What a Waste of an Oil DisasterBy: Sarah Hodgdon
September 7, 2010
Although media coverage of the BP oil spill is slowly but surely fading away, the effects and results of it still live on. BP is relying on local landfills to house all the oil spill clean up wastes. They are relying on the landfills to house all the slimy, slippery gunk that was cleaned up from the spill and contains ever so many chemicals. Once put in the landfill, these chemicals will seep through the bottom of the landfill (lined or unlined) and throughout the Earth to reach our groundwater supply. These landfills are obviously not designed to handle these hazardous chemicals and are totally unprepared for them. Once the chemicals get into the groundwater, there is almost no getting them out for these chemicals are leeched into the ground and will be there for generations to come. Currently, this cannot be stopped because of a loophole in the federal law that considers this crude oil waste non-hazardous and, therefore, the wastes are legally allowed to be put in these landfills. Fortunately, the EPA is working to close this loophole so that soon, all is well!
The moment I saw this article on my google reader, I knew it was a keeper. It's really upsetting that not only did this oil spill effect the gulf, oceans all over (basically it has or will effect many large waterways and oceans in the world), but it effected our groundwater supply, too! It probably could have been prevented because the chemicals were brought to the landfills by humans for the humans convince, but what else are they going to do? Also, if the spill hadn't occurred in the first place, none of the water would have been polluted and this problem would not have even come up. What I'm really concerned about is the economic results of this. If it takes more energy, labor, and money to clean the groundwater because it is now ultra contaminated, won't the cost of water skyrocket near the gulf? I just feel really bad for the people who have to deal withall this oil spill mumbo-jumbo on a daily basis and they had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Because of other's mistakes, their life is effected forever and they probably will wave to pay more for water.
Some questions to consider...
1) What alternative disposal solutions could the "clean up crew" use besides dumping this nasty stuff straight into a landfill?
2) Why do you think they decided to dump it all into a landfill in the first place knowing they were introducing extreem pollution?
3) Next time there is an oil spill (which there inevitalbly will be) how could people prevent others from doing this to the environment?
Wow! Do you people even think nowadays? Obviously putting these dangerous chemical filled sludgy wastes in a landfill is going to have a bad effect on the Earth and our environment. They should have prepared these landfills for what they were going to face once these were dropped there. If this seeps into the ground, as you said, there is no way of getting it out. We are going to have to live with the consequences of this oil spill for years and years to come!
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question " Why do you think they decided to dump it all into a landfill in the first place knowing they were introducing extreem pollution?"
It may have all come down to them just not knowing what to do with all of this pollution. Cleaning these up takes time and they were coming in at a rapid rate and a landfill was there only option. They SHOULD find a way to clean these up faster instead of just dumping them in landfills.
i also have a question of my own,
If this seeps into the groundwater could that consequently get into our drinking water?
I was shocked to find out that after people made the mistake of the bp oil spill, that thaey were going to make another one by dumping all these chemicals into landfills. I think that it doesn't matter if it is legal or not to dump these chemicals there, they shouldn't be aloud to do it, because it is harming other people that had nothing to do with it. The people should not have to pay more for clean water, or have to drink contaminated water, just because it was legal for the clean up crew to dump there chemicals in the landfill.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question "Why do you think they decided to dump it all into a landfill in the first place knowing they were introducing extreem pollution?" They probably just did it because they were lazy, and didn't want to spend the time to look for a bettrer destination for these chemicals. If the clean up crew were professionals they would have put the chemicals in a more safe environment, or even attempted to treat them so they weren't as harmful in my opinion.
That is so horrible! These people are being so stupid! The oil spill has already caused enough damage and dumping these wastes into landfills is just going to cause even more problems! As kyle said, they definitly shouldn't be allowed to do that because it is going to end up harming everyone! It's going to contaminate our drinking water and then we're going to have to clean that, which is going to cost even more money. The government really should have thought more into this before letting them dump the wastes. This is truly horrible.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question, "Next time there is an oil spill (which there inevitalbly will be) how could people prevent others from doing this to the environment?" The government could form some laws on things like that. No dumping hazardous wastes into landfills, or water, or anything that is going to harm the environment, and us!
Hey guys! Wow, this is really not good. It is so unfair that the clean-up crew was allowed to dump all these hazardous chemicals into the landfills, and now the people in the area will have to pay more for clean water. I know if I was living in that area, I would be incredibly annoyed that all this was happening so close to my house and nobody was doing anything to stop it quickly enough to prevent the damage. Even if the EPA closes the loophole, the damage will have already been done; they can't undo putting the chemicals in the landfills and contaminating the ground. I think that the government or BP should have to pay for the towns who have affected drinking water to get really good filters so that the citizens can get clean drinking water without having to pay extra for it. And if for some reason there is no filter that can get crude oil out of drinking water, the government or BP should either hire scientists to make one or pay for the clean water to be shipped to the people of towns with affected drinking water.
ReplyDeleteIn response to question 1, I'm not really sure, but I think there is probably some way that they can clean the water. If so, they probably didn't want to do that because it would take too much time and cost too much money. And to answer question 2, I think that they were just going so fast and trying to get everything done quickly that the clean-up crew just did whatever was convenient and either didn't fully understand or simply didn't care about the pollution it would cause.