There was an interesting story over the weekend in the Akron Beacon Journal about the debate over continued spending to clean up the old Mound nuclear weapons manufacturing site:

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, the Dayton Republican who led the effort to secure $30 million for the cleanup of radioactive and chemical hazards in an old Mound landfill, said the Energy Department should pay to complete the work.

The department, which owns the site, believes the landfill cleanup was never environmentally necessary. After budgeting $4.5 million toward the project this fall, the department plans to walk away from it early next year if local officials don't come up with the estimated $5 million that's still needed.

"It is our belief that DOE is legally obligated to provide the community with a pollution-free site," Turner said. "With a site this contaminated, it isn't a surprise that more money is needed to finish the remediation."

"Pollution-free" in any cleanup project is essentially impossible. You can never get the last atom. The question is how many or few atoms of the contaminant in question is it reasonable to leave? How much should be spent? And who gets to decide?