National Parks have hazardous materials, even though they are thought to be clean and pure areas. An example is the Padre Island National Seashore on Texas’ Gulf Coast. They spend $325,000-$500,000 removing hazardous waste annually due to illegal dumping into the sea. There are many other national parks suffering from hazardous materials. The National Park Service (NPS) has insufficient resources to clean up existing environmental hazards. The problem is escalating. Many environmentalists suggest that the NPS should lead education efforts in waste reduction and conservation but is low on funds and resources to wage the campaign due to cost of cleaning up hazardous waste. Park Services must undergo change in attitude to become a leader in waste …show more content…
They range from critical issues of how to reduce trash--a problem with which every park manager contends--to the extremes of reclaiming dangerous abandoned mine lands and removing live grenades and torpedoes from beaches and hiking areas. The Park Service spends $7 million annually to replace or fix the 1,500 fuel storage tanks on or buried beneath its lands; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates as many as 30 percent of all underground storage tanks in the nation are leaking. Solutions to these problems are complex and require the Park Service to address issues that range from product procurement to educating visitors of these problems, to training of hazardous materials, to effects on gateway communities. Many decisions are up to the parks alone, not the agency, which creates directives on waste management. Andy Riggold, the superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore states, “I can’t say that we have done a good job of sitting down and analyzing waste reduction and disposal”. He has been dealing with one of the most controversial waste problems in the park system in the national seashore’s Marconi Station offices near Wellfleet,
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
All three of these examples prove that pollution is happening in Texas and that it is important for residents to get involved if they want a change to happen. Sometimes, even governmental agencies cannot stop pollution. We must take care of our natural resources, especially land and water, because they are non-renewable. We want our state to be clean for our grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren. This will not happen unless residents of these toxic waste sites take action and let their voices be heard. Besides, whatever happened to the slogan, “Don’t Mess With Texas?”
Kusawa Territorial Park was initially recognized under chapter 10 of the First Nations Final Agreements of both Carcross/Tagish (CFTN) and Kwanlin Dun (KDFN). The Aishihik and Champagne First Nation (CAFN) traditional territory also extends into the park area, though the park is not stated in their final agreement, they are members in the planning and management of the park.
Wildlife, Nature & Wildlife: Unravel the best of wildlife and nature in Kakadu National Park(Australia)
When I visited Denali National Park I found out that it is 6 million acres of Alaska's wild interior. The tallest mountain is Mt. McKinley and it is 20,310 ft. tall. Mt. McKinley is North America's tallest peak. With terrain of tundra, spruce forest and glacier, the park is home to wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, moose, caribou and Dall sheep. Popular activities in summer include biking, backpacking,hiking and mountaineering. The park was founded on February, 26 1917 by President Wilson.
Under Superfund, the EPA may take action to identify responsible parties, perform emergency removal of hazardous waste, establish long term remediation plans, and facilitate community participation. Hazardous waste sites are identified for EPA involvement through the Hazardous Ranking System (HRS). The HRS is a scoring system based on the actual and potential releases of contaminants to the environment from the site. Sites scoring high in the HRS may be added to the added to the National Priority List (NPL) based on the interest of the state and the relative risk the site poses.
Many people are under the impression that heritage preserves and parks are just a place to experience nature, but it is so much more than that. When we went to Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve there were a lot of different plants that we saw. I realized on this field trip how important heritage preserves and parks are to our community. The venus flytraps we saw was one essential plant that stood out to me. I learned how much they help the environment by gathering nutrients in the soil. These wetlands are something we need to protect because they also help reduce the impacts we receive from storm damage, such as flooding. More people should become educated in heritage preserves and parks.
