In October 20, 1917, the U.S. Army’s oldest active proving ground was established located in Aberdeen, Maryland. Chemical weapons were developed on these grounds, and the U.S. Army used the Aberdeen Proving Ground to develop, test, store, and dispose of chemical weapons. Three chemical engineers named Carl Gepp, William Dee, and Robert Lentz, who were high-level, senior management levels at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, would eventually become notoriously known as the Aberdeen Three.
In 1976 the Resource Conservation Recovery Act was passed. This act is a main federal law in the United States that governs disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. The act also generates criminal liability for anyone who knowingly handles hazardous waste without an RCRA permit. The Aberdeen Proving Grounds complied with the RCRA regulation and obtained a permit for management of hazardous waste materials at the proving grounds; however, only three separate areas at Aberdeen were designated for storage of hazardous wastes under this permit, and it did not allow storage, treatment, or disposal of hazardous wastes at the Pilot Plant or the Old Pilot Plant where the three engineers worked.
In 1982, Aberdeen announced a regulation called APG 200-2. The procedure was simple. Managers were to report any waste materials that were believed to be toxic, carcinogenic, caustic, ignitable, or reactive and were required to fill out a form known as a hard card. Once a hard card was received, designated Aberdeen organizations were responsible for transporting hazardous wastes to the permitted storage areas. The APG 200-2 regulation was both specific and extremely thorough. A standard operating procedure was issued in 1982 and reissued in 1984 as CRDCR 710-1.
...
... middle of paper ...
...ave been reprimanded by the engineering association and had their engineering licences revoked.
Based on the evaluation, all three engineers made an unethical decision to ignore the proper handling, regulations, and procedures of the hazardous wastes they were working with which put the welfare of the environment, general public, and co-workers at jeopardy and should, therefore, be held accountable and criminally responsible for their negligence in accordance to the Resource Conservation Recovery Act.
Works Cited
"Roofing Calculator – Estimate Your Roof Costs." Roofing Calculator. (n.d.) Retrieved, February 3,
2014, from http://www.roofcalc.org
Bilodeau L. & Podger, J., (2012, June). Shift. Sustainability Initiatives at UBC’S Okanagan Campus.
Retrieved, February 3, 2014, from http://www.ubc.ca/okanagan/sustainability/__shared/assets/shift201231467.pdf
3Brophy, L. (1959). The Chemical Warfare Service (1st ed.). Washington: Office of the Chief of
... discussed within the scope of this paper but can be found in parts 3745-81-80 to 3745-81-90 of the Administrative Code (OEPA, n.d).
The history around Dugway Proving Ground is interesting, because it was built in the spring of 1942, and testing started in the summer of 1942. They wanted to build this place quick as possible, because it was back during World War II. The mission of Dugway Proving Ground is to test, implement United States and Allied biological and chemical weapon defense systems in a secure and isolated environment. (DPG, March 2014) Dugway Proving Ground was established by the US Army Chemical Warfare Service, because they wanted a more secluded testing site than the one they had in the US Army Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. Dugway Proving Ground consisted of 802 thousand acres. (DPG, Mar 2014) All that meant was they wanted to find a place that was not as visible to the people, and stayed...
The movie “A Civil Action” released on January 8, 1999 provides viewers with an extraordinary story of the nightmare that occurred in Woburn Massachusetts in the late 1970’s. The people of this small town at the time had no idea what was going on until there were various cases of Leukemia in small children that ultimately resulted in the early passing of them. The people eventually had gone to find out that the drinking water in this small town was contaminated and there were many women that stepped in to get answers. This movie is a tremendously jaw dropping, eye opening account of a heartbreaking true story incident. There are various elements of negligence in this movie including, duty, legal cause, proximate cause and damages.
Looking back at how the chemical weaponry expanded starting in the beginning of World War 1, it all began with Tear gas which was used by the French in August of 1914. Those techniques have been used in ancient times. Moving forward eight months in to the war the Germans have been giving great study in to the development of chemical weapons due to the first usage from the French and witnessed its great effectiveness and were the first to use it in a large scale.
Weapons manufactured at Rocky Mountain Arsenal included both conventional and chemical munitions, including White Phosphorus (M34 grenade), Napalm, Mustard Gas, Lewisite, and Chlorine Gas. Rocky Mountain Ars...
