Valarie Diehl - Love Canal

1.  My reaction to the video about the Love Canal is that do we really have that dishonest of people in the world.  It is scary to think that companies can just assume that their actions will go unnoticed and that they can dispose of whatever, however they want.   It also makes me realize that we take a lot for granted in assuming that the government will keep us safe, we need not always wait for the government but we can be assertive as citizens and be observant of situations and try to find out answers for ourselves and be heard.

2.  In your opinion are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a daily basis.  My response to, whether environmental hazards are something we should be concerned about on a daily basis is, yes we should be very concerned.  The other day while driving on the freeway I passed a tanker semi truck with a hazard sign on the side, and I wondered what was in there that was so bad, and what would it do if it crashed and spilled.  In fact that is one of the emergency drill scenarios for the city I live in…what to do in the case of a chemical spill on the freeway.  We never know what and when an environmental hazard will impact us, but I know that there is always a constant threat closer that I think.

3.  Why should we care about something that happened over 30 years ago?   The biggest reason why we should care about something that happened 30 years ago, is that hopefully we have learned a few things from that incident and can prepare ourselves for and help prevent further incidents from happening.  I think that the government has made great strides in coming up with laws and regulations, but there are always those people who like to try to get away with not keeping the rules, and making rules is one thing but enforcing rules is a whole different challenge.  Also looking back on how they tried to remedy the situation at the Love Canal, I think now they can see if the way they handled the situation is really working and containing the chemicals or if it has seeped out and caused additional problems.  With many things only time will tell if it will be successful.

Do you believe that environmental crises affect you/your family today?
This is the article that I posted of a recent incident of an environmental crisis in my area.  
 
Two failures of the Chevron pipeline in Salt Lake City resulted in the release of 1,300 barrels of oil in separate incidents less than six months apart.
The first spill despoiled Red Butte Creek, with water quality officials estimating that 766 barrels made it into the riparian waterway. Full remediation is expected to take years and in the wake of the second release, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker wants the pipeline to remain idle indefinitely.
Farther south in late September, someone dumped 40 barrels of crude oil into the Strawberry River, with the thick crude also spreading to the Duchesne River in the Uintah Basin. Cleanup costs have topped a half million dollars, and the probe has turned into a criminal investigation by the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office and the EPA. A $10,000 reward remains on the table

Posted Comments:

1.  I think that there has been a great deal of improvement, but there are still some effects from different environmental experiences in the 50's and 60's. Here in Utah there are tailings piles, effects from nuclear testing (downwinders in So. Utah) and we still have affects from Geneva on Utah Lake, which used to be a blue ribbon trout fishery (cutthroat trout). It now is a recovering and shallow lake that at its greatest depth is between 11 and 20 feet.

2.  Wow! That is awful. I absolutely believe that environmental crises can affect me & my family today. All it takes is someone cutting corners or not knowing what they're doing and it can affect so many people. 

3.  Although I have not been directly involved in or had an environmental crisis close to my home I believe that they do affect both me and my family.  The reaches of environmental crises are really unknown and sometimes may take time to surface.  Who knows how an oil spill into a river 25 miles away will affect the quality of water for my family.  With companies continuing to expand and feeling the need to generate profits there seems to be more and more instances of negligence and/or shortcuts that are used which cause large scale problems.

4.  I think there are a lot of possible environmental crises out there, that could affect me and my family, but currently there are none affecting us.  However, the emotional effect of reading about other crises, does affect me and make me want help fix these problems. 

5.  Yes, I think environmental crises do affect my family from them getting pneumonia because of pollution produced from factories and cars that gets trapped in the valley I live in, to the food they eat wondering where it was grown or what chemicals were put on it to make it grow bigger or faster. Just like the love canal the school district just wanted some cheap land, at what cost!

6.  I do believe that  environmental crises affect me and my family today but the scary thing is that I am not fully aware of what they are.  Just like in the "Love Canal" families were not aware of what was under them or at least were under the impression that it was taken care of properly. I just assume that I would be informed if there were problems like that.  This is a good reminder to stay informed of environmental issues wherever we live and to get involved.

7.  Wow…they were such idiots to think they could just bury the chemicals.

8.  That is not good what they tried to do.