40 years later someone is suggesting we clean up the sites we contaminated with Agent Orange/Dioxin

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-nw-agent-orange-plan-20100616,0,6421387.story

Private panel to push $300 million cleanup of Agent Orange sites

Places contaminated by herbicide linked to illnesses in Vietnam and U.S. to be targeted in 10-year effort

By Jason Grotto, Tribune reporter

June 16, 2010

A prominent panel of private citizens, scientists and policymakers from the U.S. and Vietnam is set to unveil a plan Wednesday aimed at turning the page on a 40-year-old controversy over the health and environmental impact of Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.

The 10-year, $300 million plan calls for cleaning up more than two dozen sites scattered throughout South Vietnam that remain contaminated by dioxin-tainted herbicides once stored at former U.S. military installations. It also would expand health care and other services for people suffering from disabilities and other ailments linked to dioxin.

Building on recent scientific studies and small-scale efforts at cooperation between the two governments, the plan seeks greater financial and technical support from the U.S. government as well as private foundations and humanitarian groups. While many private groups have signed on to the plan, its drafters are hoping the federal government will shoulder the bulk of the costs.

"This has been a contentious political issue for some time now," said Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute and a co-chairman of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin. "We hope this report will defuse the politics and put the focus on solving this problem. It's in our strategic and moral interests to finally put this behind us."

As envisioned, the plan would be carried out in three phases. The first would last three years and cost $100 million, focusing on completing remediation in Da Nang, where a small contingent of U.S. and Vietnamese scientists have been working to clean up one of the largest contaminated sites. Once complete, the effort would be replicated at other highly contaminated sites.

Because as long as our government refuses to acknowledge that we spread poison all over Southeast Asia, the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin had better be prepared to pungle up $300 million on its own. We just blow shit up; putting it back together is someone else's department.