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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15061975/00001
Notes
- Abstract:
- On the night of July 20, 1977, 30 cm (1 ft) of rain fell on Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a period of
six hours. As a result, the Connmar River, which runs through the heart of the city's industrial district,
overflowed its banks. Cylinders containing compressed gases, drums containing toxic chemicals, oil-soaked
debris, and other hazardous materials were washed downstream and deposited on recreational and residential
properties when the floodwaters receded.
Recognizing the potential threat to public health and the environment, the federal and
Pennsylvania state governments immediately set up a joint task force to address this threat. At considerable
cost, the clean-up team surveyed the area, collected the containers, analyzed their contents, and returned
them to their owners or safely disposed of them. Although it would have been infeasible to locate and
identify every container that washed away, about 500 cyclinders and 500 drums were collected in this effort.
Although there are 1,100 active1 hazardous waste sites within 100-year floodplains in the United States
(DPRA, 1982) and possibly as many closed or abandoned sites, flooding disasters such as the Johnstown
incident have been infrequent in the past. However, a rise in sea level could significantly increase the
probability of flooding for many of these sites and bring more sites into floodplains. Furthermore, erosion
and salt intrusion that would result from a rise in sea level could become additional threats, even to those
waste sites that are adequately protected against flooding.
This chapter first discusses the hazards associated with waste sites in floodplains and federal
regulations to mitigate those hazards. It then discusses the potential impacts of sea level rise on specific
types of hazardous waste sites and illustrates how sites in the Charleston and Galveston areas would become
vulnerable to flooding. Finally, it presents the authors' conclusion that compliance with existing regulations
could prevent serious problems with operating sites but not with closed or abandoned sites. ( English )
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
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