The structure was so contaminated that all of its contents were destroyed in 2003; the Enquirer's archive, including photographs, back issues, and notes, was lost in the process.
When tested by a team from Virginia Tech, the water was so contaminated with lead that the US Environmental Protection Agency branded it "toxic waste".
It is just outside the government's mandatory exclusion zone, but the ground here was so contaminated during the crisis residents are now exposed to almost as much radiation as someone standing outside the plant's west gate.
A plastic bag holding the sealed letter sent to Senator Patrick J. Leahy was so contaminated that federal investigators strongly suspect that the anthrax is comparable to the highly refined material sent last month to Senator Tom Daschle, law enforcement officials said today.
"It's safer now," said Sherri Ross, who works the front desk at the Ray Motel in Naturita, and spent her early childhood in Uravan, a mill town about 15 miles from here that was so contaminated with radiation by the 1980s, when the mill closed, that the whole town was razed and mostly entombed.
In Washington, DC, the water was so contaminated with lead recently that the government had to provide free water filters for everyone in the city.
