Another cross-country hazmat delivery

First, let's say we're happy for the residents of Hillsborough, N.J.

They're getting rid of 2,833 tons of mercury being stored in Somerville National Defense Stockpile Depot, a move that U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-N.J., believes is important to the safety and security of the residents around the depot

"Storing highly toxic substances in residential areas made very little sense before Sept. 11, and it certainly made no sense after Sept. 11," said Ferguson, who has been working for years to get the mercury moved out of New Jersey.

The spot selected by the Department of Defense for its stockpile of mercury? The Army Depot at Hawthorne, Nev.

It's hard to argue Hawthorne isn't a better site. At 147,000 acres, it's far bigger than the Somerville Depot and, let's face, in a much-less-populated part of the country.

Stop us if any of this begins to sound familiar.

Yes, like Yucca Mountain, the Hawthorne Depot is seen as a dumping ground for the rest of the nation's potentially dangerous and definitely undesirable problems. Funny how just a few months ago, Hawthorne was seen by some in the Defense Department as expendable and ready for closure.

The Defense and Energy departments have enormous waste issues to solve, and we're not surprised that top brass in either place would warm up to the idea of sticking their problems in trucks or train cars and shipping them across the country to the Nevada desert.

"Out of sight, out of mind," however, is hardly a satisfactory policy.

- Transportation of hazardous material creates new hazards.

- Hawthorne, among many military bases and depots, still has environmental cleanups challenges that have persisted for decades. With the mercury, it will have one more.

- Why is the Defense Department hanging onto 2,833 tons of mercury, anyway? Use it or sell it.

Once again, the solution seems to be political rather than practical.