Love Canal is a controversial environmental tragedy. Although, Love Canal is not as big as the recent Freedom Industry spill in West Virginia or China’s toxic air pollution, the Love Canal even continues to be debated because more and more information about its causes and harms is revealed each decade since 1953. The case of Love Canal is interesting, because toxic dumping wasn’t illegal at that time, yet created a conflict between the public and the law, and examines the justice in the society.
According to National Academy of Engineering (2006), back in the 1940s, it was legal to dump whatever wastes in private own lands (p.1); therefore a significant amount of jeopardizing wastes were created and dumped into landfills in the United States. Many of those landfills were tested and they turned out to be frail and unsafe (Jaffe & Hites, 1984). Love Canal is one of the spots. In 1942, the company, Hooker’s, began dumping nearly 22,000 tons of chemical wastes into Love Canal. Later on, Hooker’s bought the land and made it as their private property. Ten years later, in 1953, the Hooker’s filled the canal and sold the land to the Niagara Falls Board of Education with an unbelievable price, one dollar. The Hooker’s sold the land without notifying how serious was the existence of toxic chemical wastes underground. They did not detect the level of danger and if it is suitable for human beings to live above or around the canal. At that point, the Hooker’s action, dumped chemical wastes on its land, did not break the law; however, sold the land without warning, was certainly injustice. Later on, more and more residents discovered chemical infiltrated their basements and reported to the local government. Furthermore, chemicals started risin...
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National Academy of Engineering (2006, April 7). Timeline of Events at Love Canal” Online Ethic Center for Engineering. National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved March 28, 2014 from: http://www.onlineethics.org/cms/6532.aspx
Ozonoff, D. & Boden, L. I. (1987) Truth and Consequences: Health Agency Responses to Environmental Health Problems. Science, Technology &Human Values, (12), 70-77. Retrieved March 2, 2014 from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/689385
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2012, August 14). Region 2 Superfund. EPA. Retrieved March 28, 2014 from: http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/lovecanal/
The State University of New York at Buffalo (1980, May 23). Love Canal Chronologies. The State University of New York at Buffalo. Retrieved March 28, 2014 from: http://library.buffalo.edu/specialcollections/lovecanal/about/chronology.php
Saukko , Linnea.“How to Poison the Earth.”The Brief Bedford Reader. Bedford/St.Martin’s Boston: 9th edition ,2006.246-247.
The first Earth Day had the largest demonstration by having twenty million people attend, creating the next big wave of environmentalists. The neighborhood of Love Canal was a toxic waste dump. It had twenty thousand tons of poisonous chemicals buried beneath the ground that was leaking into the homes and schools of its residences. Lois Gibbs led the movement against Love Canal when she read an article by Michael Brown exposing the problem. Gibbs discovered that the majority of the neighborhood’s elementary school children were sick from chemical residue in the school’s basement. The chemical leakage was also causing birth defects and miscarriages. Lois Gibbs vigorously fought and protested for two years until the state was forced by the federal government to evacuate and relocate Love Canal’s
middle of paper ... ... Nonetheless, the recent proposal discussed on whether environmental harm should be criminalized has sparked controversy. There are many pros and cons that can be acknowledged in this case. One main thing is certain: the environment is very sacred to every human being and should be well cared for.
In this world, there are some people who love nature, but there are still some people who misuse and destroy natural resources. Many articles have been written on those themes. Among them, Chief Seattle explains how human beings are destroying nature in his “Letter to President Pierce,” whereas Barry Lopez mentions and appreciates the good of nature in the article “Children in the Wood.” Chief Seattle is from Washington and became the chief of his native people from Dewamish and Pacific Northwest tribes in order to supervise his tribes and protect nature (Seattle 648). In contrast, since Barry Lopez is from New York City, he grew up in dense cities that made him a nature lover. In the world, people are destroying natural resources; although, they can find many useful sources from natural resources if preserved properly. Both essays “Letter to President Pierce” and “Children in the Wood” elaborate the benefits of preserving natural resources for the human kind because Seattle mentions possible adverse
In this case, the following tests are the most relevant for this disaster: harm test, colleague test, and publicity test. The harm test consists on analyzing if the options perform less harm than the alternatives (Davis, 1999). In other words, this test implies that the benefits need to prevail over the harm, which will minimize the harm and maximizing the benefits. In the Love Canal case, this test failed since it was clear that the well-being of the public was affected due to the birth defects, miscarriages, and health issues that the community exhibited. Similarly, the colleague test consists on asking yourself what your colleagues would say when suggesting this option as the solution (Davis, 1999). When making decisions, engineers and companies should take actions on activities that would look appropriate for the general population to accept and for a panel of peers. With this in mind, Hooker’s engineers and the company itself did not care about how chemically polluting the environment will be judged or looked like in front of publics eyes and the community; therefore, the Hooker’s engineers and the company failed this test due their lack of public awareness. Additionally, when considering the publicity test, everyone should ask themselves if they want their “choice of this option published in the newspaper” (Davis, 1999). In this country, journalism plays a crucial role in our society, so when engineers and companies ends up in the news, it means that their actions had a social or environmental repercussion; consequently, because of Hooker’s lack of professionalism, an entire community was exposed to carcinogens that ended up affecting the locals and the unborn; as a result, by 1978, many newspapers and TV news reported
A nuclear holocaust would result in more deaths than water pollution. Robert Glennon highlights the absence of interest people have when it come to the water crisis in “Fouling Our Own Nests” as he opens the chapter with women walking around half naked and having no concern for the filth surrounding them, being in the United State’s largest city without a sewer system, Lake Havasu (Glennon 65). Glennon believes humans are contaminating their valuable water supply and are unaware of the seriousness of consuming tainted water. He argues that people are at fault for the water pollution and that something needs to be done to salvage our existing water supply. The evidence Glennon uses to support his claim, however, are biased, overblown, and improbable.
