Superfund sites are abandoned hazardous waste areas, designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as posing a high risk to human and ecological health. The Portland Harbor Superfund site is a group of 60 former industrial sites located along the lower Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. In the early 1900s, before environmental health was a public concern, sewage and industrial waste were dumped directly into the Willamette River. By the time waste control systems were introduced in the 1950s, legacy pollutants had already left a mark on the riverbank and sediment of the lower Willamette (LWG, 2011). In 1997 the EPA and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) enlisted environmental consulting firm Weston Solutions …show more content…
Not mentioned in the report is a technique called bioremediation, which uses microbes to clean up the hazardous waste. Some small natural organisms, such as bacteria, can eat, digest and gain energy from contaminants, converting them into small amounts of water or innocuous gases. Specific conditions must be present for bioremediation to be successful. Natural amendments can be added if ideal conditions are not present, or contaminated soil can be treated ex situ. Traditionally, it takes anywhere between a few months and several years for bioremediation to fully clean a Superfund site, depending on the size of the site and extent of contamination. Bioremediation is currently being used to clean up contaminated groundwater at the Iceland Coin Laundry Superfund Site in New Jersey (EPA, n.d.). Additionally, experiments are currently underway to determine if fungi can help remediate some of the contamination at the Newtown Creek Superfund Site in New York City (Parry, 2012). As an all-natural alternative, bioremediation is a particularly appealing clean up method. If ideal conditions for microbial growth are not present at the Portland Harbor Superfund site, bioremediation could be a good ex situ treatment
The Lowry Landfill Superfund Site is located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, approximately 2 miles east of Aurora. It consists of approximately 507 acres of waste disposal area and is operated by Waste Management of Colorado, Inc. The land surrounding the site consists of native prairie grass and a wetland located along a local creek. Sections around the site are zoned for agricultural use including cattle grazing and non-irrigated wheat farms. 1 The area is home to numerous endangered species including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Due to the large amounts of wastes disposed on the site between 1965 and 1980, it became extremely contaminated with a variety of inorganic and organic contaminants. From 1984 to 1993, the EPA oversaw remedial investigation and feasibility studies that were performed by all responsible parties. Since its listing as a superfund site in 1984, multiple remedial actions have been performed in order to rehabilitate the site. These include clay barrier walls around the site, a groundwater collection system, a soil cover for the main landfill, as well as a landfill gas collection system. Groundwater that is collected on the site is treated at an onsite water treatment facility. In 2007, construction began on an onsite gas to energy plant that utilizes the methane produced by the landfill site. The electricity produced by the plant is enough to power 3000 households. 1 Today, use of land and groundwater on and near the site is still restricted by the state of Colorado.1
So in overview Geobacter Sulfurreduncen is a bacteria with the ability to clean out petroleum contaminates and uranium from ground water, soil, and nuclear waste. Given enough time it can also clean out mass amounts of radioactivity from low to high level waste. The time itself depends on the level of waste. With a bacteria like this in the world, humanity has a better chance of surviving. Contaminated ground water can now be a thing of the past.
The word “remediate” means to solve a problem, so the word “bioremediation” refers to the use of biological organisms to solve an environmental problem. Bacteria, fungi, protists and other microorganisms in a non-polluted environment are constantly breaking down organic matter, and when the soil is polluted, some of the organisms may die, but others will still be able to break down the pollutants. Bioremediation provides organisms that can consume the pollutants with fertilizer, oxygen, and other conditions to encourage the rapid growth of these organisms. They then would be able to break down the organic pollutants at a correspondingly faster rate. There are two general ways in which bioremediation functions. One way is where specific survival conditions of a microorganism living in the soil are enhanced to increase the rate of a pollutant’s degradation. The second way is when specialized microbes are added to degrade the contaminant. This way is less common. For many types of polluted soil, bioremediation provides an excellent method of clean-up, but in some cases the pollutant is toxic even for the microbes. These pollutants include metals such as cadmium or lead, and salts such as sodium chloride. Although it may not work in all cases, bioremediation is considerably easier than other methods because it enhances the functions that the microbes already carry out in the soil. Along with being easier, it can be much less expensive because the soil does not have to be pumped out of the ground for treatment (Environmental Inquiry-Bioremediation). Serratia Marcescens is a bacterium that is commonly used for bioremediation.
According to the OSWER, Superfund over the course of its time cleaned 900 of the most contaminated sites in the nation and inspired other waste protection programs such as the Brownfields program involving less contaminated sites (OSWER, 2010). There has been talk about reinstating the program, but some are for it. While others believe that although it should be reinstated, tax payers shouldn’t be footing the bill.
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.
Fairly inexpensive compared to other techniques, the financial savings of bioremediation is an attractive alternative when used properly. A study conducted by Alper “states that bioremediation is six times lower in cost than incineration and three times cheaper than entombment.” . After the Exxon Valdez spill, the cost to clean the shoreline was less than cost to provide physical washing of the shore for one day. This saves a great deal of money which would be spent on labor hours, and it also allows for time t...
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.