The Superfund program, which was better known as just Superfund, is also known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability act (CERLA) of 1980 was developed by the federal government as a way to preserve and protect the ecosystem and to clean up toxic, uncontrolled, abandoned hazardous waste sites. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p.577). The Superfund program cleans up any hazardous waste, be it abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped; any of which may pose a threat to future or current health or the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency works with the community, the responsible parties or the potential responsible party in identifying these hazardous waste sites in formulating plans to clean up these sites. Superfund provides laws and standards for the disposal and storage of such wastes. In addition, the Superfund program provides emergency financial support to existing environmental agencies to monitor removal of toxins, and to provide emergency cleanup services, provide monetary reparation to people who faced health or financial difficulties and concerns from toxic waste, and, if needed, to help enact emergency evacuation procedures. Superfund also provides for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites, and can establish a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries to make available for cleanup when no responsible party could be recognized. The National Priorities List, or NPL, is a list of the worst hazardous waste sites that have been identified by Superfund. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p. 578). Any site on the NPL is eligible for cleanup using Superfund Trust money.
Yellowstone is known for many things from the huge volcano that lay’s beneath to their geysers that explode as quick as every ninety minutes. Yellowstone is in not only one state, but three! It’s so large that it is in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Yellowstone has many scenic features and a lot of history from the 500 geysers, hundreds of waterfalls some even undiscovered, hot springs, fossils, and one huge volcano. There are a lot of things to discuss when it comes to this historic national park which is why I will only be focusing on Wyoming, which is where most of Yellowstone is.
Can you imagine hiking 2,000 miles only stopping to sleep, eat, and drink? So many people do this every year. They hike the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is a 2,181 miles backpacking tail from Georgia to Maine that is being broken down because of overuse, a problem that is motivating organizations to step in and improve the conditions of the trail. As a result of the huge popularity, the trail is deteriorating and dying. Because of the increase in temperature in the atmosphere parts of the trail will never be hiked again. People need to know how important the trail they are hiking is and what needs to be done to save it. The landscape needs to be protected and the land needs to be
“There is so much more to see than just the Grand Canyon walls” (Satterwhite). It provides a natural habitat for birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and a very large number of plants. The Grand Canyon has magnificent rock formations, and it is home to many Native-American tribes. The Grand Canyon is home to the Confluence, which is the church of Native-American tribes. The Confluence now has a proposed offer, the Escalade.
• (1999). Final policy on the national wildlife refuge system and compensatory mitigation under the section 10/404 program . retrieved May 02, 2004, from www.epa.gov.
...emonstrated above each group identified has a chance to police and control the operation of these facilities. They all can choose to pass the buck and blame someone else; or they can step up and take control. We all have an ethical responsibility to do what is right. We need to protect the environment while ensuring human prosperity. The Government is here for us, they work for us and we must ensure that they do what we want, not what is best for industry or big business.
The oceans need to be protected because it is where life began and if not taken care of, life as we know it will end. When dangerous substances go into the ocean, ecosystems are suffer and become endangered along with lives of people and of marine life. Surfrider Foundation recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving the quality and biodiversity of the world's coasts because they are truly irreplaceable. There is also historical evidence of ocean pollution being present in the past, but the problem still lingers today. Heal the Bay discovered that,“Did you know there is a DDT and PCB hot spot off the coast of Palos Verdes? This superfund site (which indicates it's one of the most polluted places in the United States), is left over from a 1930's era chemical plant. Because DDT takes so long to break down in the marine environment, it persists to this day, contaminating certain species of fish. There are also highly polluted sediments in the Long Beach area, a sign of the heavy shipping in the port. Heal the Bay works on developing effective capping and removal plans to keep those toxins from spreading” (Heal the Bay). DDT is still highly concentrated in the South Bay area and still contaminating different species of fish. Even after more than 80 years DDT, a toxic insecticide, is still very concentrated and during upwellings, DDT particles come back up and continue to harm marine life. If humans are careless about what is thrown on the floor or sprayed on lawns, it can lead to disastrous affects when it comes to the condition of the ocean's ecosystems, and can endanger life itself leading to a problem that only we can mend.
People from all over the world go to beautiful beaches that are filled with water as clear as ice or as beautiful as diamonds. But, what will happen if we do not conserve the appealing sites that draw attraction to the public? Contaminated beaches has become a controversial issue to the public because of the causal problem, the harm to the people and marine animals, the government agencies supporting or opposing pollution, and the industries involved in creating such unlawful decisions. To create and find a solution, we must first find the core to the problem.