Metal Plater and Cruddy Creek

There has been contamination found in the groundwater surrounding all four towns. The groundwater is contaminated with VOCs, trichloroethene (TCE), ethylene dibromide (EDB), carbon tetrachloride (CCI4), perchloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinal chloride, 1,1,2,2-TeCA, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, manganese, thallium, lead, toluene, and RDX. “Ethylene dibromide is especially worry some because it was found upwelling in cranberry bogs located in Falmouth and Mashpee (militarycontamination)”. Where it would was stored in the cranberries skin. “Falmouth being the most affected area losing twenty five percent of its possible drinking water supply (wr.usgs)”. Although the plumes are deep down in the aquifer. “People could be at risk if they accidentally drink the water or come into direct contact with the contaminated groundwater (militarycontamination)”. The way towns keep the residents from coming in contact with the possible risks of

There are many factors that contribute to Idaho’s pollution problem, but mining may be the biggest. Mining is a huge industry in Idaho, hence the nickname “The Gem State”. The biggest product from Idaho’s mines is silver. Silver mines are some of the largest polluters in the state. Bunker Hill, or Silver Valley, as the Coeur d’Alene region is known for its numerous mines, was recently named a Superfund site. A Superfund site is a site under protection for removal of toxic wastes by the EPA. Although that beautiful valley was also once known for its abundant wildlife, now the rivers are flooded with phosphorous, selenium, zinc, lead, silver, cadmium, and arsenic, all from tailings of several mines in the region. Lake Coeur d’Alene now contains over 70 million tons of toxic waste sediments in its bottom. This pollution has endangered people in the area for years. In Smelterville, where a smelter ran for nearly 100 years, a large number of people have been diagnosed with health complications caused by extremely high levels of lead and other toxins in their blood. These conditions, for most, have existed nearly all their lives. Many remember being ill for most of their childhood and on. In 1973, before the smelter was closed, the average lead toxin level per deciliter of blood in children tested was 70. A reading of 10 is considered high alert. Rocky Hill, who grew up in Smelterville and

Once these mines were abandoned water slowly began to fill these mines. The water came in contact with all of the leftover minerals, including sulfide, and chemicals began to dissolve into the water. This process of dissolving chemicals into the water essentially turned the water into acid (1). Once the mines finally filled, water began to pour out of the mines into the surrounding area, mostly into a body of water now known as “Tar Creek” (1). This creek then spread the contaminated water throughout the community and into numerous water sources.

Due to the large bodies of water in the county, there is a high risk for drowning. Water quality pollutants in the county come from fertilizers, bacteria from animal feces, sediment from land that are being cleared and stream channel erosion. When the rain falls into farms, parking lots, construction sites, and lawns the water collects pollutants and they get carried to the stream and then eventually end up in the Chesapeake Bay. In 2010 10 out of 15 streams sampled were rated far to poor, E-Coli, dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, Chlorophyll-A and Polychlorinated Biphenyls were noted in the samples (2013 Natural Resource Indicator Report, 2014). C & R Battery Company Inc. and the Defense General Supply Center DLA were found on the national priority list for the most hazardous waste sites identified by the Environment Protection Agency because it is a risk to human and/or the environment (Virginia Superfund Sites, 2013).

Coal Combustion Residuals, often referred to as coal ash, are currently considered exempt wastes under an amendment to RCRA, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. They are residues from the combustion of coal in power plants and captured by pollution control technologies, like scrubbers. Potential environmental concerns from coal ash pertain to pollution from impoundment and landfills leaching into ground water and structural failures of impoundments, like that which occurred at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plant in Kingston, Tennessee. The need for national management criteria was emphasized by the December 2008 spill of CCRs from a surface impoundment near

Every year it is estimated that 1.8 million batteries are not properly disposed of. When this happens, it poses a major threat to the ecosystem. Heavy metals used in batteries are toxic to humans and they can leach into our water system. Lead and nickel-cadmium (Nd-CD) can only enter the human body by inhalation or ingestion, but mercury can even be absorbed through the skin. Federal and state laws and regulations have been implemented and enforced to ensure heavy metal batteries are properly disposed of and recycled.

I would have to say that from the reading that it can be very harmful for the coal mining chemicals to seep into the ground into our drinking water.

