Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 2

2.0 LOVE CANAL ......................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 History of Love Canal ........................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Demographic Data............................................................................................................. 4
2.3 Epidemiologic Investigation.............................................................................................. 4
2.5 Environmental Cleanup ..................................................................................................... 6
3.0 SILENT SPRING...................................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Documented Cases ................................................................................................................ 8
4.0 URAVAN ............................................................................................................................... 12
4.1 History................................................................................................................................. 12
4.2 Environmental Concerns ................................................................................................. 13
4.3 Site Remediation .............................................................................................................. 13
4.4 Cleanup Exercise................................................................................................................. 14
4.41 Cleanup remedies include.............................................................................................. 14
4.5 Goals Achieved ................................................................................................................... 15
5.0 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 15
6.0 Reference ................................................................................................................................ 16

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
The impacts of disasters, whether natural or man-made, not only have human dimensions, but
environmental ones as well. Environmental conditions may exacerbate the impact of a disaster,
and vice versa, disasters have an impact on the environment. Deforestation, forest management
practices, agriculture systems etc. can exacerbate the negative environmental impacts of a storm
or typhoon, leading to landslides, flooding, silting and ground/surface water contamination.

Disasters in our natural world originate from mainly environmental catastrophes, earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions and extremes of weather, because they are the causes of the costliest and
deadliest events throughout history. They are also the least predictable among the many kinds of
disasters, so there are good reasons to study them and to continue the search for answers to their
predictability. Human tragedies, or events that frequently involve human choices, must also be
included in the study of disasters, since they, unlike the environmental disasters, will continue to
increase in the future in both frequency of occurrence and extent of damage. It is of great
importance that disasters are fully understood, so as to ascertain the preservation of our global
environment.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and droughts are familiar events, which
we feel we have little control over. All we think we can do is minimize damage to people and
property. Human induced disasters, however, appear to be fundamentally different. They are
regarded as the results of human error or malicious intent and whatever happens when they occur
leaves us with the feeling that we can prevent a recurrence. In fact, the difference between these
two types of disasters is not at all crystal clear. More and more we find that human activity is
affecting our natural environment to such an extent that we often have to reassess the causes of
so-called natural disasters, recognizing that preventable human error might have contributed to
some of the damage. Take, for example, the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The
firestorm that swept over the city immediately after the quake, causing far more damage than the
direct impact of the earthquake, could have been minimized had alternatives to the city’s water
mains been in place.

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2.0 LOVE CANAL

2.1 History of Love Canal

The Love Canal neighborhood is in the southeast section of the La Salle area of Niagara Falls,
New York. William T. Love, an 1890s visionary and entrepreneur, sought to develop a planned
industrial community, Model City, in the area. Waters from the Niagara River were to be routed
around the Niagara escarpment (the other famous attraction of the region, Niagara Falls) to
produce cheap hydroelectric power.

Model City never happened, but work on the canal to transport waters from the Niagara River
did. In 1942, Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation (now Occidental Chemical) purchased
the site of the Love Canal. Between 1942 and 1953 Hooker Chemical disposed of about 22,000
tons of mixed chemical wastes into the Love Canal.

Shortly after Hooker ceased use of the site, the land was sold to the Niagara Falls School Board
for a price of $1.00. In 1955, the 99th Street Elementary School was constructed on the Love
Canal property and opened its doors to students. Subsequent development of the area would see
hundreds of families take up residence in the suburban, blue-collar neighborhood of the Love
Canal.

Unusually heavy rain and snow falls in 1975 and 1976 provided high ground-water levels in the
Love Canal area. Portions of the Hooker landfill subsided, 55-gallon drums surfaced, ponds and
other surface water area became contaminated, basements began to ooze an oily residue, and
noxious chemical odors permeated the area. Physical evidence of chemical corrosion of sump
pumps and infiltration of basement cinder-block walls was apparent. Subsequent studies by the
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry would reveal a laundry list of 418 chemical
records for air, water, and soil samples in and around the Love Canal area.

In April of 1978 the New York Department of Health Commissioner, Robert Whalen, declared
Love Canal a threat to human health and ordered the fencing of the area near the actual old
landfill site.

