There are, or ought to be, clear distinctions between different kinds of uncertainty as well as between uncertainty and unknowability. The distinction between what is uncertain (stochastically) what is currently unknown (not yet identified, but in principle knowable), and what is inherently unknown (and must remain so for physical or social reasons) is, in certain cases, of considerable importance, e.g., cases where the affected (or afflicted) not only don't know how to estimate their risk, but know that they can't know. We examine these problems in the case of groundwater contamination where the they are pronounced because commonly-utilized methods for calculating risk fold all nucertainties and unknowns together as an aggregated "uncertainty", and because understanding risks requires esoteric knowledge.
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