| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
Fiscal Year 1997: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
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| Research Abstract |
In Fukushima Prefecture, there are more than 170 sites contaminated by chlrinated organic solvents, in which groundwater of about 70 sites is above national drinking water standards. Main sources of the contamination were discovered near dry cleaners and makers of electronic and precision machines. The largest contaminated are those consisting of Quaternary gravel. Fukushima and Sukagawa Cities and Hobara Town have sites that exceed the standards of trichloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene by 100 to 1000 times. Recently, in Hobara, malignant tumors or backbone deformities killed some goldfish in a tetrachloroetylene-contaminated pond.
The Fukushima Prefectural Office has issued annual reports of groundwater analyzes under the provisions of the Water Quality Control Law, and advised polluters to remediate the contaminated sites. But the office has neither investigated the sites hydrogeologically, and nor has it presented reasons for and goals of the remediation.
The author has advocated the reasons for the remediation of contaminated sites from the standpoints of human health, water resources, global warming and preservation of the ozone layr, infringements of land owners'rights, and guaranteeing the safety of civil engineers on the job. The majority of polluters in Fukushima Prefecture are the owners of companies so small that they could not afford to remediate the contaminated sites even if the prefectural governor were to order remidiation based of the law mentioned above. The author recommends that either the national government or prefectural office should establish funds to remediate contaminated sites.
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