The largest environmental disaster in U.S. history occurred on December 22nd, 2008 when a 84-acre pit containing toxic coal combustion residue at the Tennessee Valley Authority Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tennessee gave way. According to a report by AECOM, the firm hired to perform the root cause report, a “combination of the high water content of the wet ash, the increasing height of ash, the construction of the sloping dikes over the wet ash, and the existence of an unusual bottom layer of ash and silt were among the long-evolving conditions that caused the ash spill at Kingston Fossil Plant” (TVA, 2010). The resulting slide sent a wave of over a billion gallons of sludge out on the 300 acres of land surrounding the Fossil plant, instantly covering it with a 4 foot layering of sludge. The toxic coal combustion residue wave destroyed 15 homes, damaged 43 more homes, took down power lines, ruptured a major gas line, potentially poisoned drinking water supplies, and devastated the local fish population. The resulting spill was over 100 times larger then the Exxon-Valdez oil spill (CNN, 2008). The sludge contaminated both the Emory River and the Clinch River, both tributaries of the Tennessee River. While no lives were lost during the actual event, the environmental and public health implications will continue to haunt Tennessee for a very long time to come. The true extent of the damage won’t become known for many generations.
... line the canal today. The development of the railroad in the 19th century and the automobile in the 20th century sealed the fate of the Erie Canal.
Love Canal is one of the most infamous toxic waste disaster in history. The Love Canal site began its life as a project linking “the upper and lower Niagara Rivers” in western New York, in order to provide power to the homes and industry that William T. Love intended to build (Beck, 1979, para. 5). In 1910 William T. Love Rn out of funding for this project, and the land was subsequently sold to Hooker Chemical Company. The Hooker Chemical Company purchased this land for the specific reason of dumping their toxic waste. At one-time process of dumping toxic waste directly into the ground was legal, as long as it was your land. However, we did not understand the future problems it would cause. Around
The problem of dumping refuse into the ocean became a public concern in 1987 when medical waste, such as syringes and needles, washed up on the shores in New Jersey. At the time, AIDS was making headline news. This worried and concerned many people. People wondered where it came from, what it was doing there, if is it contaminated with AIDS or other viruses, and how it got there. Police looked from months to find the cause of this strange event. Then finally they found their victim. A company was paid, in New York, to properly dispose a large load of garbage, which contained medical waste. The company took the load and dumped it into the ocean. In theory, they believed it would be carried away by the Gulf Stream and would eventually sink. Unaware that it contained medical waste such as syringes that floats, they dumped the large load of garbage into the ocean. To a...
...ty. It is available to reflect the social values of a society such as new concepts of justice. The law Reform Commission of Canada is persistently submitting legal proposals that can be used to improve a society and it also serves as a crucial role to the structure of law and the government and the Canadian Criminal Justice System. A proposal that has drawn a lot of debate is the idea of whether environmental destruction and maltreatment should be criminalized. After examining the given themes, environmental harm should not be considered a crime. The undesirable outcomes of criminalizing environmental harm outweigh the positives of criminalizing such a reform. Although the environment affects people’s lives, so do the laws and regulations. This crime is too broad and may result in more harm than good in the Canadian society and the Canadian Criminal Justice System.
Most of the residents of Niagara Falls knew what had happened to the land previous to when they moved in but they didn’t seem to fear the consequences that would come later on. The chemicals affected the residents sooner than expected. Residents started to smell strange odors and substances in their basements. Children at school were burned by toxic waste. Local officials were alerted, but somehow decided not take any action.
Water pollution is a serious matter that should be accounted for. Every living being has a right to acquire a life-sustaining resource as water. A city in Michigan known as Flint is a victim of having contaminated essentials. In Flint, statistics show that not only is it in poverty, but over forty percent of its residents have a low income. It is revealing because most peers in the city felt personally victimized by the lack of supervision in its water distribution. It is churlish and insubordinate for any human being to acquiesce and it will be known around The United States, that officials can too, cause harm to the innocence. Yet, it is despicable to witness people suffering from agony with a few resources that are offered.
For regulation to be effective, state enforcement is required. When it comes to the regulation of mercury being disposed in Grassy Narrows the state must follow one of two measure, economic or social regulations. Regulations require for a degree of commanding for the alternations of the behaviours. However, this can be only done when there is state enforcement. The government even though indirect has the power to control by posing rules and regulations. For example, through the state, sanctions will be used on factories that improperly use mercury. For instance, a sanction could be place to punish those who dispose mercury into Grassy Narrows. Furthermore, penalties could be applied to these factories that use mercury unsafely. The use of sanctions and penalties is a serious process. By using sanctions and placing penalties on companies who carelessly dispose mercury into rivers will eventually lead these companies to stop their improper disposal due to the fear of sanctions. Sanctions can be harsh, but it is useful since mercury has poisoned hundreds of residents in Grassy Narrows and if these companies are not stopped then they could take this further by disposing mercury in other locations. This method has efficiency since it does use lower amount of sources to solve a policy issue. As well as, the rationale of equity is present in this
I am also care about the canals, therefore do not dropping any waste on the streets, because those can go into the canals, which can potentially poison the water reservoirs, or causing extra effort and money to the company to clean the water.