Unnatural Disaters
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Journal 2001 |
By: Jonathan W
Since the turn of the century General Electric or most commonly referred to as "GE" has been a major employer for Pittsfield, Massachusetts and the Berkshire County. Pittsfield was a company town employing close to eighteen thousand during World War II. It was a large social and economic part of the city's lifestyle and history.
The GE facility is comprised of 250 acres of land and over 5 million square feet of building space. The facility lies within a 100-year flood plain of the Housatonic River and the Unkamet Brook. The Unkamet Brook, a Tributary of the Housatonic River flows through the GE plant. The southern boundary of the land slopes towards the Housatonic River. For many years an underground lake of PCB oil has been infiltrating the river and it neighboring ecosystem.
In 1903 GE began to make electrical capacitors and transformers at the Pittsfield facility. Research by David Schalk says that "polychlorinated biphenyls" or PCB's are unique chemical compounds that do not occur naturally. The Swann Chemical Company originally produced them in 1929. PCB's are used in the production of capacitors, transformers, hydraulic fluids, and lubricants carbonless copy paper, inks, pesticides, sealant and flame-retardants. PCBs are also carcinogens. They break done slowly and bioaccumulate in the fatty tissue of fish, birds and mammals, including humans.
GE used the name "Pyranol" as its trade name for PCB'S. The GE plant manufactured large and middle-sized AC and DC power transformers. Pyranol was used from 1932 until 1977, when the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA proposed new regulations. GE used onsite and off site sources to dispose of their wastes. Their onsite disposal occurred in landfills and surface impoundment. There were three surface water bodies that received permitted and unprompted wastewater discharged through GE ownership of the land. There is the Housatonic River to the south, the Unkamet Brook to the east and Silver Lake Southwest.
The offsite areas that were receiving this waste were the Superfund Rose sites in Lanesboro, Ma and the Pittsfield Sanitary landfill. Also some wastes were even dumped in the GE parking lots. As a result of the transformer production and other related products many oils and PCBs have been released into the soil, groundwater and surface water. They were released through leaking tanks, pipes, and spills. Thus extensive ground water, surface water and soil contamination from the PCB's is documented from the GE Pittsfield area.
There were investigations in 1981 through a consent order that discovered ground water by the east plant area had been heavily chlorobenzene, benzene, trichloroethelyne and methyl chloride. There were also many metals found. The groundwater of this site extends to the Housatonic River, the Unkamet Brook and Silver Lake, the sediment and water were contaminated with PCBs.
Charles Fessenden was supervisor calculations there as well. Ed Bates, the former manager of Tests at the GE power Transformer Facility, explains in this interview that Pyranol is twice as heavy as water. Within every gallon of Pyranol there is seven pounds of PCBs. At average, 20,000 gallons of Pyranol was used a day or 140,000 lbs. of PCBs a week. At a three-percent spill rate they would loose about 3-5 thousand pounds of PCBs. The PCBs would then drain into the river. That means that about a million and a half pounds of PCBs have drained into the river. Ed Bates predicts there is only 30% of that left.
The Berkshire county residents were extremely unhappy with the lack of effort by the state and federal environmental regulators. However, the jurisdiction of the Pittsfield contamination had fallen under the federal resource conservation and recovery act legislation. GE had done numerous tests on the Pittsfield area for PCBs. The lack of budget and time led to GE discovering only a few areas of PCB contamination. They even said some areas were clean when really they were contaminated. There were even underground plumes that were filled with oil and PCB contamination that were still pumping water to people's homes.
A PCB removal expert from Westinghouse estimated that the complete clean up of the Housatonic river area and it flood plane could cost as much a one billion dollars. Everyday that GE can delay the clean up saves them large sums of money. Every decision that GE makes will cost more money. How clean is clean? What land should be cleaned? How much of the river and its flood plane should be cleaned?
Lately GE has made many strides in protecting their workers and the environment. They have released new regulations for their workers and given them special safety devices so that they will be safer. They have also begun planning the clean up of the Housatonic river. They have also had tighter regulations on the dumping and disposing of PCBS. Hopefully in the future we will be able to see the Housatonic River and its environment restored to its original beauty.
