GARRISON SPOSITO

"For every technology there is a pollution". This mantra of the 21^st century has cast environmental engineers into a societal role much like that of the ER physician, attending to the ever-increasing failures of human constructs with consummate skill under severe pressure of time. No one expects any longer to save the planet by returning it to a pristine state. Like the ER physician, we apply the technical remedy as well and as quickly as possible, then hope we do not see the problem come around again too soon. Five years ago, Walter Weber averred in an issue of Centerpoint that "Molecular-level research is providing a better understanding of environmental problems at our nation's contaminated sites, leading us to reevaluate perceived risk and remediation policies". I shall attempt to distill what we have learned from following this counsel into three memos written for today's environmental engineering students, structuring my commentary similarly to the summing-up lectures given by the writer, Italo Calvino, in his little book, Six Memos for the Next Millennium. My memos are but three of his: Exactitude, Visibility, and Multiplicity. Each memo will be illustrated with home-built examples that are designed to explicate the Weber conundrum for the next generation of environmental engineers.