Is the Conodoguinet creek polluted? I thought it was, but multiple tests from my peers and I proved my hypothesis wrong. To prove our hypotheses, my peers and I did multiple tests of the organisms living in the creek. We also tested the water quality. You may be wondering, “ How does this apply to me?” “ Why should I care?”, the fact is that the Conodoguinet runs through 100 miles of Pennsylvania. It runs through farms, towns, communities, and maybe even your backyard. So, making sure we protect it should concern all of us.

Tens of business closed up, which directly affected a large number of households. The coal mining operations companies also left environmental contaminants in the environment. Pollutions from coal mining have a direct effect on water, land air. Some of the pollutants contaminate ground water, surface water and impact on other land-uses. Besides the slope failure and explosion, environmental impact from coal mining causes erosion; leachates production, which seeping into ground water, and dust pollution. Heavy metals compound like lead, cadmium and arsenic dominates coal mining sites (Bhuiyan, Parvez, Islam, & Dampare, 2010). These metals are toxic to plant and animal. Some absorb some of these dissolved metals and introduce them into the food circle. When rainwater mixes with coal waste, the runoffs becomes acidic, which reduce PH of surface waters. (Komitas, 2001) Population inhaling coal dust suffers black lung disease and other complication like lung cancer, and heart failure (Finkelman & Orem, 2002). Coal mining in uranium mines is another source of radioactive exposure. Another environmental impact from coal mined lands includes emission of greenhouse gasses. Future land redevelopment in grand Cache, must deal with this issues before development could take

Water contamination is the next major concern of environmental groups. The Environmental Protection Agency, the governmental regulatory agency created in 1970 to manage the enforcement of environmental policy, states its concerns in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009 (United). Specifically addressing mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the EPA expressed serious concerns over water pollution from strip mining (“EPA”). The rupture of an ash dike at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, TN on December 22, 2008 granted credibility to the EPA’s concerns. In an article published by in Environmental Health Perspectives, Rhitu Chatterjee comments on the poisonous substances contained in ash produced from processing coal, listing

The main pollutant of surface water in the mid-Atlantic region is Acid Mine Drainage, AMD, also called Abandoned Mine Drainage. AMD is a nonpoint source pollution that has degraded more than 4,500 stream miles, in just the mid-Atlantic region, due to the drainage of metal-rich water from mining activities (Jacobs). The runoff is extremely acidic due to the exposure of pyrite containing rocks, a sulfur bearing mineral (FeS2), during mining activities, and the chemical reactions associated with the contact of air and water with such rocks. As a result of such chemical reactions, sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is produced. Several chemical reactions take place and are as follows:

Cumberland Metal Industries (CMI) was a company which sold metal as raw material in other products. After the company had developed the product – Slip Seal that could meet the demanding specification of the automakers, it had grown rapidly over the past decade. The sales increased from $750,000 in 1991 to over $55 million in 2007. However, the sales decreased from 61 million in 2006 to 55 million in 2007, a net decrease of 9.5%, the net profit decreased from 5.7 million in 2006 to 3.5 million in 2007, a net decrease of 38.7%. The company was under the pressure to diversity its products in order to increase the sales and the net profit. CMI had developed new product, curled metal

b) Recycling household and car batteries keeps heavy metals such as mercury, lithium and cadmium from being released into our air and water. Heavy metals, when consumed by people and other animals, cause numerous health problems and diseases.

Another threat to the environment is acid mine drainage (also known as acid rock drainage). Acid mine drainage is "the outflow of acidic water from a mining site." This acid is formed by the oxidation of iron sulfide. The oxidation occurs when iron sulfide is exposed to the air or to dissolved oxygen in the water, which causes the iron to rust and the sulfur reacts with the water to forum sulfuric acid (Coil, D., McKittrick, E., and Higman, B., 2010). Figure 2 illustrates the sulfuric acid that is formed.

The inorganic metals that often plague brownfields include arsenic, cadmium, zinc, nickel and copper. However, the bioavailability of other problematic metals such as lead and chromium are very low and require more advanced resources and strategies in order to be extracted. In addition to these toxic metals, it has been suggested that phytoextraction techniques can be used to remove radionuclides that exist in sites with mixed wastes. Radionuclide refers to any element that emits radiation and that can cause cancer through drinking water that it contaminates. In addition to the environmental and health concerns that brownfields pose, there are also many sociological impacts associated with them.