Cleanup Is a Must

Cleanup is a Must

In the tragic photograph of the Hanford Reservation in Washington, Joel Sternfeld's observations strongly suggest that the soil of America shouldn't be neglected and harmed for research of weapons of mass destruction. The Hanford Reservation was once the home of a manufacturing company organized by the United States Army, producing plutonium for atomic bombs during 1942. Sternfeld quoted that there was once enough harmful chemicals dumped onto the site that as many as two dozen nuclear bombs could have been made. Any worse as it can get, the facility was shut down in 1988, and cleanup was underway. The government should take more care of the land they use because sometimes it's just too late to fix it.

There is a billboard in the fields of the devastation, showing a message clearly in the billboard of two girls playing in the field with the meaningful words written, "It's the Nature of Our Business" The billboard has been placed there by the Hanford Reservation because of its logo on the bottom left corner. I believe it symbolizes an apology to the concerned people of this ordeal. The children represents how they would be able to play once the site is safe and clean enough after the clean-up has been completed. The quote, "It's the Nature of Our Business" is trying to imply that the United States Army who created the facility is telling us that they did it because it was more of a job or an order. It

also implies us that it's there job to fix the problem and time to remediate those in need of a place to play like the children in the billboard and the people striving to destroy harmful chemicals used to kill people. In the photo, we can still see that the facility still exists, but there is also a bulldozer next to it to show that the project is still in progress.

The plant was created to facilitate and create nuclear weapons and also a place to dump the harmful chemicals polluting the area and harming people around it. The government might have another take on this situation, warning us that the destruction and existence of this nation lies in the hands of a weapon they need to make. Even though it might have ended the war and given us peace within the world with many countries, there is a bigger problem. What is the point in having peace if the polluted places we live in are just