Then the documentary tackles Puget Sound. The Duwamish River is the largest hot spot in the nation. In 2001, the Duwamish River was classified as a “Super Fund” site. This is given to a site that will receive federal assistance for clean up. But yet, it may be too late. Puget Sound in contaminated with PCP, lead and mercury. The threat comes from the giant industrial polluters of old and from chemicals in consumers’ face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, eventually into America’s waterways and drinking water.
On February 2, 2014, a coal ash spill occurred in Eden, North Carolina which affected the Dan River; wildlife, drinking water, and other surroundings were destroyed or contaminated. The spill was caused by a leaky 48-inch storm water pipe located in a defunct steam station. The spill not only devastated its surroundings, but “sent millions of gallons of sledge” into the river which is used by North Carolina and Virginia citizens for drinking water (Shoichet, 2014). The leak was eventually patched, but left traces of copper, aluminum, iron, and arsenic that state environmental officials stated were “above state standards for surface water” (Shoichet, 2014). At the time, the article was published by CNN, environmental officials were working on a plan for cleaning up the river and remaining pollutants. Although the spill was not a major spill, the future effects that coal ash may have on the river, wildlife and citizens of North Carolina and Virginia are unknown.
Environmental pollution produces bacteria which results as diseases and disorders in humans, animals, agricultural plantations. The process of pollution occurs when toxins are released into the ground water from landfill sites, this pollution stays in the environment for hundreds of years, while they break dow...
The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Pesticide Act, the Resource Conservation Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act are all a vital link. Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is making grants accessible to states in order to help them form programs to guarantee the safe management and disposal of hazardous waste. Work is being done to ensure that state inventories of industrial waste disposal sites include full assessments of any probable dangers that could be created by these sites. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a method to make sure that the 35 million plus tons of hazardous wastes that are manufactured in the United States each year are disposed of carefully. Under the plan, hazardous wastes will be controlled from their point of production, to their final disposal. Dangerous practices which currently result in serious threats to health and the environment, will not be permitted (Beck, 2016). In the after math of The Love Canal tragedy, a state of the art containment system has closed off the dump site itself with thick, clay walls, and two clay caps. The over 200 homes in the immediate surrounding area of the dump site have been demolished, and roughly 236 homes that were previously
There are many human activities and industries that causes marine pollution within our oceans. There is not only one source that causes marine pollution, there several other factors involved as well. One source of marine pollution is NOx and SOx, these are chemicals that are found in ship emissions that gets released into the environment through smoke; NOx and SOx are known to be very harmful to marine life (Raunek). Because of the fact that there are many types of ships out there in the ocean, the amount of NOx and SOx that goes into the ocean is plentiful no matter what because wherever the ship goes, these harmful chemicals are left behind, killing and harming almost every marine organism in its way. The next source of marine pollution is runoff and discharge that come from land (ocean.tamu.edu/). The largest discharge that enters the ocean comes from land is sewage, both industrial waste and sewage sludge(ocean.tamu.edu/). For many years, sewage has been dumped into the depths of the oceans. The sewage that has been collecting in the depths of the ocean can cause severe effects on the organisms around it; the sewage sludge can either poison or kill surrounding organisms. In addition to sewage, the oil industry is another source of pollution. The oil industry are responsible for the occasional, yet catastrophic oil spills; the oil industry are also responsible for small oil leaks that occur regularly as well (Bernard). Oil spills such as the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 which affected many people and organisms alike. The 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had killed over 7,000 sea turtles, birds, and dolphins, and that doesn’t even include fish (Park). Because of an oil spill, thousands marine animals may have ingested or breathed...
Traditional methods for cleaning up contaminated sites such as dig and haul, pump and treat, soil venting, air sparging and others are generally harmful to habitats. Some methods strip the soil of vital nutrients and microorganisms, so nothing can grow on the site, even if it has been decontaminated. Typically these mechanical methods are also very expensive. Most of the remediation technologies that are currently in use are very expensive, relatively inefficient and generate a lot of waste, to be disposed of.
The environment and health are very closely linked. The environment in which we inhabit and go about our daily lives, directly impacts on our physical, mental and social well-being. There are biological, chemical and physical factors that can affect human health in a physical and mental way. The World Health Organisation states that "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO 1948), meaning that although many factors relating to health are associated with environmental pollution, they can also be caused by the environment in which we work and live in. The relationship between the environment and health, can however be quite complex. Human health is not only as a result of air, water and ground pollution, but also things such as food, genetics, life style and quality, which directly affect human susceptibility to illness, disease and possibly death. Disruptions to the environment, such as substance dispersal, climate change, acidification, ground pollution, photochemical air pollution and over fertilisation can also impact on human health. Therefore, there are direct and indirect links to the environment and health issues.
Landfills are a bigger issue in this world than humans realize. Everyday people are harming the environment more and more just by using landfills. By harming the environment all living things on earth are being harmed as well. such as humans. Landfills impact the world significantly. There are many causes to the use of landfills as well as many environmental effects from them. Even though there is a significant amount of damage done to the world from landfills it is never too late to fix this issue with any of the many solutions.