In August, the Health Commissioner declared a health emergency at the Love Canal, closed the
99th Street School, and recommended temporary evacuation of pregnant women and young

3
children from the first two rings of houses around the site. Within a week, Governor Hugh Carey
announced the intended purchase of all "Ring 1" houses (later expanded to 238 houses in Rings 1
and 2). President Jimmy Carter simultaneously announced the allocation of federal funds and
ordered the Federal Disaster Assistance Agency to assist the City of Niagara Falls to remedy the
Love Canal site.

2.2 Demographic Data

 The Love Canal is a rectangular, 16-acre, below-ground-level landfill located in the

southeast corner of the City of Niagara Falls, Niagara County, about one-quarter mile
from the Niagara River.
 In 1970, the population of Niagara Falls was 85,615.
 Manufacturing, particularly of chemical and allied products, is the major industrial
enterprise of the county and city. According to 1970 data of the New York State
Department of Commerce, nine major chemical-producing companies employing a total
of 5,267 people were then located in the county.
 The Love Canal landfill is bordered on two sides by single family homes with a public
elementary school separating the northern and southern sections of the landfill.
 In July, 1978, in the homes immediately adjacent to the landfill there were resident 97
families composed of 230 adults and 134 children. During the 1977-78 school year, 410
students were enrolled at the school.
 At this writing, scientific analyses have identified 82 different chemical compounds at the
landfill, of which one is a known human carcinogen and 11 are known or presumed
animal carcinogens.

2.3 Epidemiologic Investigation

At the direction of Dr. Robert P. Whalen, State Health Commissioner, the Health Department's
Bureau of Occupational Safety and Chronic Disease Research dispatched teams of investigators
to the Love Canal area on June 19, 1978 to begin a house-to-house health survey of the 97
families living immediately adjacent to the landfill. A 29-page questionnaire, seeking

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information on present and past health status, family, social, occupational and residential history,
was developed for use by health department interviewers.

Based on preliminary analysis of data collected from these families, the survey was expanded to
include all residents living within a four block radius of the landfill site. As of August 20, 1978
medical investigators had spent 13,000 man-hours interviewing residents and had obtained
detailed health histories from all persons residing in 250 houses in the Love Canal area.

To contact persons who once lived on the Love Canal but subsequently moved to other areas, a
nation-wide toll-free hotline was established on August 14 and publicized in major news media
outlets throughout the country. During the first four days of the hotline's existence 256 calls were
received from people now living in 30 different states, 100 of whom identified themselves as
prior Love Canal residents.

In addition, with the assistance of technical staff from Roswell Park Memorial Institute (the
Health Department's cancer research and treatment center in Buffalo), blood samples were drawn
from more than 2,800 persons living in the Niagara County area. Due to public interest and
concern, additional blood sampling clinics were scheduled for various locations throughout
Niagara County to assure that samples were obtained from all persons with past associations with
the Love Canal who wished to be tested.

The ultimate goal of the Health Department's long-range epidemiologic investigation is to obtain
a detailed health profile of all persons who presently or ever lived near the Love Canal landfill to
determine whether these individuals are at higher risk for acute and/or chronic health disorders.

2.4 HUMAN TOXICITY OF CHEMICALS: To date, more than 80 chemical compounds

have been identified in the landfill by the Health Department's Division of Laboratories and
Research and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Eleven of these are known or
suspected of causing cancerous growth in laboratory animals, and one - benzene - is a well-
established human carcinogen.

Following is a list of some of the more important chemicals identified at the Love Canal site and
the human biologic hazards associated with them.

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 Compound Acute Effects Chronic Effects

benzene Narcosis Acute leukemia

Skin irritant Aplastic anemia
Pancytopenia
Chronic lymphatic leukemia
Lymphomas (probable)

toluene Narcosis (more powerful Anemia (possible)

than benzene) Leukopenia (possible)

benzoic acid Skin irritant

lindane Convulsions
High white cell counts

trichloroethylene Central nervous depression Paralysis of fingers

Skin irritant Respiratory and cardiac arrest
Liver damage Visual defects
Deafness

dibromoethane Skin irritant

benzaldehydes Allergen

methylene chloride Anesthesia (increased carboxy hemoglobin) Respiratory distress

Death

carbon tetrachloride Narcosis Liver tumors (possible)

Hepatitis
Renal damage

chloroform Central nervous narcosis

Skin irritant
Respiratory irritant
Gastrointestinal symptoms

2.5 Environmental Cleanup

Following issuance of Health Commissioner Whalen's August 2, 1978 order, the Department of
Environmental Conservation (DEC) assumed overall responsibility for reviewing remedial
engineering plans at the Love Canal.

