Questions for Discussion-
- If the government continues to ignore the dump sites and neglect putting regulations on these sites, what do you think will happen to the areas surrounding the dump sites?
- In the name of science, is researching new areas worth the chance of releasing toxins into the environment causing bioaccumulation and further into bioaccumulation, putting animals on top of the food chain at risk?
- What else can be done to protect the environment from the continued trauma caused by the release of toxins into ecosystems as a result of human actions?
Introduction to Topic and Core Concern-
Waste and Toxins is the biggest and most widely known environmental problem today. If you were to conduct a survey of the American public, most, if not all, people would say that the most pressing environmental concern is pollution in the form of human waste and toxic chemicals and materials being released into environments all over the world. This leads us to the core concern, one of vital importance to the environmental health of the world as a whole.
Core Concern in Question Format-
What is happening to environments being negatively affected by human activities, what are the effects of those activities, and what can be done or is being done to stop it?
Will McLaughlin-
West Virginia Chemical Spill Exposes a New Risk to Water From Coal
By: Dina Cappiello and Seth Borenstein
http://www.wunderground.com/news/west-virginia-chemical-spill-exposes-new-risk-water-coal-20140118
Summary-
Chemical spills happen all the time,but they are never as bad as this massive leak of contaminants in West Virginia. Dennis Lemley, a research biologist, wonders why nobody has taken a stand for the cause of stopping this recent surplus of contaminations. Coal has polluted many environments throughout recent years. To solve this atmospheric pollution, coal-burning facilities are now instituting systems promising “clean coal.” However, clean coal means clean atmosphere but dirtier water. Coal ash deposit sites in North Carolina have recently been threatening the drinking water for Charlotte, North Carolina, but no signs of cancer-causing arsenic have yet been found. The recent chemical spills have been brought to light by the large one in West Virginia. The reason that this has flown under the radar for so long is that in the 1990’s, the EPA put into place regulations that restricted the amount of coal pollution that can go into the atmosphere. However, there were no restrictions on the amount of river pollutants. Just in recent years has that been restricted by the EPA. These are so recent, however, that enforcement still has not been instituted fully. Most mones have not yet even been inspected. These pollutants that go into rivers turn them into the equivalent of an underwater desert, with only the “water rats” able to survive. Some 12,000 river miles are affected in this way, with some pollutants being introduced by mines abandoned for over one hundred years.
1) The major claim made in this story is that while recent restrictions have been put into place, more regulation of river pollution from coal ash must happen. While the atmosphere is cleaner as a result of clean coal movements, all of that debris has been put into rivers instead, and the rivers have most definitely been showing the effects.
2) The authors present many different pieces of evidence to support his claims. He cited University of Maryland environmental sciences professor Margaret Palmer for quotes describing the conditions of coal ash polluted rivers. Many pieces of information were cited as being taken directly from the EPA. It also cited three studies from various universities, as well as the professors and experts behind them, like Michael Hendryx from Indiana University.
3) The source does influence the content of the article in an obvious way; it provides the information required for the authors to get points across. However, the information does not control the message that the authors are trying to convey. Just the opposite; the sources merely provide the information that support the message. The authors did a great job of using the information, and not letting the information use them.
4) The information in the report affects me personally. My step brother goes to college in UNC Charlotte, and they lately have had various citywide emergency situations because of flaws in the sanitation of the drinking water for the city. If the rivers feeding Charlotte drinking water are not cleaned up soon, he may be exposed to cancer-causing arsenic that could affect him later in life.
5) This ties into the current topic in class in multiple ways. The topic of this article is one of previously unknown methods of pollution that have been going on under our noses for hundreds of years, ever since the introduction of coal power. It is just now being realized by experts everywhere that the levels of arsenic in rivers and some drinking water are shooting up because of coal ash dump sites.
6) In response to this article, it has made me realize the true danger that the coal ash pollution puts us in as a whole, especially in North Carolina. The drinking water consumed by people everywhere is being tainted with arsenic, and the scary thing is this. We are just now finding out about this, yet it has been going on for over one hundred years at least.
This applies to our core concern simply because it represents another instance of waste and toxins being released into the environment as a result of harmful human practices. Our core concern is that environments all over are being affected by pollution, and this is yet another example of a type of pollution that needs to be controlled.
