LSAT 158 | Section 1 | Reading Comprehension: Q5

RC Question 5 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The purpose of injecting wastes underground is to store them for the long term. The first paragraph says this directly, stating the purpose of injection is “hazardous waste disposal”.

Note that this is long run disposal. We’re hoping the wastes stay underground forever and don’t mix with aquifers.

___________

1. Short-term? We’re not given a time restraint. And the passage doesn’t talk about neutralizing the wastes. If we could neutralize wastes cheaply, we wouldn’t need to inject them underground!
2. Existing techniques aren’t obsolete. They are merely expensive, so industries are turning to deep-well injections as a cheaper alternative. Obsolete has a specific meaning: out of date, no longer produced.
    
   A typewriter is obsolete. A desktop computer, by contrast is merely expensive. They still have a use for special cases, even though most people have “turned to” smartphones and laptops for their computer needs.
3. CORRECT. This is found in sentence 4 of paragraph 1.
4. This is wrong: we’re told the flow of underground water (and hence waste) is unpredictable, and hard to monitor! See paragraph 3, and the end of paragraph 2, respectively.
5. We’re told deep well injection sites contain toxic waste, but we don’t know if their toxicity is “low” or not. And the wastes aren’t recycled! Instead they are stored underground. If you recycle something you repurpose it and use it later. Whereas we’re done with these wastes.