Specifically, DEC would:

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  Provide onsite supervision of construction activity at the Love Canal site;
 Assist the Niagara County Board of Health in its mandate to abate the public health
nuisance at the site;
 Consult with the Niagara County Health Department, the State Department of Health and
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a long-range engineering
solution;
 Review the cleanup actions proposed by the county in the consultant report by
Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, which proposed the construction of a tile drainage
system in the southern section of the Love Canal site; DEC also must give final approval
to the detailed design and engineering plans;
 Review and approve plans to minimize hazardous exposure during construction;
 Conduct additional studies, in cooperation with the State and County Health Departments
and the City of Niagara Falls, to define the boundaries of the Love Canal landfill; to
measure, through continued air, water and soil sampling, the extent to which
contaminated waters have moved away from the site; to determine the extent of
groundwater aquifer contamination; and to determine the effectiveness of the proposed
drainage system to contain and remove the contaminated groundwater from the site.

2.6 Soils and Groundwater

A cross-section of soils at the site has shown that the top 4 to 6 feet of soil is moderately
permeable; beneath that is 30 to 40 feet of highly impermeable clay; and 40 feet below the
surface is limestone bedrock. The pollutants move easily through the top layer of soil, which has
allowed the contamination to infiltrate the basements. Although the pollutants probably don't
move in the lower tight clay soils, the pollutants may be leaking to the bedrock, which contains a
supply of groundwater.

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3.0 SILENT SPRING
This is a book that was first published in the United States in 1962, Silent Spring surveys
mounting evidence that widespread pesticide use endangers both wildlife and humans. The
Writer, Rachel Carson criticizes an irresponsible chemical industry, which continues to claim
that pesticides are safe, and imprudent public officials, who accept without question this
disinformation. As an alternative to the "scorched earth" logic underlying accepted pest control
practices, the she outlines the "biotic" approach; cheaper, safer, longer acting, natural solutions to
pest problems (for example, controlling the Japanese beetle by introducing a fungus that causes a
fatal disease in this insect).1

Carson was inspired by a friend to write this book. The friend about dying birds in her hometown
where the authorities had sprayed DDT to control mosquitoes. At about the same time, a
disastrous pesticide campaign against the fire ant of the Southeast was receiving national
attention. Since she was a former a science writer for the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service, Carson already had some acquaintance with research on pesticides, and she was ready to
speak out. Originally planned as an article, Silent Spring became a book of more than two
hundred pages when the only outlet she could find was the book publisher Houghton Mifflin.

3.1 Documented Cases

In the first chapter of the book, Carson describes a beautiful American town where residents,
farmers and wildlife live in harmony with each other. Farms and orchards are interspersed with
maple, birch, and pine trees along with foxes and deer live and romp in the misty woods. The
roadsides were lush with trees, ferns, and wildflowers and birds numerous, both in types and in
quantity. In the winter, tourist would gather to observe the numerous migrating birds. Trout is
plentiful in the streams, which have been good fishing spots since early settler times. Then a
mysterious blight strikes the area, and wildlife and farm animals die. People become ill, thus
caused doctors to be puzzled. The birds disappear along with other wildlife and farm animals.
Bees vanished, and the reality was that there were no fruits in the orchard, since there were no
bees to pollinate plants and trees. The vegetation died, thus making the availability of food
nonexistent.

1
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-silentspring/intro.html

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The town in the first chapter was acknowledged by Carson as being an imaginary one, but lest
the tale be dismissed as mere fantasy, she hastens to add that each of the catastrophes it cataloged
‘‘has actually happened somewhere, and many real communities have already suffered a
substantial number of them.’’2

In the second chapter of her book, Carson related that throughout earth's history, living things
have interacted with their environment but not changed it. In fact, the environment has often
played an important role in forming the different kinds of life, mainly plants and animals that
specifically adapt themselves to live in whatever their environments are.

