Portage Creek Disaster

Gerald M. Stern’s novel, The Buffalo Creek Disaster, helps students better understand the civil procedure process by describing the process through an actual case Stern himself litigated. The case began in 1972 after a dam collapsed in Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, killing 125 people and destroying many homes. Other than property damage and loss of loved ones, those who survived suffered what Stern referred to as psychic impairment, or mental suffering. Stern’s lawsuit involved 625 plaintiffs suing the Pittston Coal Group, or the stockholder of the Buffalo Mining Company, for compensatory and punitive damages. Stern had to choose a court and a judge, decide how much relief the plaintiffs were seeking, depose witnesses, and work with the defendant’s counsel

The State of Colorado has suffered from a water shortage in recent years; a difficult situation which is easily visible when viewing the quickly shortening length of the Colorado River. Lake Mead, for example, is roughly 130 feet lower than it once was, marked by the stained rock which towers above the current water level. “The river has become a perfect symbol of what happens when we ask too much of a limited resource: it disappears. In fact, the Colorado no longer regularly reaches the sea” (Zielinski, 2010). Legislation was implemented early on to address this issue, though the results were (perhaps not surprisingly) rather unanticipated, regarding

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

In this short essay, the author will critically review Gerald M. Stern's The Buffalo Creek Disaster in terms of critiquing the author's thesis, supporting arguments, supporting evidence and authority, style, and content. It will also place the work in the context of the larger debate about the relationship between law and business. It is the position of this author that Mr. Sterns' position is correct and this position will be supported in the essay.

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

The Buffalo Creek flood of West Virginia is believed to be the most devastating coal relate disaster in West Virginia history. The flood occurred in the Buffalo Creek area of Logan County on February 26, 1972 when three dams broke and released 132 million gallons of water and coal waste known by miners as “gob,” and is a thick sludge-like material. The gob contains many toxic chemicals and pollutants such as mercury and arsenic that are left behind from the coal mining process. The wastewater would lie in settling ponds and dams until it could be properly disposed of. The water that was left over from processing coal would be disposed of in two different ways. Some of the water would be pumped from the dam back to the “tipple”, otherwise

“During the early 1900’s the discovery of oil and natural gas in areas around Baton Rouge attracted chemical companies to the city” (Reilly). Since the beginning of the 1900’s Louisiana has been a large refining state, one may say one of the best, but also one of the most damaging. It can be safely said that since the start of refining in Louisiana well over a billion pounds of pollution has been released. In 2011 alone over a million pounds of chemicals were released into the air and a separate 1.3 million had been released into the water. All of Louisiana’s 17 refineries reported accidents contributing to these chemical spills (Sturgis). The numbers that have been presented so far may not seem out of the ordinary

The owners of the mines preyed on immigrants from outside of the United States with promises of bringing them to the United States, bringing them to Colorado, setting them up with a job and housing and

Studies have repeatedly shown that as oxygen concentrations decrease, the abundance and diversity of fish decrease (Breitburg). Fish kills, in which large numbers of dead and dying fish float to the surface or wash onto shore, are probably the most dramatic and publicly visible manifestation of hypoxia and nutrient over-enrichment of coastal waters(Breitburg). In addition to mass mortalities that are easily observed, high mortality of fish lacking a swim bladder can occur leaving little or no visible evidence of fish at the surface or littering beaches (Breitburg). With no fish, shrimp, or crabs the Louisiana fishing market takes a huge hit that the economy feels in a major way. The gulf accounts for almost one-fifth of the countries fishing landings, which total to be three billion dollars (Petrolia). Fishing is not only a major part of Louisiana’s economy but also its culture. Without wildlife in our waters microorganism are given more opportunity to grow leading to bacteria infected waters. These bacteria infected waters could cause major health risks for those who come in contact with

Often, toxic substances are being drained into the air, waterways, and undergrounds wells. According to the report by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 60 million pounds of deadly chemicals are produced by industries in Florida. Notably, Florida’s water has been suffering mercury contamination until the state’s department of migration issues a circular regularly for regulations of eating freshwater fish in the region (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). In fact, such metals emanate from coal combustion’s emissions which run into water bodies. Not to mention, pesticides and herbicides utilized by government and homeowners pollute the environment (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). Indeed, all chemicals released into the atmosphere find themselves in rivers.

