1000 words

I've been catching up with my geoblogosphere reading, and I missed a bunch of great posts. Anne Jefferson sent out a call for posts that explain something complex using only the 1000 most commonly-used words in the English language. There's a text editor available to design your description.

I was browsing the results, and I quickly recognized vapor intrusion/mitigation - search for the words "Sometimes there is bad stuff in the ground." which is the first line of the description, and a good way for me to start a description of anything I do! That particular description is especially elegant in the way it describes a summa canister (a very empty hard ball), which uses a vacuum to collect an air sample.

So I had to try my hand at it. Thank goodness there's not penalty for length or awkward sentences! I'll add it to Tumblr.

"Many years ago, when people made things they put the stuff left over on the ground or in the water near them. They didn't know that some of the stuff left over could get into the ground and into the water and could stay there for a long time, or that it could move far away over time.

Now we know that some of the stuff that was left out so long ago can make people (and animals) sick. My job is to find out how much of the bad stuff is left and where it went. Once I know that, I can take the bad stuff out or add something to the ground to change the stuff so that it won't make people sick."