The Superfund program, which was better known as just Superfund, is also known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability act (CERLA) of 1980 was developed by the federal government as a way to preserve and protect the ecosystem and to clean up toxic, uncontrolled, abandoned hazardous waste sites. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p.577). The Superfund program cleans up any hazardous waste, be it abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped; any of which may pose a threat to future or current health or the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency works with the community, the responsible parties or the potential responsible party in identifying these hazardous waste sites in formulating plans to clean up these sites. Superfund provides laws and standards for the disposal and storage of such wastes. In addition, the Superfund program provides emergency financial support to existing environmental agencies to monitor removal of toxins, and to provide emergency cleanup services, provide monetary reparation to people who faced health or financial difficulties and concerns from toxic waste, and, if needed, to help enact emergency evacuation procedures. Superfund also provides for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites, and can establish a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries to make available for cleanup when no responsible party could be recognized. The National Priorities List, or NPL, is a list of the worst hazardous waste sites that have been identified by Superfund. (Boorse & Wright, 2011, p. 578). Any site on the NPL is eligible for cleanup using Superfund Trust money.
Clark, D. K. (1959). Effectiveness of chemical weapons in WWI. Bethesda, Md.: Operations Research Office, Johns Hopkins University.
U.S. Army Chemical School. (n.d.). History of the Chemical Corps (Essay). Retrieved May 18, 2014, from cbrn.wood.army.mi: https://cbrn.wood.army.mil/bbcswebdav/pid-47873-dt-content-rid-173075_1/courses/031_494-74D40-C46_CBRN_SLC_Phase_1_2014_000_01_N/031-SLA05%20History%20of%20Chem%20Corps%20%28essay%29%281%29.pdf
There are many ethical issues in the movie Erin Brockovich. This movie is about a mother of three who uncovers a water poisoning case by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in southern California. Once it was proved that the company had knowingly dumped hexavalent chromium into the ground water, the utility company was found liable for a $330 million dollar verdict.
The leveling effect of governmental action is indispensable in producing improvements in product safety and pollution reduction. It does little good to exhort engineers to insist that their ideas on safety or pollution be adopted, if the effect would be to jeopardize their employer’s welfare. If such actions result in damaging their employers, have they properly fulfilled the ethical obligations they accepted when they accepted employment? In return for a salary, there is an implied obligation that an employee will help indulge the employer’s
As you can see, the road of managing radioactive wastes is more complicated to what it first lets on to be. There are many different classifications of the wastes and many different ways that the waste can be disposed of and stored depending on the classification of it. The NRC picks up a big responsibility in seeing to that all the radioactive wastes are dealt with properly. Without these rules it is very likely that these potentially hazardous materials become a major problem to the health of the population and the environment.
In the first proposition, AVA Solar proposes to use solar energy in place of fossil fuel to reduce carbon emission rates. Although solar energy is an excellent method of generating clean “green” energy, has a popular appeal, and is typically given high marks in regards to “green” technology. This process raises concerns due to the use of cadmium, a toxic element used in solar panels that raises concerns about cancer. As an engineer, the first fundamental canon in the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) codes of ethics is, “Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public”. Therefore, an engineer’s moral obligation is to not create or innovate something that is going to harm people. However, as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) code, states that “Engineers should be committed to improving the environment, to enhance the quality of life” (sec 1.f). In another ASCE document, “The role of an engineer is sustainable development”. As a result, an engineer in his decision should consider both the NSPE first code of ethics and also follow the ASCE code.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) was established to protect communities and resource conservation. The statute's regulatory target is to regulate the "generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste." Under RCRA, land disposal of wastes would be safer than it had previously been. The statute establishes a statutory structure that identifies and lists hazardous wastes, cradle-to-grave tracking system, standards for both generators and transporters of hazardous wastes, operators of the treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facilities, as well as a permit system to enforce these standards and procedures for states to administer these permits. RCRA has become the statute that prevents waste disposal
NET failed to recognize or react to either situation. It is imperative to understand that NET was liable for its employees but the employees, as individuals were also liable for their actions. NET lacked the system controls necessary to keep the company liability to a minimum on this issue. Usually with failures such as these, the system internal controls are this company is lacking the most. Ethical behavior among management is key to ethical behavior among employees.