Priya Bajwa
Mrs. Skelton
English 4*
March 15, 2014
Hazardous Landfills: A Growing Problem
A landfill is a facility of disposal, storage, and treatment for waste products. Landfills can often excrete hazardous toxins, which may put the surrounding environment and people’s health in danger. These waste sites are positioned all across the United States and the world. The dreadful health and environmental effects of hazardous landfills can be deflated by the reduction of exposure to the population and by the selection of appropriate locations.
The environment can be threatened by nearby hazardous landfills. Even though these landfills are supposedly going through several inspections, many times they are not completely up to safety requirements: “…82% of surveyed landfill cells had leaks while 41% had a leak area of more than 1 square foot” (Connett). These surveyed landfills cells are most likely leaking many toxic substances, such as leachate and greenhouse gases. These toxins often leak into our groundwater and soil becoming environmental hazards and contributing to pollution; in fact, pollution is generated by over ten toxic gases that are released from hazardous landfills. Leachate, one of the toxins, is formed when broken down waste is filtered by water. It is a highly toxic liquid and pollutes waterways, land, and groundwater (Environment Victoria). Greenhouse gases, another type of toxin, are formed when organic material is compacted and covered, which abolishes the oxygen and causes it to decompose in an anaerobic process. The anaerobic process releases a greenhouse gas called methane, which is twenty-one times more potent than carbon dioxide. It is a highly flammable gas and was detected in 83% of surveyed landfills (En...
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...der for this to happen, regulation rules and enforcement need to be more rigid and scrupulous. The first step would be to continuously monitor the chemical levels in the surrounding groundwater and soil to ensure they are absolutely below hazardous. To reduce leakage, liners (layered clay and plastic sheets) should be utilized. Next, the policies need to be tighter to certify that there is no landfill with leaking toxins and that there is “corrective action for any potential leakages from waste sites” (Propex).
Hazardous landfills are a developing problem, and they will continue to expand if rigorous action is not taken. Thousands of people are affected by the hazards of many landfills all across the United States. By reducing exposure to the population and selecting pertinent locations, the distressing effects of hazardous landfills can be enormously compressed.
The Lowry Landfill Superfund Site is located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, approximately 2 miles east of Aurora. It consists of approximately 507 acres of waste disposal area and is operated by Waste Management of Colorado, Inc. The land surrounding the site consists of native prairie grass and a wetland located along a local creek. Sections around the site are zoned for agricultural use including cattle grazing and non-irrigated wheat farms. 1 The area is home to numerous endangered species including the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. Due to the large amounts of wastes disposed on the site between 1965 and 1980, it became extremely contaminated with a variety of inorganic and organic contaminants. From 1984 to 1993, the EPA oversaw remedial investigation and feasibility studies that were performed by all responsible parties. Since its listing as a superfund site in 1984, multiple remedial actions have been performed in order to rehabilitate the site. These include clay barrier walls around the site, a groundwater collection system, a soil cover for the main landfill, as well as a landfill gas collection system. Groundwater that is collected on the site is treated at an onsite water treatment facility. In 2007, construction began on an onsite gas to energy plant that utilizes the methane produced by the landfill site. The electricity produced by the plant is enough to power 3000 households. 1 Today, use of land and groundwater on and near the site is still restricted by the state of Colorado.1
The Stewarts moved into a neighborhood near the previously established Los Lobos Landfill (“Landfill”). However, the Stewarts noticed an increasingly offensive odor from Landfill supported by the filing of over a thousand odor complaints in 1992. These complaints resulted in City ordering a halt to Landfill’s composting activities in March 1993. This order resulted in Landfill’s composting permits to be withheld until the California Waste Board resolved the issue. Citizens United for Responsible Environmentalism (CURE), begun by the Stewarts, conducted a study that correlated health issues, composting, and Aspergillus fumigatus (fungus) concentration increases. City convened an Advisory Panel (Panel) that determined that Landfill’s composting
Writers have always drawn inspiration from real events for their stories. Joyce Carol Oates is now being criticized as unethical for just that. The critics claim that it was not ethical for Oates to use the events that befell John Fiocco Jr. in her story "Landfill", and also for including many similarities between Fiocco and her main character Hector Campos Jr.. Though there are some similarities between the two, the differences were great enough that only some who knew of the Fiocco case. Because of this, Joyce Carol Oates' decision to use Fioccos' death as a fictional basis was ethical.
Low-income communities are disproportionately living in close proximity to waste related sites in the U.S. To support this claim, reports show that three of out five of the largest landfills in the United States are located in predominantly African American or Latina/o American communities (Hamilton, 6). From this report it is evident that low-income communities are left with the burden of supporting the lifestyles of this consumer society. Although they are the least likely to consume and thus create waste, low-income residents live in communities where they are exposed to degraded environments. To understand why low-income communities live in close proximity to waste related sites, waste corporations claim, “Residents on average are much poorer, less well educated and more likely to be African American than t...
Empowerment is the act of earning power or getting empowered to achieve something. But when you get empowered by someone else it can make it 10 times easier to achieve your goal. Some of the most successful people in life had someone to help them through the good and the bad times. You acquire encouragement to keep going when you want to give up. You also gain more knowledge to complete your goal in less time. Empowerment of others makes your goal easier to reach and your life a fairly easier.
