Toxic chemicals banned decades ago continue to linger in the Wenatchee River, threatening people and the environment,
Question:
| Toxic chemicals banned decades ago continue to linger in the Wenatchee River, threatening people and the environment, according to three studies by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Recently, the Washington Department of Health advised the public to not eat mountain whitefish from the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth downstream to where the river joins the Columbia, due to unhealthy levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl). |
| To address this situation, the state is going to build some pollution control stations. Three sites (near Leavenworth, Cashmere, and Wenatchee) are under consideration. The state is primarily interested in controlling the pollution levels of two types of PCB pollutants (labeled PCB-A and PCB-B). The state legislature requires that at least 57,000 pounds of PCB-A and at least 84,000 pounds of PCB-B be removed from the river. The relevant data for this problem are shown below. If a station is built at a site (at the cost indicated below), it can treat an effectively unlimited amount of water, subject to the cost per ton of water treated as listed below. The last two rows indicate the number of pounds of each pollutant that is removed per tonof water treated. For example, if they treattwotons of water at Leavenworth,both56 pounds of PCB-Aand44 pounds of PCB-B would be removed from the river. Expert Answer:
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