Love Canal - Neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York

1. Love Canal - Neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York

2. Hooker Chemical Company in Niagara Falls, NY -21,000 tons of toxic waste buried beneath the company

3. Chain of Events: 1. 1953 - Hooker sells the site to the Niagara Falls School Board (for $1) 2. School Board sells some land to a developer to develop residential area and a school 3. Construction of houses and heavy rainstorms releases chemical waste 4. Potential health problems raised in July, 1978 5. 248 separate chemicals including 60 kg of dioxin unearthed

6. Love Canal, Today

7. Three Mile Island

8. Dauphin County near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - Partial core meltdown of a pressurized water reactor - Accident began at 4:00 a.m. Wednesday, March 25, 1979 - Started with a loss of nuclear reactor coolant - 12 days prior, The China Syndrome depicted an accident at a nuclear reactor - Voluntary evacuation of five mile radius (140,000 people leave) - TMI 1 still in use

9. Chernobyl April 26, 1986 WORST NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ACCIDENT IN HISTORY

10. - Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine (then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) - Reactor #4 experienced a sudden and unexpected power surge - Emergency shutdown attempted leads to exponentially larger power surge - Series of explosions exposes graphite moderator to air and it ignites - Fire sends plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere (mainly over Soviet Union and much of Europe)

12. - 1986-2000: 350,400 people evacuated - Last reactor shut down in 2000 - Fifty deaths directly from accident - 4,000 deaths attributed - 400x more radioactive material than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

13. The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures. The government cover-up of the Chernobyl disaster was a "catalyst" for glasnost (openness), which "paved the way for reforms leading to the Soviet collapse."

14. Exxon Valdez - March 24, 1989 - Prince William Sound, Alaska

15. - Oil tanker spilled 260,000-750,000 barrels (10-11 million gallons) of crude oil - Covered 1300 miles of coastline and 11,000 square miles of ocean - Deepwater Horizon spill: - 4.9 million barrels

16. Both the long-term and short-term effects of the oil spill have been studied. Immediate effects included the deaths of, at the best estimates, 100,000 to as many as 250,000 seabirds, at least 2,800 sea otters, approximately 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 Bald Eagles, and 22 orcas, and an unknown number of salmon and herring. The effects of the spill continued to be felt for many years afterwards. Overall reductions in population were seen in various ocean animals, including stunted growth in pink salmon populations. The effect on salmon and other prey populations in turn adversely affected killer whales in Prince William Sound and Alaska's Kenai Fjords region. - Wikipedia

17. WHY DO WE CARE!? In all seriousness, they are accidents...what is our duty as citizens of this nation, and more importantly, this world to the environment? Write a paragraph response for why we should care and what we can do to help prevent this from happening.

18. Rachel Carson - Lived May 27, 1907 - April 14, 1964 - Marine Biologist and Conservationist Silent Spring - Published in 1962 - Brought environmental concerns to views of the American People - Nationwide ban on DDT - Led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

19. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - "Created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress." - President Nixon signs Executive Order on December 2, 1970

20. Gross!!!!

21. Not as gross!

22. Endangered Species Act - "An Act to provide for the conservation of endangered and threatened species of fish, wildlife, and plants, and for other purposes" - Signed into law December 2, 1973 by President Nixon - Administered by United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

23. Status Abbreviations: E = Endangered T = Threatened C = Candidate E (S/A), T(S/A) = Endangered or Threatened due to Similarity of Appearance XE, XN = Experimental Essential of Non-Essential Population Meet one of five criteria 1. There is the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range. 2. An over utilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes. 3. The species is declining due to disease or predation. 4. There is an inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms. 5. There are other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.

24. Clean Air Act - Signed into law by President Johnson December 17, 1963 - Designed to control air pollution at a national level - Major amendments passed in 1970 (stationary and mobile pollution sources), 1977, 1990 (acid rain, ozone depletion)

25. Clean Water Act (CWA) -Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972 - The act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation by 1983. - Does not directly address groundwater contamination