Madi McGroarty-
PHOTOGRAPH BY NORBERT WU, SCIENCE FACTION/ CORBIS:
Summary:
In Antarctica scientists living in research bases are producing wastewater that is toxic to the native plant and animals. A toxic flame retardant used for insulation, building material, and research equipment called Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) is a huge factor in the toxicology of the Antarctica. Scientists took samples from dust, sewage sludge, and wildlife tissue from around the bases looking for HBCD. The tests showed that the wastewater containing sewage, HBCD, organic and inorganic material, silt, pathogens, and pharmaceuticals spilled into the McMurdo Sound. HBCD is found everywhere in everything but is most densely found near the source of the wastewater. Although, scientists are surprised by how high amount of HBCD are in this relatively unpopulated region versus even urbanized areas of the United States.
It is currently unknown how the HBCD exactly effects the wildlife, but in rodents and fish the chemical has been shown to cause thyroid problems disrupting their metabolism and brain development. The levels found in larger animals has not shown any health problems so far. Scientists suspect the cold weather may prevent HBCD from degrading because it is stored in fat of animals so the chemicals may linger and cause ongoing problems later in the future. No protocol has been established to stop or reduce the use of this toxic chemical in the Antarctic.
This affects the environment because this harmful chemical bioaccumulated in the animals of the Antarctic like penguins. By having this chemical in penguins it can go up the food chain into leopard seals and eventually into the local inuits. This waste problem of the Antarctic affects me personally because I penguins and the environment.
Doral Kasper-
Toxic Waste ‘Major Global Threat’
By: Siva Parameswaran
Over the years, toxic waste buildup has become so harmful that toxic wastes pose as much of a threat as diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. The study on the effects of toxic waste was studied in more than 3,000 sites in 49 countries. Toxic chemicals are being released into the air, water and soil onto sites were children play. These chemicals pose high risk threats for children, but the government doesn’t do anything to regulate the chemical wastes in places that are e-waste dumping yards. Agbobloshie in Accra, Ghana is the highest toxic threat to human life. It imports 215,000 tons of second hand consumer electronics, and on top of that generates 129,000 tons of e-waste every year. This dumping yard causes serious environmental issues to those living near the site.
Agbobloshie ranks higher than Chernobyl in toxic risk to human life studies. Chernobyl ranks second. Heavy metals are so difficult to remove from the soil that the only solution is to seal the contamination and physically move people away from the site.
23% of deaths in developing countries are due to environmental factors like pollution. 80% of regularly reported illnesses are because of the environmental risk factors of those sites in high risk areas. E-waste dumping yards pose threats to tens of thousands of women and children.
In North Carolina, the e-waste dump yards are relatively small compared to the ones in Ghana or Ukraine, but they still pose a threat. Continuous buildup is going to raise the toxicity creating chronic problems in one’s health. As the waste continues to build up, it will create serious environmental hazards. My aunt is actually currently living in Ukraine, and the environment is very degraded and the area around her is breaking down because of the dumpsite.
Our core concern is with increasing waste buildup, the impacts are going to hit hard creating chronic effects on the environment. On our current unit, we are analyzing risks, and we need someplace to dump our wastes. In the short term, dump yards work and is a solution, but in the long term, these dump yards are slowly degrading the area around it.
Nathan Lee-
Toxic Waste Site May Cause Health Problems Millions
By: Erin Wayman
<https://www.sciencenews.org/article/toxic-waste-sites-may-cause-health-problems-millions>.
Summary:
Researchers and scientists are concerned of the health threats that may be presented by living near toxic waste site in three developing countries. Researchers analyzed 373 toxic waste sites in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. About 8.6 million people live near these toxic waste sites and are at risk of exposure to hazardous materials. The World Health Organization made a comparison between malaria and the outside air pollution caused by the toxic waste site in the three developing countries. The combined population of the three countries is about 1.6 billion people. They reported that malaria caused the loss of 725,000 healthy years, while the outdoor air pollution caused almost 1.5 million healthy years. In 2010, researchers found traces of lead and hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen, that accounted for more than 99 percent of the lost healthy years.
Toxic waste sites could be harmful to the environment and the population that is near the waste site. This information does not really relate to me personally. However, if there is no change to prevent the hazardous materials from the toxic waste sites, then it is possible for the hazardous materials to travel to areas near me either by air or water. Also, if more toxic waste sites are built in areas near me, then there is a higher chance to be affected by the same hazardous material as the three developing countries.
This information on toxic waste sites relates to the topic of we are learning in APES. The unit talks about what hazardous chemicals there are and the effects of the chemicals. It talks about the risks and what steps that researchers and scientists take to analyze and manage the situation. This relates to the information because researchers and scientists analyzed toxic waste sites in the three developing countries to research the threats it can present to the population. It also talks about the risk of being exposed to the hazardous materials that the population must face.