Human beings therefore have gained the ability to reverse the roles and actually change the
environment they live in, and this power has become disturbingly great only over the past 70
years. Now humanity has irreversibly polluted the earth's air, water, and animal life (including
human life). The combination of radiation (released through nuclear explosions) and toxic
chemicals (purposely distributed as insecticides, herbicides, etc.) produces chemical deposits in
the earth, water, and living tissues of everything on earth.

The source of the ills described in chapter one, included potent synthetic poisons of relatively
recent design, proliferating at the rate of about five hundred a year, applied in massive quantities
virtually everywhere, with disastrous short and long term consequences for both wildlife and
humans. To convey the grave danger that these substances represent, she introduces an analogy
that will resurface over and over in Silent Spring: “pesticides are like atomic radiation-invisible,
with deadly effects that often manifest themselves only after a long delay.”

In chapter three a small handful of qualities that make the new pesticides so much more
dangerous than their predecessors were identified.

These qualities include:

 greater potency
 slower decomposition and
 a tendency to concentrate in fatty tissue.

2
http://www.enotes.com/silent-spring

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Carson clarifies the significance of the last two characteristics by pointing out that a toxin that
might not constitute a danger in small doses will ultimately do so if it accumulates in the body,
and also that substances with this propensity concentrate as one moves up the food chain.

Every human being now has contact with dangerous chemicals every moment of his life, even
from conception. These chemicals have made their way deep into the groundwater; they stay in
the soil to which they are applied, remaining detectable even 12 years later; they collect in the
fatty tissues of wild and domestic animals. Animals are so widely affected that scientists have a
hard time finding uncontaminated animals to serve as controls in experiments.

In chapters four, five, and six a triptych is formed that stresses the highly interconnectedness of
life in three biological systems - plant systems and those centered in water or soil. Given its
fluidity and interconnectedness, water is an extremely difficult place to contain a problem,
Carson points out. As an unintended result of runoff from agricultural spraying and of poisons
sometimes directly introduced in the water supply, groundwater nearly everywhere is tainted
with one or more potent toxins. The full extent of the problem, she worries, cannot even be
precisely measured because methods for screening the new chemicals have yet to be routinized.
In some instances, the danger lies in substances formed by unexpected reactions that take place
between individual contaminants; in such cases, toxins might escape detection even where tests
are available.

Chapter five explains the life cycle within soil-based ecosystems: rich soil gives rise to hearty
plant life; then the natural process of death and decay breaks down the plants, and the soil's
vitality is restored. Pesticides threaten this fundamental dynamic, fundamental not just for plants
but also for the higher organisms that live on plants. An insecticide applied to control a particular
crop-damaging insect depletes the microbial life within the soil that facilitates the essential
enrichment cycle, hence the millions of pounds of chemical fertilizer required each year by
factory-farms.

In chapter six, Carson's focus shifts from insecticides to herbicides. The general picture that
emerges is of a deceptive chemical industry and ill-informed public authorities spending large

10
sums of taxpayers' money undermining whole ecosystems to eradicate one or two nuisance
species.3

In chapter seven, called "Needless Havoc,'' Carson's attention turns to the people behind
pesticides, the public officials who are responsible for the widespread use of these dangerous
chemicals.

She lists some of the ways humans have done great damage to other life forms: the slaughter of
buffalo, the massacre of shorebirds, and the near decimation of egrets for their feathers. Now the
chemical killings join this litany of destruction. Chemical insecticides applied to the land and
water is killing every conceivable kind of creature. Birds, fish, and mammals of all sizes are
dying, along with the targeted insects. Citizens must discern for themselves who is telling the
truth: the wildlife biologists and forestry experts who decry the mass killing of so much life or
the chemical-wielding entomologists who overlook the terrible flaws in their programs of blanket
spraying. Carson encourages her readers to examine the evidence for themselves. Wildlife is
unlikely to bounce back after sprayings that kill large numbers of birds, bees and animals.