When in turn, it is the roads and the automobiles that are placing more toxins into the air than needed before. According to the work by Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Vehicular admissions are responsible for nearly seventy percent of admissions. Of course, there are other culprits, but car admissions are holding the biggest responsibility. (Gupta 18) Not to mention the trash and left over debris from all the people who have been a part of the construction or the individuals who cannot seem to find a stable trash can anywhere in site. Within my own personal home, my own plants can barely stay alive do to the harsh climates and the constant irrigation issues killing all of the grass in my yard.
It is quite possible for the Earth to turn into a large landfill or garbage dump, however it is quite certain a preventative measure will be developed before that can happen. When looking at emission data, one can conclude that the Earth would have possibly succumbed to global warming as seen in the movie. In a study by Aljaradin & Persson (2016) the emission potential was tested on a solid waste landfill in Jordan. After 200 days, showed a methane content of over 45% and 15.7 l of Leachate was produced (Aljaradin & Persson, 2016:45). Methane is an important greenhouse gas, and one of the causes of global warming. Methane is 84 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in a shorter time (over the first 20 years). Leachate contributes greatly to the pollution of ground and surface water when improperly managed. Therefore it could be entirely possible that these landfills and dump sites caused the entire planet to succumb to the effects of global warming and uncontrollable
Recycling. What does this word mean to you? Do you recycle? Do you support or oppose the act of it? What is written in the following paragraphs may or may not help you make this one special planet in our solar system we call Earth; the only planet scientists know supports life. Recycling benefits many aspects of life. Recycling benefits the aesthetics of our daily environment, it makes our family and friends safer from sickness, it boosts our economy, and it allows us to make more use of the limited natural nonrenewable resources we have on our earth. Recycling will benefit life by reducing our environmental impact, preventing injury, boosting the economy, and extending the use we can make can make out of our resources.
b. Another myth about landfills is that they are poisoning the soil and our water supply. Even the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, says modern landfills pose little to no risk to humans. Modern landfills are built on a thick foundation of clay and plastic liners. Also, the methane gas produced in biodegradation is often...
In old batteries, there is a toxic lead that is causing health problems for the Taiwan people who are disposing these batteries (Gay, 12). Space is becoming a landfill from the excess of space flights and the radioactive supplies from nuclear reactors, which could come to our atmosphere and explode (Gay, 13). When businesses run out of space to dump their toxic trash they go to poor nations because they do not have strict safety regulations (Gay, 31). The landfills on Earth are not the only place trash is getting put. The ocean is being trashed with plastic bags, soda can holders, and large fishnets, which are harming dolphins, turtles, sea lions, and others (Gay, 69). Military bases in the U.S have more hazardous waste and are responsible for contamination in soil and waters (Gay, 83). There are other hazards happening because we are throwing away so much stuff that companies have to remake all of those products. Incinerators are places where waste is burned to ashes and if we recycle these can go away. Incinerators cause sulfur dioxide, carbon m...
Traditional methods of waste disposal have proven to be ineffective and have caused harmful effects on the environment. The most popular and inexpensive way to get rid of garbage is burial, but burying your problems does not necessarily mean getting rid of them. Landfill sites pose as severe ecological threats as these mass garbage dump yards overflow with trash and frequently contaminate our air, soil and water with hazardous wastes. About 400 million tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year1. A large-scale release of these materials can cause thousands of deaths and may poison the environment for many years. For example many industrial companies around the world cannot afford to enforce the strict pollution regulations set by many developed countries. This usually forces these types of companies to move to developing countries where pollution regulations are very lenient. These developing countries knowingly accept environmentally hazardous companies usually because they are in desperate need of employment. The harmful effects of these companies were clearly illustrated in the 1960s and 1970s when residents living near Minamata Bay, Japan, developed nervous disorders, tremors, and paralysis in a mysterious epidemic. The root was later found to be a local industry that had released mercury, a highly toxic element, into Minamata Bay. The disaster had claimed the lives of 400 people1. Since 1970 you can bet that a lot more than 400 people have died as a result of waste disposal. If the type of waste disposal were cheaper and effective we wouldn’t have to deal with waste problems, which still plague mankind today.
The United States produces “about 8.25 billion tons of solid wastes each year” (Russell 1). People do not realize the impact they have on our planet and environment. When people throw anything in the trashcan, they are contributing to the destruction of our planet. The number landfills in the United States are decreasing, but the amount and volume of waste being thrown into the new landfills is increasing (Russell 4). Because of this escalating amount of garbage, Methane which contributes to global warming is an outcome of these landfills (Russell 7). As a result, our planet is suffering because of this epidemic. The garbage being put in the landfills could be recycled, but not enough businesses, ...
...or lakes (Weber 2). When people just dump waste products instead of recycling, it is a misuse of the soil and can contribute to serious health conditions in animals, plants and humans.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different families. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on the nongovernmental organizations and ordinary people (para.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Wastes are the products of our consumptions in our daily life routines such as lunch, work, school and other things we do. Little things such as throwing out a piece of paper, we are producing waste by the seconds. After we consume a product we usually throw out what’s left that can’t be consumed any further. Results in producing waste, substance that are born after it’s been use or consume by us. At the end of each day we throw out a bag full of garbage, all of the materials in that bag (paper towels, cans, leftover foods and many other material’s) all of these are waste. Hospitals produce medical waste such as use needles for treating patients. Corporations produce papers, plastics, tires, steels, cans and many other type of solid waste which contribute to the pollutions that cause health risk and other environmental issues.