Matthew Bonner - Environmental tragedies / love canal

Environmental tragedies still exist today; what can we do today to mitigate these problems?

Sludge Spill in Kentucky, March 2000

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95285#.UWRHPZNJO84

Love Canal

http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lovecanal/01.html

 Heather Krieger: Companies make unwise decisions, some due to lack of knowledge and some with a blatant disregard for the consequences.  They should be held accountable if it can be shown that they were negligent and irresponsible.  When disasters like this happen, it's good that the EPA gets involved to check for safety and compliance.

Heather Lifferth: So gross! And it is gross they compare it to icecream... But I agree with Dianne - I was wondering if anyone got charged for the damage. Of course it was a accident but if people are dealing with that type of substance they should be prepared to pay if something goes wrong. This also shows that each person and people in a community needs to be prepared for natural disasters or even oil spills. You never know what could happen!

Terry Krieger: There is no doubt that many mistakes were made by manufacturing companies and the government in the early part of the 20th century. Lack of knowledge, no idea of the consequences, etc. Now we have the EPA to clean things up and protect us. Unfortunately, in many ways they've gone to the extreme with too many regulations and restrictions, especially on new energy.

Drew Botcherby: People should stop complaining and start scooping up the oil in their backyards! It could pay for at least a month's groceries.

Dianne 'Di' Singleton: I personally feel that the company should be responsible for ALL damages to not just the environment but the local water supply, etc. Instead of a potential fine, it needs to be a mandatory fine/penalty. Our natural resources are too precious to have these types of events happening. It is frustrating to see these things happening. I would think that a company would take MAJOR precautions.

David Miner: Its unfortunate that this happened. The Oil Company is responsible. It should have to pay a penalty for the damage its responsible for. But, be careful not to bankrupt the company. I'm not saying $25,000 a day isn't fair. The company may be able to pay it just fine. I'm just saying that that company probably employs the surrounding area. If the company goes down so does the community and then who is going to fund the clean up?

Drew Botcherby: This is happening again right now in Arkansas. Oddly enough, some (I hope just a few) residents are actually happy about it. It actually sounds a lot like my first sarcastic comment, except in real life. One could also look at these things as having positive benefits! http://gawker.com/5994203/massive-exxonmobil-spill-in-arkansas-backyards-is-not-all-bad

Ten days ago, an ExxonMobil pipeline pumping crude oil from the Alberta tar sands down to Texas refineries burst open in Mayflower, Ark., causing the evacuation of nearly two dozen homes and coating wildlife and the surrounding area in thousands of gallons of oil.

Carole Lifferth: It's really too bad. No one has any idea what the long term effects are on humans or wildlife. It could be great. The oil company should definitely be fined. And more regulations should be put on companies to contain their sludge.

 My Comments:

 Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this magnitude still exist today?

            Not really. To be quite honest, I don’t hear a lot about these kinds of events. Sadly, they aren’t the things that make the breaking news reel or end up on the front cover of the daily newspaper. Environmental tragedies such as these should be given more voice, and citizens should give more ear to what’s going on and how it’s affecting them now and in the future.

How do environmental tragedies affect you on a daily basis? Why should we care about them?

            The sludge spill stories shared for example, create not only negative environmental changes, but also negative (and sometimes positive) economic changes. Money either provided by the government or the firms responsible for the mess will need to pay big time to fix the mistake made. The money used for clean up could have been used to take extra precautions in making sure that oil wouldn’t spill into surrounding areas.

In your opinion are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a daily basis?

            YES. Environmental hazards need to be closely monitored so that we can prevent future tragedies from occurring and causing damage to the environment as well as to the health of people everywhere.