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Heavy Metals & Synthetic Organics. Lecture #44 Ch 14-day 4. Catastrophic!. Toxic to all living things Persistent Floats & sinks Thick, viscous coating of everything. Sources: 1: Undersea Offshore Drilling. 5,000 N. America & 3,000 more globally they leak ! BBC Coverage
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Heavy Metals & Synthetic Organics Lecture #44 Ch 14-day 4
Catastrophic! • Toxic to all living things • Persistent • Floats & sinks • Thick, viscous coating of everything
Sources: 1: Undersea Offshore Drilling • 5,000 N. America & 3,000 more globally • they leak! • BBC Coverage • 2010 Deepwater Horizon, BP: Gulf of Mexico, I mile deep • AprilAugust 4 billion barrels oil
(2) Oil Tankers • Exxon Valdez 1989, 11 million gallons (fig 14.14) • Decades of cleanup • 2009 post-spill analysis • $1 billion clean-up, $500 million damages • outcome: double hulled tankers • more Valdez footage
(3) Pipelines • BP Prudhoe Bay 2006 • Exxon: Yellowstone River 2011 • Keystone Pipeline extension
Floating Oil • Boom containment (down several meters) & suck it up • Shallow waters: absorbent materials • Dispersants (toxic?) • Burn it • GM Bacteria
Deepwater Horizon-What you can’t See: the “plume” • CBS Evening News
Coastlines • Natural action –v- intervention
Arsenic is a Worldwide Problem • Wells in Bangladesh & eastern India • 140 million people worldwide Solution: membrane filters, distillation, reverse osmosis
Mercury (Hg) Remember: Minamata Bay, Japan
Cleaning Up Acid Deposition • Scrubbers: • Convert SOx to a different, less harmful substance • CaCO3 + SO2 CaSO4 + H2O • Limestone (CaCO3)
Cleaning Up PCB’s • General Electric (G.E.) and the Hudson River • To dredge or not to dredge? • Discharged from 1947-1977 • Court Ruled 2002, work began 2009 • VIDEO: returning a River To Health (EPA)
The List Goes On • BPA (plastic bottles) (bisphenol-A) • Phthalates (plastics) • MBTE (gasoline additive) • Aspartame (artificial sweetener) • What an you think of ……