In chapter fifteen titled “Nature Fights Back”, Carson said that despite our efforts to control
insect populations by mass application of new chemicals, the insects keep coming back. Insects
are genetically adapting to the chemicals we use, they are becoming resistant, but even worse
than that, our chemical attacks on insects have weakened entire ecosystems, so that the natural
enemies of the targeted insects are destroyed, along with the targets. This creates an ideal
environment for the unwanted insects to reinfest an environment where their unfettered
reproduction will not be challenged. Humans have been ignoring the powerful forces at work in
the balance of nature and arrogantly asserting their dominance, which actually shifts the balance
against them. Humans have overlooked two critical facts: first, nature provides the best ways to
control insects; and second, a chemically weakened environment opens itself for greater
infestation from insects.

In the final chapter of the book, chapter seventeen titled “The Other Road” she opined that in our
use of ever-increasing levels of dangerous chemicals in our environment, we have been
travelling a road that seems easy but will end in disaster. The other road of this chapter's title is

3
http://www.enotes.com/silent-spring

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the path of non-chemical control of unwanted insects and plants. Only by this "other road," the
"one 'less travelled by,"' can we ensure our planet's survival. It is up to us to assert our right not
to be poisoned.

A huge variety of alternatives to the dangerous chemicals used ineffectively against insects is
available. Whether they are already in use or in laboratory development or exist so far only in the
imaginations of scientists, they are biological solutions based on the whole of nature and its
intricate network of so many different kinds of life.

4.0 URAVAN

4.1 History
The Uravan facility is located along the San Miguel River in Montrose County, Colorado,
southwest of Grand Junction on State Highway 141. The site is characterized by an arid climate,
sparse vegetation, and rugged topography.

The 680-acre Uravan Uranium Site began as a radium-recovery plant in 1912. Its owners
converted it for vanadium extraction. From the 1940s to 1984, the plant operated as a uranium
and vanadium processing facility.

Operations at the 680-acre Site left a large volume of wastes, contaminating air, soil and ground
water near the plant and the San Miguel River.

Contaminants included radioactive products such as raffinates, raffinate crystals and mill tailings
containing uranium and radium. Other chemicals in the tailings and ground water were heavy
metals, such as lead, arsenic, cadmium and vanadium.

EPA added the Site to its National Priorities List in 1986. The State of Colorado is the lead
agency for the cleanup.

Cleanup for much of the Site is complete, with final construction completion expected in the late
fall of 2007. Following cleanup completion, the Site will be deleted from the National Priorities

12
List (NL) and transferred to the Depatment of Energy for long-term management. Two historic
structures -- a recreation hall and boarding house -- were deleted from the NPL and them
demolished in 2007. Demolition debris from the two structures and underlying contaminated
soils will be consolidated in an on-Site repository by October 2007.

Since waste is left in place, Five-Year Reviews will be required to ensure that the remedy
remains protective of human health and the environment. The most recent review was completed
in September, 2005. The next review will be conducted by 2010.

4.2 Environmental Concerns

4.21 Chemicals

A complex mixture of chemicals exists at the site. The contaminants include radioactive products
including raffinates (liquid wastes from the uranium processing operations), raffinate crystals
(primarily ammonium sulfate compounds), and mill tailings containing uranium and radium.
Other chemicals in the tailings and groundwater include heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium,
vanadium), thorium, and residual salts.

4.22 Exposure

At the time reclamation began, the air at the site contains elevated levels of radon gas from the
tailings piles. These materials have since been relocated and placed in covered containment
cells. Soil surrounding the mill site and groundwater contained radionuclides and heavy metals.
Because no one lives in the town of Uravan and the groundwater is not being utilized, the human
health risks are considerably limited.

4.3 Site Remediation

The State of Colorado completed a plan to cleanup the site in 1986. The cleanup plan was
designed to control radon production and the migration of heavy metals, thorium, and residual
salts from the site. Remediation included (1) securing nearly 10 million cubic yards of
radioactive tailings in a disposal area and capping/revegetating the area; (2) constructing a lined
disposal system for the radioactive crystals; (3) placing 1.5 million cubic yards of waste located
adjacent to the San Miguel River in a secure disposal area located away from the river; (4)

13
placing contaminated soil in an approved on-site repository; (5) reclaiming and revegetating the
land on the site; and (6) collection and treatment of contaminated groundwater.

