Allegheny Energy in Masontown, PA has several tall smokestacks which have been polluting the air in the area with coal-pebbles and yellow smoke. The people of Masontown complained that this pollution caused acid rain and respiratory problems. Allegheny Energy decided they would do their part to decrease the air pollutants emitted by their smokestacks and created a system of scrubbers to clean the insides of the smokestacks. The system was just a routine spraying of water and chemicals around the inside of the smokestacks. This system does a lot to reduce air pollution because it gets rid of 150,000 tons of pollutants before they hit the air.
Unfortunately, the residue that is cleaned from the smokestacks is instead dumped into the Monongahela River. This is a problem because the Monongahela River supplies drinking water to the people of Masontown and some residents of Pittsburgh. Officials say they have set laws and restraints limiting the amount of toxins that can be dumped into the river at one time, but residents are still unhappy and complaining. A big concern is that other coal companies may begin doing the same thing and there will be too much wastewater to be dumped safely anywhere. There are no federal regulations yet to determine how much is too much landfill or water waste.
This article is frustrating because the companies are not thinking outside of their profits. They can obviously see the damage their pollution is doing not only to the environment but to the health of the people living anywhere near Allegheny Energy. It's encouraging to think that they are trying to do their part to eliminate airway pollution but really they are turning around and polluting another highly-used resource. In some ways water pollution is even more harmful because of all the species living in rivers and lakes and such that cannot escape when pollution hits their area. Hopefully the EPA will take action and set a limit on the amount of waste that can be dumped into certain waterways.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/13water.html?_r=1&ref=earth
I agree the companies are looking out for strictly themselves. They are only concerned with profit, i dont know how there is no law against dumping the waste in the water. With this article it says basically to "pick your poison'" air or water. It should be neither, just develop a safer way to rid of the waste or cut pollution all together.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is a double headed sword. The waste can not go into the air or the water, without harming people's health. No mater is created or destroyed, so the only hope is eventually we will find a efficient method to remove the chemicals from the water, that would be dumped, for a safe practical use. In the meantime, the government should black balancing regulations about the amount of pollutants allowed in both the water and the air. The government does not think about the problems of the environment over the problems of the country's from profit.
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