Imagine the headlines, spilling from every media orifice in America, reporting on the Baltimore Chromium Evacuation. News anchors on every channel bursting with giddy fear and commenting about the strange toxic dust that has taken hold of the City of Baltimore, forcing its citizens into exodus, while government employees who are clad in radiation suits traverse the desolate streets with their digital meters in hand attempting to get a reading of the chromium levels in the air. The reporters would write that the incident could have been prevented had the city officials been able to repress their greed when the dollar bills from the big corporations were waving in front of their faces and lining their pockets. The incident need not have happened had the people in charge realized the mistake of years-gone-by and left well-enough alone. Unfortunately, it has recently been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency that the City of Baltimore will undergo a controversial and risky construction operation that has the potential to risk the lives of Baltimore’s citizens by accidentally exposing them to the effects of chromium ingestion. This bleak and terrifying fiction could soon be on the horizon. In reality, the City of Baltimore is home to many diverse neighborhoods with strong characteristics and rich histories. The Inner Harbor, a long-standing pillar of Baltimore’s integrity, has gone through many transformations throughout the years from being a thriving focus for the packing and shipping industry into a hot-spot tourist destination that blends the future of commercialism with the quaint antiquities of the past to successfully create the vision that the city planners had in mind since the 1950’s. Baltimore used to be the home of a large-scale trade industry that played a vital role in the production of chrome products throughout the twentieth century. One of the
When one thinks of classic Americana, they reminisce about the 1970s and 1980s and the notion of the nostalgic past in terms of what is the classic American image. It was a time of economic prowess where the blue collar factory worker would work 9 to 5 and then go to the local bar with his coworkers. However, times have since changed. The industrial plants that once dominated the Great Lakes economic region has become a shell of its past to the point where it is now none as the Rust Belt as industry left and white collar jobs became the norm. Since this degradation has settled into this once industrial cities, many cities and companies have sought to rebrand themselves in order to build from their reputations in the past to appeal to the nostalgia felt today. One such case where these is a correlation between a company and city are that of Harley Davidson, founded 1904, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both have sought to rebrand themselves to the public and consumer, with Milwaukee seeking to transformation its image into that of a young and vibrant and city while Harley targets a new clientele. It is this shift to Harley’s "cult branding" to attract new clients that parallels Milwaukee's attempts to integrate itself to a service sector economy based on touristic leisure and the consumption of
On March 25, 1947, the Centralia no. 5 mine in Illinois exploded, claiming 111 lives (Martin, 31, 42). The apparent cause was determined to be inadequate mine maintenance by the operator—coal dust had built up on the floor and walls of the mine, creating conditions conducive to a chain reaction of explosions that would kill most of the workers inside of the mine. However, this was not the root cause of the disaster; it was the outcome of a systemic failure within the state government of Illinois. Despite the continuous warnings of a state mining inspector and a chain of notice letters sent from the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals notifying the mine operator—the Centralia Coal Company—of the dangerous conditions in its mine, the disaster was not averted. The disaster occurred because both the mine operator and the Department itself dismissed the inspector’s warnings. The real, indispensable culprit of the disaster at Centralia no. 5 was political interference within the Department and the failure to conduct independent oversight over it. These failures are near universally applicable to national security organizations and their less...
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "The Case For Contamination." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
The US government hid a deadly secret in Rocky Flats. The department of Energy set up a nuclear plant for manufacture of plutonium triggers for use in nuclear weapons during the Cold War in 1950s and 1960s. For years, residents believed that the plant made industrial detergent (McGrath). During her childhood, Iversen inquired of her mother of the sole business of the Rocky Flats. Her mother said, “I think [Rocky Flats] makes cleaning supplies, scrubbing bubbles or something.” (Iversen 12). This was indeed a lie propagated among the Coloradans. Full Body Burden reveals cover-up of US government mistakes in justification of its security concerns. Establishment of the plant by the government resulted into radioactive emissions into the environment. Ef...
A Civil Action portrays a fictional account of the real legal case pertaining to the hazardous waste site in Woburn, Mass. The waste site affected its surroundings, and in particular, Woburn, Mass. The waste site contaminated the river in which the community of Woburn used to drink from. Due to the water contamination, the children in Woburn have been dying of Leukemia. Although we are still ignorant of the exact cause of Leukemia, the contaminated water did affect people.
Over the last 200 years, the Strip District has gone through many different changes throughout its long history. Stretching from 11th Street to 33rd Street, The Strip as it is known from Pittsburgh was at one in the 1920’s the economic center of Pittsburgh and was home to such companies as U.S. Steel, The H.J. Heinz Company and Westinghouse. As the 21st century rolled into, the ghosts of past industry giants still remained, but the Strip District had changed into a Saturday destination to Pittsburghers and a tourist spot for those people visiting Pittsburgh. This paper will describe the ways the Strip District has changed in the areas of shopping, restaurants, and residential since the new millennium as well as the future plans focused on the Strip District. The paper will also show the ways the Strip District has reinvented itself like the city of Pittsburgh has by mixing the old with the new and continuing to grow as one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic neighborhoods.