Minimata Bay
By: Danielle J
Minimata Bay, part of the Japanese Shiranui Sea, was the site of the dumping of an estimated twenty-seven tons of mercury compounds by the Chisso Corporation, from 1932 to 1968. Thousands of people, who relied on marine life as their source of food, unexpectedly became sick with what is now referred to as “Minimata Disease.” One man, Eugene Smith, took it upon himself to go to this town and photograph what had happened His photographs and photo essays made the problem known worldwide.
In 1907 the villagers of Minamata convinced the founder of Chisso Corporation to build a factory in their town, hoping to benefit from the wealth of industrialization. When the corporation began dumping large amounts of mercury into the bay, thousands of people unexpectedly developed symptoms of methyl mercury poisoning. They developed these symptoms by eating the fish from the bay that they relied heavily on as their main diet. Minamata Disease has infected over 3,000 people from 1932 up to the present time. It has taken some of these people over thirty years to receive compensation for this horrific event. Many people have lost their lives, suffered from physical deformities, and had to live with the emotional pain left behind by the disease. Friends and family members unexpectedly died, after years of unknown pollution. It is because of the stories of unnatural disasters like this that millions of people world-wide can fight for better lives.
Fortunately, today millions of people worldwide have been granted the opportunity to view the disease's effects directly through the photographs of America's own W. Eugene Smith. His Minimata photos show a more sensitive side of the unnatural disaster. Women and their children, death, industrial waste, and other horrific images have been captured by Smith. He once wrote, “I am constantly tom between the attitude of the conscientious journalist who is a recorder and interpreter of the facts and of the creative artist who often is necessarily at poetic odds with the literal facts.” It is obvious that Smith has recorded the facts of Minimata both creatively and more importantly, factually.
Oil Spills
By: Shara H
It is no secret that oil tanker spills are a huge problem. Sometimes they are truly an accident while other times, they are caused by carelessness. Some notable spills include Exxon Valdez, Shetland Islands, Independents, Hawaiian Patriot, Torrey Canyon and Amoco Cadiz. Research and clean up efforts have shown that these spills have had devastating long term effects on the areas that they occurred in.
An unnatural disaster that we have all heard much about is the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This spill took place in 1989 in Prince William Sound in Alaska. 37,000 gallons of oil were lost, making this a fairly large spill. However, the environmental impact was the greatest concern. The concentration of the oil on the shoreline was high in many "worst case" sites. The greatest impact was on the plants and animals living in the area. They were severely effected by large quantities of oil. As a penalty for their mistake, Exxon Valdez was fined 5 billion dollars. However, instead of immediately paying the fine, the company kept trying to appeal the decision. While the appeals were being conducted, the money for the fine was invested, and when the time came to pay the fine, the company had made a greater amount than they started off with and did not lose money. "le the money did help, no amount of money could help lessen the environmental impact. On a good note, shoreline tests conducted in 1998 showed that the concentration of oil in highly effected areas had lessened. Interestingly enough, the tanker was repaired and renamed the Sea River Mediterranean and was last seen carrying oil from the Middle East to Europe. This oil spill was highly publicized and many people know about it.
A slightly less known spill occured in South Afiica in 1983. The tanker Castillo de Bellver accidentally caught fire, losing 252,000 tons of oil. The environmental impact wasn't immediately very harsh, but a few days after the spill, clouds of black smoke caused an oily rain to fall on farms up to 80 kilometers inland, contaminating sheep and wheat. Health and airborne pollution became huge concerns to the people living in the affected area. However, on a good note, winds moved the oil offshore and the many rare Afiican seabirds were spared from the oil. Africa has been the home of many serious spills and this one in particular, made people wake up and try to stop the problem. The Oil Spill Mutual Aid Group, formed in 1996 by oil giants Agip, Total, Exxon, Mobil, and Caltex, reflect this progress. ' As is the case with many spills including the two mentioned above, a company's effort to save money can end up costing them more than they expected in the long run. Other times tankers are not built strong enough to safely deliver their goods. More importantly, the environmental impact oil spills have is immense. Depending on the area of the spill, animals and plants will be effected. People's homes can be ruined, as well as crops and domestic animals. It is imperative that a solution be found, especially for those countries that cannot afford to take the proper safety precautions. Over two million tons of oil have already been spitted into the ocean and other areas which is clearly an unacceptable amount. Clearly, this is one problem that can be fixed if the oil companies and governments work- together to find a reasonable, affordable solution that is agreeable to both. Our environment should not have to suffer so that a few people can make money.
