place for the blast next week. On Wall Street, the price of Austral's common stock has more than tripled.