Turning Point In American Attitudes About Water Pollution

When you think of problems in the world today, water pollution isn’t one that would normally come up. In fact it is one of the worst problems in the world today. Water pollution, by definition, is the contamination of streams, lakes, underground water, bays, or oceans by any substances harmful to living things. All living things contain water and most need water to survive, so water pollution is a big problem. If severe, the pollution can kill off birds, fish, and any animals that use the water source. In some cases even killing an entire species.

The prevalence of environmental issues in the public awareness reached a point where government was forced to take action in 1979. When Henry Love abandoned construction of a canal in New York in 1920, the site was bought by Hooker Chemical and used as a toxic chemical waste dumping site for the next 33 years (Schons 2011). Then in 1953 Hooker Chemical sold the Love Canal to the school board, and construction of a school began. In the mid to late 1970s, when children’s shoes began melting to the ground and children got sick the residents organized and protested. Media coverage increased and showed toxic black sludge oozing into people’s basements (Schons 2011). The lack of awareness of environmental and health consequences of chemical dumping

as others, but all are harmful. They vary due to the amount they contain of

Recently, a contractor working for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unintentionally released 3 million gallons of toxic mine waste into the Animas River in the Mountain West state of Colorado. Today, people in the US are debating the efficacy of the EPA (the right-wing is using the spill as anti-government propaganda) and the toxic aftermath the spill will undoubtedly have on local economies, communities and ecosystems. So far, the spill has "contaminated the Animas River, San Juan River, and the Colorado River in Utah."

On June 10th, 1999 a gasoline pipeline ruptured in Whatcom Falls Park. This park is located in Bellingham, Washington where the pipeline was controlled by the Olympic Pipeline Company. This break in the gasoline pipeline let over a million liters of gasoline flow into a nearby river in the park. After about an hour and a half the gasoline in the river ignited and caught on fire. The fire burnt along the river for one and a half miles. As a result of the gasoline catching on fire, three people were killed with another eight people injured. It has been estimated that total damages to property reach as high as 45 million dollars. This pipeline explosion was a horrible disaster that could have been avoided for a variety of reasons.

Oil spills are a major problem in america, but the government doesn’t want you to know that. Just like how they didn’t want you to know that “People that worked on the 2010 oil spill cleanup have reported eye, nose, and throat problems, blood in the urine, seizures, vomiting, nausea, respiratory issues, skin problems, liver and kidney problems, nervous system damage, miscarriages, and other health problems.”(SoftSchools). Now imagine what will happen to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe once their drinking water becomes toxic after putting in the Dakota Access pipeline. Although Trump and the big banks are supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline, activists like the Native Americans and stars like Shailene Woodley are standing up for what is right, such as clean water and peace.

Since the time of the American Industrial Revolution in the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries there have been a tremendous amount of technological advances, unfortunately, they also resulted in a substantial amount of environmental pollution/impact. Moreover, it took a burning river in Cleveland to rally the U.S. Congress into action. “On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River burst into flames, sparks from a passing train set fire to oil soaked debris floating on the water’s surface” (Latson, 2015, para.1). To add insult to injury, this “wasn’t the first time the river caught fire, or even the worst, on the Cuyahoga, the river had flared up at atleast a dozen times in the past” (Latson, 2015, para. 3). However, it

In 1952 a fire caused a million dollars’ worth of damage to river boats and riverfront businesses. On June 22, 1969 another river fire engulfed the river, this time the media coverage captured the attention of the nation. Time Magazine described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather that flows” and in which a person “doesn’t drown but decays”. Many of the residents of Cleveland accepted the pollution as a necessary evil because they had jobs at these factories. This article helped the people of Cleveland pass a 100 million dollar bond to clean up the Cuyahoga River. Much of the industry that both made Cleveland rich and caused its river to burn may never be coming back. The costs of these fires were tremendous, but it did help lead to laws being passed to prevent this from happening in other rivers. One such law was the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin explores the history of one town’s struggle and analyzed the epidemiology in Toms River, New Jersey. The drama and conflicts between public health, large chemical companies, and actors in this book present real scenarios that occurs in an environmental dilemma. Toxic chemicals, acid-laced wastewater, and private dumping grounds that impacted the community’s health is essential to acknowledge for improvements of waste management and prevention. Indeed, Toms River becomes a lesson for future studies and relevant to the study of environmental

If too much fuel is found and the water becomes so contaminated it’s undrinkable, half a million people could be left without water. BNSF already proved that they’re not careful enough. “According to Rachael Paschal Osborn, a water-quality activist and attorney in Spokane… ‘This is not wild-eyed fear. Burlington Northern’s track record is horrible… They have polluted aquifers across the country’” (Taylor). Have they done anything to prove that this time is any different? They haven’t done anything different. Through the years, several aquifers all over the country have been ruined by acts similar to what BNSF has shown. For example, in an article in the Havre Daily News in January, 2004, written by Patrick Winderl, DEQ, or the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, estimated that in Havre, Montana nearly half a million gallons of diesel fuel have been leaked or spilled by BNSF between the years 1940 and 1970, and in many or all of these instances, this fuel has gotten into the groundwater. They haven’t provided solid evidence that this time will be any different than any of the times, and if they don’t make changes soon, it’s possible the Rathdrum Prairie-Spokane Valley aquifer could become just

After the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez, the US realized that the National Pollution Funds Center was not adequately funded, and the laws were not current on how to respond to this type of a crisis. In particularly, they were insufficient in funding, and the ability to handle the capacity of the damages to compensate under federal law.

In December 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that fracking operations could be responsible for groundwater pollution.“Today’s methods make gas drilling a filthy business. You know it’s bad when nearby residents can light the water coming out of their tap on fire,” says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. What’s causing the fire is the methane from the drilling operations. A ProPublica investigation in 2009 revealed methane contamination was widespread in drinking water in areas around fracking operations in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. The presence of methane in drinking water in Dimock, Pa., had become the focal point for Josh Fox’s investigative documentary, Gasland, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Documentary; Fox also received an Emmy for non-fiction directing. Fox’s interest in fracking intensified when a natural gas company offered $100,000 for mineral rights on property his family owned in Milanville, in the extreme northeast part of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of Dimock.

The one thing humans need on this planet to survive is water. If we need water to survive, then why are polluting it? Most of our nation’s waterways are in terrible condition because of the pollution in the water. Water pollution not only can cause illnesses, but also deaths for humans. Humans aren’t the only thing that water pollution causes harm to. It is also hurting our ecosystem. Humans are the leading cause of most water pollution. We keep throwing wastes into the water making the water unsafe for humans to drink. Scientists are coming up with ways for humans to decrease the amount of wastes they are putting in the water. We need to stop polluting the one thing that keeps us alive.

Pollution has had a shocking impact in the atmosphere for including many irreparable damages to ocean life, serious health issues to human beings, and negative changes to the environment. Pollution is a man-made global dilemma which is increasing to a serious magnitude. Human beings, the number one culprit, seem to be blind to this matter. Humans’ inability to clearly see the problem they are creating, will be one of the causes for the world to be no more.

Love Canal was a devastating disaster that affected many people in the 1990’s. To find my facts and information I used CNN and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The Love Canal was made by William T. Love on the eastern edge of the Niagara Falls in New York. Love dug a short canal over and under the Niagara Rivers, to get power for the homes and industry in the town. When Nikola Tesla figured out how to move energy safely, Love quit, leaving a ditch where his unfinished project remained. Later on, a company called the Hooker Chemical Company wanted to buy the land. Love cover the ditch in dirt and just months after the company bought it, the canal exploded due to heavy rainfall. After it exploded, eighty-two different oils and dangerous