4.4 Cleanup Exercise

Cleanup work was performed by Umetco, with oversight from the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment and EPA. The site and surrounding area will be used in the
future for recreation and as wildlife habitat. A portion of the site will be transferred to the
Department of Energy for long-term management.

4.41 Cleanup remedies include:

 Capping and revegetating nearly ten million cubic yards of radioactive tailings;
 Disposing of 530,000 cubic yards of radioactive raffinate crystals;
 Eliminating process ponds;
 Pumping and treating contaminated ground water;
 Securing 12 million yards of tailings waste along the San Miguel River;
 Dismantling the 2 mills and placing all old building-demolition materials in a secure area;
 Excavating and disposing of contaminated soil in a secure area, replanting these areas;
 Dismantling and cleaning up the town of Uravan.

Wastes are being contained on the Site; pollution of the San Miguel River is under control; and
there is no longer any residential exposure to radiation.4

The lessons learned from the successful cleanup at Uravan will provide invaluable guidance for
decisions about possible future uranium development in Colorado and other parts. This cleanup
can be used as a guiding tool for future uranium cleanup exercise. With the growing body of
knowledge about uranium, improved technology and methods, and environmental protections
can lead to cleaner, safer mills with less impact on surrounding communities and the
environment.

4
http://www.epa.gov/Region8/superfund/co/uravan/

14
4.5 Goals Achieved

Those involved in the cleanup of the Uravan site were able to achieve several key goals, these
include:

 Wastes have been removed and safely contained

 The area has been restored, and
 The threat of impacts to the San Miguel River has been eliminated

In addition to those goals, a portion of the area will be dedicated as a campground and a museum
focused on the history of uranium mining in Colorado.

The cleanup effort facilitated the removal of more than 13 million cubic yards of mill tailings,
evaporation pond precipitates, water treatment sludge, contaminated soil, and debris from more
than 50 major mill structures on the site. These wastes were collected and disposed of in four on-
site disposal cells. The cells also contain wastes from a nearby abandoned mill in Gateway,
Colorado, and mill tailings from the Naturita mill site, Colorado. In addition, more than 380
million gallons of contaminated liquid collected from seepage containment and groundwater
extraction systems were treated at the mill site. The cleanup cost more than $120 million.

5.0 Conclusion
Our environment should be paramount importance to safe guard from possible man-made
disaster because every living organism depends on the planet and every single one of us is
responsible for its survival. Our actions can have serious consequences as pointed out in above
disasters mentioned; the way in which we disposed of toxic chemicals and pesticides. As a
society, we must relearn our respect for nature. Furthermore, the environment should be of a
viable statute of importance that goes hand-in-hand with human rights and economic justice.

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6.0 Reference
 Pankratz, Thomas M.(2001). Environmental Engineering Dictionary and Directory, CRC
Press LLC, Lewis Publishers.

 Pfafflin, James R. & Ziegler, Edward N. (2006). Encyclopedia of Environmental Science

and Engineering, Fifth Edition, CRC Taylor & Francis.

 Corbitt, Robert A. (2004). Standard Handbook of Environmental Engineering, Second

Edition, McGraw Hill Handbooks.

 Porteous A. (Dr.), Recycling Resources Refuse, Longman London and New York Publish
1977. (accessed – 12/06/09)
 http://classwebs.spea.indiana.edu/bakerr/v600/rachel_carson_and_silent_spring.htm,

(accessed – 12/06/09)
 http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/Programs/science/pesticides/REPORt.pdf,
(accessed – 12/06/09)
 http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/investigations/love_canal/lctimbmb.htm
(accessed – 12/06/09)
 http://www.lm.doe.gov/land/sites/uraniumleasing/uraniumleasing.htm
(accessed – 12/06/09)

 http://wise-uranium.org/indexr.html (accessed – 12/06/09)

 http://www.uravan.com/uravan/ (accessed – 12/06/09)

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