Works Cited
Holland, Jennifer S. "Antarctic Research Bases Spew Toxic Wastes Into Environment." National
-penguins-mcmurdo-station-science/>.
Parameswaran, Siva. "Toxic Waste 'major Global Threat'" BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar.
2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24994209>.
Wayman, Erin. "Toxic Waste Sites May Cause Health Problems for Millions." Science News.
N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014. <https://www.sciencenews.org/article/toxic-waste-sites-may-cause-health-problems-millions>.
"West Virginia Chemical Spill Exposes a New Risk to Water From Coal." Weather Wunderground. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014. <http://www.wunderground.com/news/west-virginia-chemical-spill-exposes-new-risk-water-coal-20140118>.
I think that this issue is one of the most interesting and controversial we have discussed in this class. If everyone in our nation adopts a "not in my backyard" policy, the hazardous waste and landfills will still unfortunatly end up somewhere. I admire the grassroots groups that fight for their rights to live in a pollution-free community, and think that it is awful that young children may be suffering from mutagens and terotogens found in waste. I find it surprising that new technologies have not yet been developed to more cleanly and efficiently store and purify waste.
ReplyDeletePlease comment!
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to ignore these sites and not put regulations then it is my belief that the companies will not take care in protecting the areas around the dump. What is in place to protect the areas around will start to deteriorate and the companies, wanting to save money, will simply ignore the danger. This means there will be more system failures in these dump sites and more leaking which will cause the environments around the sites to become polluted and die off.
ReplyDeleteIf sites aren't regulated then continued contamination of groundwater and surrounding creeks/rivers will occur. This then causes multiple problems for the environment and human populations. Marine life can be severely effects, while health problems can occur in humans. When companies cause heavy spills fines are usually lax. The fine is such a small amount compared to earnings that companies won't learn from their mistakes. They will just dump more and more wastes as the consequences seem so minute to them.
ReplyDeleteI think companies will continue to ignore their waste and put regulations on it. These companies are ultimately concerned with their profit, not their effect on the environment. Eventually this will obviously cause more pollution and hazards to animals and humans due to leaking problems and the streams/run off it will create. If something is not done, the earth could be very polluted and engulfed with waste over the next few years. These companies won't do anything about it though,they will just continue dumping their waste because it is not their first priority.
ReplyDeleteI think the situation need to be viewed from an economical way than just purely environmental. The companies dumping their large amounts of waste into the environment should not be allowed to utilize that many resources, and a low waste solution should be encouraged. This means that the government needs to offer less incentive to mine resources through subsides and boost fines for dumping hazardous waste into the environment. Also if the government does not pay attention to the growing problem of dump sites, the workers of the business would also become affected eventually circling back to hurt the business. In conclusion, it is probably best for both the government and industrial businesses to work together to create efficient ways to tackle waste problems, such as bioremediation or phytoremediation.
DeleteThe continuation of contamination of the environment will occur if sites are not regulated. If sites are not regulated then there will be no consideration of the affects it will have on the environment around it. Harmful hazardous wastes and toxins will cause problems in the living organisms around the site. Diseases like Malaria are more likely to spread through the air. Some solutions to improve contamination would be to reduce the amount of hazardous waste you produce and to make cleaner methods to get rid of the waste.
ReplyDeleteLack of government regulation will result in further environmental degradation and birth defects in the land around the dump sites. In the "60 minutes" video we say, American companies are abusing the system by illegally sending e-waste to Hong Kong. Not only is this wrong, but it has manifested itself as acres of dump sites. The problem is worsened by companies trying to extract the e-waste for parts, which releases toxins to the areas around the sites. The toxins are causing for many to born with defects, and mutating the DNA of those working at the dump sites. The U.S. has regulations, but they need to enforced to the system cannot be abused.
ReplyDeleteThe environment surrounding the dump sites will be completely destroyed if government does not start to regulate more effectively. This will not only be seen in the immediate ecosystem, but it will be biomagnified throughout several levels of the trophic pyramid. The land will start to erode and will contain massive amounts of toxic substance. I think that this is especially true for dump sites containing e-waste, such as in China. The polluted areas around the sites will become larger and larger until they start to affect every aspect of our lives. It is really important for everyone's well-being that the government tightens up regulation on these illegal and legal dump sites. There should be harsher punishment for those who disobey laws concerning pollution and for those who dump massive amounts of hazardous material into the environment.