When one thinks about an environmental disaster, the image of a large explosion in a highly industrial area comes to mind. Such is not the case in the Love Canal emergency. Unlike most environmental disasters, the events of Niagara Falls's Love Canal weren't characterized by a known and uncontrollable moment of impact. It developed over a period of several decades, since the effects of leaching chemicals is uncertain and slow in development and the visual effects are very limited. This disaster could have been identified earlier or later for as far as the rest of the world was concerned there was no emergency until the authorities made it public. The importance of Love Canal is that acknowledging the danger that existed

As I sat next to the loud river that was bursting out of the Sylvan Dam, I noticed the water was in an invariable battle with the rocks, crashing and thrashing against each other like medieval warriors scraping for land. I looked around the edges of the river to see the copiousness of colors from the trees contrasting the sinister blue water. The rapids put off a pleasant and dulcet sound that ultimately ended in me having to relieve some building pressure down the trail. After returning to my riverside view, I noticed that farther down the gleaming river, fish were jumping and flipping like delicious pancakes on a griddle. Making the split-second decision to fish, I sprinted to my 1999 black Chevy Silverado, unlatched the tailgate and snatched all of my waterproof fishing gear. Slipping on my Mossberg max 4 Camo Gander Mountain guided series waders is no easy chore. While looking like the most incapable human being ever I finally managed to slip on the foul scum smelling waders that I so dearly should have washed. Feeling like a professional mountain climber, I started scaling the steep inclement of the river bank. Stomping my insulated waders into the frigid dour murky water, I ventured my path out onto a construction of rocks forming a beautiful approach for spotting fish. I released my light green jointed shad Rapala from my St. Croix Legend Elite spinning rod and casted the shad into pooling backwater just off of my rocky approachment. Feeling the vibration of the shad through my rod, smacking against slime covered rocks and ripping through dense weedy areas. I felt aspirant to not get hung up on a rock resulting in a line break, I successfully retrieved my lure. After casting and reeling my line several times and just started zoning out, I was abruptly startled to hear a ruckus coming from the west side embankment. Glancing quickly back to the water to see where my lure was only to hear a loud splash coming from the same place where I first noticed the ruckus. Three deer, with golden brown fur coated enrolled into the water. Realizing that the leaders of the small herd were both doe’s and a younger buck eagerly followed. The buck had a nice six-point rack, with long tines and a wide spread. He kept his

The Pike River Mining Disaster wasn’t predicted and therefore led to unplanned changes in the Greymouth community and Pike River Mine Ltd.

This major marine accident resulted in huge financial losses and had a considerable social impact due to damage to the water pipeline laid down on the seabed which caused no water supply to the residents of the Island. This incident could result in great damage to the reputation of NYK Group due to press conference being held and its news being spread out widely by some media in

For instance, Rufe, who is a scientist, states that we have not developed an approach that can clean more than 3 to 5 percent of the spilled oil” (Mufson, 2012). Furthermore, In the Gulf of Mexico, although 205.8 million gallons of oil have been spilled, just 51.8 million gallons have been collected, which equals approximately 25 percent. Moreover, in order to clean the Gulf from the oil spills almost 2 million gallons of toxic dispersants were used. Unfortunately, the toxic dispersants did not truly purify the spilled oil, but fractured them into tinier particles. As a consequence, that may make the oil more harmful for some ocean animals and plants ( A Center for Biological Diversity Report, 2008). However, with the increasing of offshore oil drilling accidents, and with no solution to solve the problem efficiently. The hazardous impact is not going to affect only on animals and plants. It might affect people who depend on the polluted area for food, ecological enrichment, and entertainment ( A Center for Biological Diversity Report,