(4)UNIT 4 ENERGY AND EARTH’S RESOURCES

Before environmental laws, environment was severely degraded.1. Tragedy of the commons: freedom in commons

brings ruin to all.2. Free rider: polluter leaves environmental clean

up to others.3. Environmental Ethics: long term impact on

behavior.

• A. Direct Regulation: 1970• Development of sophisticated detection

instruments. ppb (parts per billion)• Influential books: Silent Spring; by Rachel Carson

and The Population Bomb; by Paul Ehrlich.• 1. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA• 2. Passage of National Environmental Policy Act

NEPA; 27 laws to protect the environment.

• 3. Environmental Impact Statement: every legislative proposal that has significant impact on environment.

• B. Clean Air Act: targeted auto and smokestack emissions.

• Regulation of major air pollutants: 1. sulfur dioxide highly corrosive damages respiratory tract.

• 2. Nitrogen oxides damage respiratory tract deplete ozone layer.

• 3. Carbon monoxide: auto emissions contributes to climate change and low altitudes ozone layer.

• 4. Ozone: smog eye irritation, nasal congestion, asthma, and damage to lungs and immune system.

• 5. Particulates; diesel engines, construction, and wood-burning. Particles finer then 10 micrometers

• 6. Lead: leaded gasoline which has been removed. Metal processing major source. Harms neurological system, kidneys, and may cause seizures and mental retardation.

• AFTER 1990 CLEAN AIR ACT AMENDMENTS. • 7. Airborne toxins: from plastic

manufacturing/burning, oil refineries: some are toxic and carcinogenic. 188 substances regulated.

• C. Global Air –Quality Problems• 1. Acid rain: primary causes sulfur dioxide, nitric

oxide emissions, pH in lakes increases.• 2. Depletion of Ozone Layer: caused by

chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration and air conditioning.

• 3. Climate Change. Majority scientists this could lead to rise in sea levels, increasing frequency of severe hurricanes, floods, and droughts, and extinction of plant & animal species.

Air Pollution Primary pollutants Primary pollutants Secondary pollutants Secondary pollutants

Temperature InversionsEspecially in valleys

Las Angeles, Denver, Salt Lake, and Las Vegas

Photochemical Smog

NO from cars

Sanitary Landfill

• D. Indoor Pollution: poorly ventilated building can trap outside air pollution, insecticides, solvents radon.

• E. Clean Water Act: 1977-restore & maintain chemical, physical, biological integrity of nations waters

• Fishable/swimmable• Elimination of discharges• Permit to discharge.• 1. regulation: rules & permits, enforcement,

cooperation of state federal agencies.• 2. set effluent standards

• 2. Regulation• No person can discharge any pollutant into waters

of the U.S. Without a permit. • Discharge-point source• Based on water quality or health effects, control

technology.

MississippiRiver Basin

MissouriRiver

OhioRiver

MississippiRiver

LOUISIANAMississippi

River

Depleted

Oxygen

Gulf of Mexico

Dead Zone

Ground Water Pollution

Ocean Pollution

a. Permits based on water quality or health effects , control technology.

• 3. Toxic Pollutants • Cause death, disease, or birth defects.• Harm human or aquatic life• May be transformed in environment to be more

potent.

• F. Hazardous Waste Regulation in the United States.

• 1. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 1976 (RCRA) Regulates hazardous waste, underground tanks, solid waste and facilities which burn waste.

• Hold generators responsible for waste they produce from “cradle to grave”.

• Citizens can sue the government for failure to comply with the act.

• Hazardous Waste means wastes {solid, liquid or containerized gas}which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may

– cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness

Or– pose a substantial present or potential

hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed.

Considered “hazardous” if1. waste is specifically listed by the EPA (includes

those “known to be fatal”)

2. waste is toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic to any life forms

3. waste is tested and meets one of four characteristics established by the EPA: ignitable, corrosive, reactive, toxic

4. waste is declared hazardous by its generator based on their knowledge of it

• G. Comprehensive Environment Response, Compensation and Liability Act 1980 (CERCLA)

• Super fund. Establish regulations controlling hazardous waste sites, and provides liability for hazardous waste release from inactive sites.

• These sites are already contaminated.• Government establishes fund to clean up these

sites. • All parties are responsible.• Over 36,000 superfund sites, not all have been

identified.

H. Radioactive Waste

A Brief History About WIPP

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the world's first underground repository licensed to safely and permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive waste left from the research and production of nuclear weapons. After more than 20 years of scientific study, public input, and regulatory struggles, WIPP began operations on March 26, 1999.

• Located in the remote Chihuahuan Desert of Southeastern New Mexico, project facilities include disposal rooms mined 2,150 feet underground in a 2,000-foot thick salt formation that has been stable for more than 200 million years. Transuranic waste is currently stored at 23 locations nationwide. Over a 35 year period, WIPP is expected to receive about 37,000 shipments.

Yucca Mountain

• repository for high-level radioactive waste (spent fuel rods, and waste from the various bomb programs)

• nuclear fuel consists of small, ceramic-like pellets of enriched uranium, slightly larger than pencil erasers. One pellet contains the energy equivalent to almost one ton of coal. The pellets are stacked end-to-end and sealed in strong metal tubes 3.5-4.5 meters (12-15 feet) long.

• The tubes containing the uranium pellets are bundled together in groups of about 200 to form nuclear fuel assemblies. These fuel assemblies are placed inside a nuclear reactor where the nuclear fission process takes place.