ReplyDeleteThe contamination of environments will continue to grow if these sites are not regulated properly by government. As long as governments keep turning a blind eye to what is happening in these sites, and businesses continue to dispose of their waste improperly it will have detrimental and irreversible effects on the environment. Harmful wastes will cause more diseases such as malaria to spread. Solutions to improve environmental conditions are government needs to take more action in these matters, and to make saver and cleaner methods of disposing of waste.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to ignore contaminated sites the surrounding areas of these sites will be greatly affected. Hazardous materials could leak into residential areas and may cause evacuations and require the relocation of many citizens. Also, if the government does not regulate these sites there will be no one to identify the parties responsible, therefore there will be no funding.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to turn a blind eye to these hazardous sites then there will be many consequences. For one, the companies creating these sites will continue to pollute the environment, which will encourage other companies to do the same because they will see that no action is being taken against the polluting companies. The lands around the polluted areas will probably become so toxic that mass amounts of plants, animals, and even people will die. After that the company will probably be shut down or fined huge sums of cash and the land will be treated (if it all possible) or quarantined and become totally unusable.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that researching new areas is more important than saving the environment. If we continue to conduct expensive and toxic research, soon enough there won't be much left to research, we will just know that everything and everyone is polluted in some way and because of our lack of concern, we can't do anything to change that. Scientists need to discover a new way to experiment with the environment in a way that won't actually do too much harm to the environment. And on the topic of government regulations on dump sites, limits not only need to be set on the structure of certain sites, but they also need to be enforced if we ever want to see any type of improve to our dump sites and the environment around it. Ignoring the toxic waste from dumps allows more contaminants to seep down into the soil making the ground, and potentially our water, hazardous.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to neglect these dump sites then toxins will definitely end up leaching into the soil surrounding the site and will end up contaminating the ground water near the site as well, which can cause polluted drinking water. We should not pollute the environment even more in order to conduct research studies that we already know enough about. Once we know EVERYTHING there needs to know about the area, it wouldn't matter anymore because the area is polluted because of the human interaction that took place. We can research some areas but to a certain extent and by being cautious about the surroundings in order to preserve it as much as possible. The government really needs to focus more on the environment in order to protect it. Most of society today focuses on money and profit unfortunately and it leads to being careless about how we treat the environment. Yes I understand that money is an important thing to have in today's society, but money won't be worth anything when our necessary resources are gone or polluted to an extent that they are unusable.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to ignore the dump sites, chemicals and toxins will be realeased into the soil and the land will become virtually uninhabitable. With the massive amount of soil contamination that is bound to happen, plants and animals will have to move or if they don't, they could potentially die from thechemicals coming from the waste. Also, there is a chance that residents living around the dump site could be affected as well, especially if they receive their water from a well that is in their yard.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to ignore these dump sites, then the area around the lakes, rivers, the groundwater, etc. will all become contaminated with toxions. These will then contaminate our water source and our environment which can cause some serious health harazrds to humans. If the goverment continues to neglect the sites, they couldeventually lose track of the parties responsible for the waste and not be able to aquire the funding needed to save those sites if they ever decide to clean them. I think the easiest solution seems to be to produce less waste and prevent dumping in the first place so there will be no negative consequences or a need for cleanup/disposal.
ReplyDeleteOnce the government starts to enforce more regulations, and hold companies to a higher standard the dump sites will be solved or at least waste will stop coming in. When society steps up and put the needs of the environment before business, society can preserve more land and have a safer living environment.
ReplyDeleteWe can protect the environment from continued trauma of unregulated toxins by planting plants and animals to act as buffers against the toxins. While there needs to be extensive research on which organisms would be best suited for each environment, it will allow the environment to self-regulate against the toxins. As a result, the environment will eventually adapt to the rise in toxins.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to ignore the dump sites then the area surrounding as well as the site will be contaminated with chemicals and toxins that can seep into the groundwater which in turn will also contaminate the drinking water. With continuous research done on the environment and dump sites we will eventually be able to tell how to specifically prevent the pollution as well as how human interaction specifically impacts the environment. The government needs to focus on specific actions and regulations to take in order to prevent further pollution and protect other environments from pollution. Money of course plays a huge role in this but we need to consider the fact that we are dealing with our environment that we need to last in order to survive.
ReplyDeleteIf the government continues to ignore these dump sites, the soil and groundwater will become toxic to the animals and plants. This will also contaminate the drinking water and harm humans. I think the government should put more regulations in place to prevent pollution from getting any worse and harming our environment.
ReplyDelete