...nerators, the Anti-Toxics movement is another important movement that has added to the struggle with Environmental Justice. The Anti-Toxins movement began in the late 1970s as soon as President Jimmy Carter acknowledged Love Canal, New York, a catastrophe spot. Carter in due course evacuated the area for safety reasons. Ever since the evacuation the former citizens of Love Canal got together to form the Citizens Clearinghouse of Hazardous Waste. Its goal is to aid thousands of neighboring clusters to fight against deadly waste exposures. Several anti-toxics movement have formed during the past several years to advocate for stricter government policy with regard to pollution prevention. These groups argue for the abolishment of toxic waste, arguing that some areas would be affected by pollutants given the structure of the economy of the United States of America.
Olga Bautista is a mother of two, she’s a Chicago resident and another problem has just been added to her list, one she can’t do anything about by herself. Her daughter attends elementary school along with nine-hundred other children and the school is being polluted by a dust that is full of heavy metals, petcoke. This dust is being stored only half a mile from the school and Bautista’s home. She along with Suzanna Gomez and many other South Chicago residents fear for their health and their families’ health “she worries about one of her sons, who’s asthmatic, but doesn’t have the money to move” (Webber, 1)
In December of 1982, the EPA found high levels of dioxin in Times Beach, forcing the locals to leave their town. “Dioxin used to be considered one of the most dangerous chemicals on the planet, but it is now under debate because of the differences between high and low-level contamination” (Chemical Conundrum).
It was clear that the governments in America would not issue a permit to Union Carbide plant under such circumstances, which lacked severe environmental standards and permitted slum dwellers to live near the plant and so on. Such actions were the ones that led to more deaths. Before the major gas leakage from the MCI unit on December 3, 1984, some people were killed because of phosgene gas leakage. However, no one took it seriously, despite the media report. One of the reasons that people ignore this was because people didnt know the potential danger of the chemical plant.
According to Jack Patton, a retired steelworker, he affirms that the steel industry used to be the strength of the US economy, as well as the driving force of the Cleveland Economy. But now, most of the steel mills have closed, businesses have left, and Cleveland has lost thousands of jobs. On his part, Paul Volpe, an architecture, states that Cleveland used to be the centerpiece of Fortune 500 companies until most of them left and only a few now remain. The population itself has not grown as expected, thereby giving rise to the concept of “sprawl”. In the 1960’s and 70’s, part of what drives business to the suburbs is numerous free and large parking space, however, officials of Cleveland, to salvage the situation, tore down many vacant structures to create parking lots for businesses. Sadly, this effort did not work: more businesses collapsed and more people left, leaving the city in isolation. Regrettably, the problem persisted, the situation of things got exacerbated, until late 1966 when things finally exploded. This led to serious riots and protests which even drove many away; the straw that finally broke the camel’s back was when the Cuyahoga River caught fire, this led to more and more people deserting the city and eventually, the city went into bankruptcy. As tax revenues fall, basic city services also fell; police
In the community of Chester, Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh investment company, Russell, Rea & Zappala (RR&Z), was built four hazardous waste treatment facilities since the 1960’s. Chester has approximately 45,000 residents in which most are African American and of low income (“Toxic Waste in Chester”, Pennsylvania). Residents of Chester blamed the four toxic waste treatment facilities for their reoccurring health problems. Unfortunately, the state government stands behind that there isn’t proof that the waste facilities are making them ill. Resulting from the state government’s ignorance, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) still allows the construction of more toxic waste facilities in Chester. But Chester didn’t give up so
The incident involved accidently adding a massive load of aluminium into a reserve distal, which serves the local community. Initial response and management of the incident have been under much scrutiny. Communication about the event and the potential health were sometimes confusing and even contradictory at times causing significant concern amongst the local community residents. Furthermore, in addition to the immediate health effect of such an exposure, health impacts of such events can be potentially ongoing and in the case of Camelford, nearly two decades after the incident many citizens of the community still continue to report health concerns that they attribute to the event (Powell et al., 1995).
Americans have developed a sense of vulnerability, risk and awareness of toxins in their daily social and environmental interactions. This feeling, however, did not compel the millions of Americans to generate political action aimed at reducing the possibility of that risk. Instead, it lead to individualized acts of self-protection, isolating themselves individually from these threats. Andrew
Wildavsky, A. (1995). But is it true? A citizen’s guide to environmental health and safety issues. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.