1.3.2 Environmental Hazards
Careless industrial activity may have other negative effects. Pollution, degradation, and overuse of natural resources are types of ecological or environmental hazards. Environmental hazards are agents (such as pollution) that result in the degradation of our physical surroundings and pose a risk to people’s health and well‐being. Sometimes these environmental hazards are naturally occurring. For instance, red tide—a harmful algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico—kills fish and makes shellfish dangerous to eat. However, there is some evidence that fertilizers from farms may wash down rivers and have an impact on the presence of red tide in the ocean.
For Example
Phosphate Plant in Florida
In late March 2021, a 77‐acre retaining pond at the old Piney Point phosphate mine in Florida developed a leak that threatened nearby residence and the environment. Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency due to the significant risk of failure. The 77‐acre pond holds millions of gallons of water and it contains phosphorous, nitrogen, and radioactive materials. There was concern that the polluted water would flood neighborhoods if the leak were to break open further. Officials worked tirelessly to plug the seepage while they pumped water out of the pond to minimize pressure on the plastic and earthen walls. While the worst‐possible disaster was fortunately averted, there is still concern that the wastewater pumped into Piney Creek will produce or exacerbate harmful algae blooms like red tide in Tampa Bay.
Pollution is one type of environmental hazard that involves the emission of wastes into our physical surroundings. This may include the distribution of solid, liquid, and gas wastes into landfills, rivers, and the atmosphere. Such activities harm the soil, contaminate water supplies and poison the air. Pollution can also impact farming and lead to various health problems. As an example, during the 1940s, the Hooker Chemical Company dumped 21,800 tons of toxic chemicals in Love Canal (a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York). The benzene, dioxin, and other substances made the soil poisonous in the area, and people started to suffer from miscarriages, birth defects, seizures, nervous disorders, and cancer. A necessary investigation took place and the findings resulted in a massive relocation of 800 families while the area was being remediated. More recently, the City of Flint Michigan experienced a public health crisis due to the presence of lead in the jurisdiction’s drinking water. The community changed its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Lead from the older pipes contaminated the water supply and adversely impacted about 100,000 residents. The toxic water may have been a contributing factor of Legionnaires’ disease that killed 12 people and harmed another 87. Besides prompting a lawsuit, this situation caused the government to return to the Detroit Water Systems in October of 2015.
Although some may dispute the causes and consequences of a dynamic climate, it has been suggested that the emission of methane, carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide gasses into the atmosphere may add to global warming (which will be discussed further in Chapter 12). In spite of this debate, alterations in climate logically affect weather patterns and the nature of storms. For instance, flooding could become more severe and locations that had sufficient water in the past may later find themselves amid drought in the future.
There are many other forms of environmental degradation. One of the most salient concerns is over fracking, which is a process of drilling into the earth and injecting a mixture of water, salt, sand and other elements to obtain natural gas. While the search for cleaner fossil fuels is warranted, some believe chemicals injected into the soil may contaminate groundwater. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that fracking and the disposal of waste fluids may be linked to the triggering of small earthquakes. Numerous examples have become increasingly visible in Texas since 2008 and Oklahoma experienced a recent temblor in 2019. Additional studies about the advantages and disadvantages of fracking are warranted.
Other types of environmental hazards include desertification and the salinization of the soil, which may accompany over‐farming. These types of environmental hazard limits the production of agricultural goods and could lead to widespread famines in the future. While the depletion of natural resources is not always considered a primary issue for emergency management, the depletion of oil, gas, and coal would limit the heating of homes during the winter or the use of air conditioning during summer. This could put many lives in jeopardy, especially if renewable resources do not replace the fossil fuels we rely on currently.
For Example
Mining Accidents
As evidenced by the number of accidents that have occurred throughout history, mining can be particularly deadly to those who are working to extract coal and various minerals. Besides the danger posed by noxious fumes and the potential for fires, mining tunnels may also flood or collapse. Mining accidents can be particularly deadly. In 1906, a dust explosion at a mine in France killed over 1,000 workers. In 1942, the Benxihu coal mine in China took the lives of over 1,500 people. Other notable events that have resulted in hundreds of deaths have occurred in Wales, Japan, South Africa, and India. One of the worse mining disasters in the United States occurred in West Virginia in 1907; 500 miners were killed in a series of explosions. Sadly, these events continue to occur. Over the past few decades, there have been deadly mining accidents in Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, and in many other states.
1.3.3 Nuclear Hazards
A nuclear hazard results from the presence and potential threat of radioactive material. Nuclear power plants provide electricity for communities, businesses and individual citizens. Although these facilities produce nuclear wastes that must be disposed of, they pollute less than the power plants running off of coal. Nevertheless, nuclear wastes are also a problem and these nuclear hazards can also be extremely deadly and troublesome. Nuclear power plants create health risks because radiation can injure or kill people if it is accidentally released into the environment. This potential was witnessed in 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Because of a leak in the equipment that purifies water entering the turbines, a backup system should have been activated. Unfortunately, an employee had shut this secondary system off during maintenance, which caused the system to overheat. A warning light did not illuminate as it should have, and radioactive material was released into the containment building. In time, an employee noticed what was taking place and closed a valve to reverse the unfolding chain of events. No one was killed in the incident. However, the public became extremely alarmed at the lack of information during the warning and evacuation process. The limited impact on humans was not the case at the Chernobyl reactor in the former Soviet Union. After various mistakes and mechanical failures, many of those responding to the hazard died and thousands had to be evacuated. Nearby areas are still somewhat dangerous today, and cancer has affected those that failed to leave as requested by the government.
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the Fukushima disaster was a significant event that involved a nuclear power plant in central Japan in 2011. The damages caused by a prior earthquake and tsunami resulted in a power failure and flooding of the reactors. The loss of generators and circulating pumps created a nuclear meltdown and hydrogen explosion. A fear of the unfolding radiation leak necessitated the evacuation of 154,000 people. Workers were able to resolve the issue, but only after 2 employees died and 20 others were injured and exposed