By: Mayur P
"Egypt is the gift of the Nile," Herodotus said in 5th century B.C. He was correct, and no other country owes its very existence to a single lifeline. The Nile Delta is a very fertile land formed by the layers of silt deposited from the Nile floods annually, The Aswan Dam is on the Nile River just north of the border of Egypt and Sudan. The Aswan dam has two parts, the High dam and the Low dam.
The first Aswan Dam or the Low dam was unable to hold back the water and flooding,
so another dam, the High Aswan Dam was built in November of 1959. Grave implications
would have to be faced though; much of the land would be submerged under the
reservoir, hence destroying all the artifacts, monuments and archaeological
sites. Egypt asked the World Bank for aid for the building of the High Aswan
Dam, which eventually came to about 1 billion US dollars.
There were sundry effects of the Aswan dam on Egypt. Initially, the rich-nutrient
water streams made the agriculture fertile and protected the soil. After the
dam was built, the sediment and the silt got stuck behind the walls of the
dam, leading to erosion of soil in some places. However, the building of the
high dam has definitely led to beneficent Egyptian agriculture and industry.
The industry has been supplied with cheap electricity and the population has
able to be satisfied due to beneficent agriculture. The Aswan Darns seem to
have a positive effect on the Egyptians, as the agriculture and industry has
been enhanced. The darns did not have serious effects on the environment and
the previous effects that seemed drastic are stabilizing. Therefore, the Aswan
dam was an asset to the Egyptian community, environmentally and productively.
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Laundry Detergents: How they work
By: Saosan S
Ever
wonder how your clothes get clean? Of course not, as long as they are clean,
right? Right. But this article will still explain how they are cleaned, okay?
Okay.
So, there is the laundry detergent. That is what cleans the stains. What in
the detergent does the cleaning? Well, they are make up mostly of surfactants.
Sometimes they contain solvents or oxidizing agents. The surfactants are chemical
that break up surface tension and make it easier for water to pull away the
dirt on the clothing. How does it do that? A surfactant has two parts; together
they become a fatty acid. One part is the small polar head, which breaks up
the water. The other is the long hydrocarbon tail, which breaks up the grease
r dirt. The remaining solution is water-soluble and can be washed away easily.
This method for washing clothes is called emulsification.
Another chemical in a laundry detergent used to get rid of stains is to a
solvent. By using a solvent, one is using a chemical that is chemically similar
to the chemical bonds of the solvent must be stronger than those of the stain.
If the bonds are weaker in the solvent, the stains will not dissolve.
A third part in laundry detergents that is used to clean those stains is to
use oxidization. This occurs when using a cleaning agent, such as chlorine
or bleach. This agents the bonds between the molecules of organic molecules.
The remaining solution is water-soluble and can be washed away.
By: Rob H
After the Civil War, Chicago had become one of America's major cities. The city's major industries were cattle and grain trading, and lumber. Nearly the entire city, including its sidewalks, was made of wood. In 1870, Chicago saw more than 600 fires break out, most of which were from candles and lamps inside barns, where hay burned easily.
In the summer of 1871 Chicago only received five inches of rain. On October 7th nearly half the city's fire department was needed to extinguish a fire on the west side of the city that burned an area covering four blocks. This may have seemed like a big blaze at the time, but it was only an opening act for what was to follow.
On October 8th the Great Fire broke out in a cowshed on DeKoven Street owned by the O'Leary family. It is rumored that a cow knocked over a lantern, but the actual cause of the fire is unknown. After the fire was reported, a dispatcher sounded an alarm located a mile away from the fire. By the time the fire department arrived, the fire was well out of their control. It burned for 29 hours, spanning an area of 79 miles of streets. The damage was about $192,000,000. Approximately 250-300 people lost their lives to the fire and an additional 100,000 lost their homes.
Many of the homeless left Chicago soon after, and those who stayed had to camp out in parks with little food. Fortunately, relief came from other states quickly. Goods, including food, were sent from neighboring states. Seven thousand books were also donated, which were used to form the city's first public library. The relief, which even included some from foreign countries, totaled about $5,000,000.
Unfortunately there were some who tried to take advantage of the fire. Some people resorted to looting after the fire, while others took advantage of scarce goods by charging high prices for food and lodging.
The city wasted no time rebuilding, as the construction of new homes and businesses started within a week. Some businessmen and architects became successful in Chicago after helping with the rebuilding process. The process was an obvious success, as Chicago became the nation's second largest city, behind New York, by 1890.