Environmental Disasters occur at the regional and local level with some examples........

1. ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS
Memoona Rafique

2. ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS (REGIONAL)
 Seveso Disaster (1976)
 Love Canal Disaster (1978)
 Amoco Cadiz oil spill (1978)
 Bhopal Disaster (1984)
 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1989)
 Jiyeh Power Station oil spill (2006)
 Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill (2008)
 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010)
 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011)
 Mount Polley mine disaster (2014)
 Gold King Mine waste water spill (2015)
Environmental Disasters (Local)
 Lahore smog (2016)
 Coal mine accident in Baluchistan (2011)

3. 1- DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL IN
THE GULF OF MEXICO (2010)
• Deepwater Horizon was an
ultra-deepwater, dynamically
positioned, semi-
submersible offshore drilling
rig owned by Transocean
• It could operate in waters up to
10,000 feet (3,000 m) deep.
• The well is situated in
the Macondo
Prospect in Mississippi Canyon
in the United States' exclusive
economic zone.

4. EXPLOSION AND DEATHS
 On 20 April 2010, while drilling at
the Macondo Prospect, an
uncontrollable blowout caused
an explosion on the rig.
 It killed 11 crewmen and ignited a
fireball visible from 40 miles
(64 km) away.
 The fire was inextinguishable and,
two days later, on 22 April,
the Horizon sank, leaving the well
gushing at the seabed and
causing the largest oil spill in U.S.
Waters.

5. • Oil was toxic to a wide range of organisms; including plankton,
invertebrates, fish, birds, and sea mammals, causing a wide array
of adverse effects.
• Effected ocean-bottom habitats and deep-sea corals, salt marsh
ecosystems.
Cleanup oil spill by spraying surfactants

6. Regional Environmental
Disasters Examples

7. 2- BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY (1984)
•A disaster that happened by a
Gas leak is considered as one of
the world's worst Industrial
catastrophes.
•It occurred on the night of
December 2–3, 1984 at the Union
carbide India Limited (UCIL)
Pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya
Pradesh, India.
•A leak of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC)
gas and other chemicals from the
plant resulted in the exposure of
thousands of people.

8. HOW DID IT START..
 The disaster happened because water entered
a tank containing Methyl iso cyanate.
 This caused a chemical reaction which resulted in the
build-up of much Carbon dioxide, among other things.
 The resulting reaction increased the temperature inside
the tank to reach over 200 °C (392 °F). The pressure was
more than the tank was built to withstand.
 As a result, large amounts of toxic gases were released
into the environment. The pipes were rusty. The rust in
the iron pipes made the reaction faster.
 All the contents of the tank were released within a period
of about two hours. The water had entered the tank
because of a sequence of events

9. EFFECTS
 The official immediate death toll
was 2,259 and the government of
Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a
total of 3,787 deaths related to the
gas release.
 Human rights groups say that
thousands of tons of hazardous
waste remain buried underground.
 The research conclusively proves
that birth defects are directly
related to the drinking of the
contaminated water.

10. 3- THE LOVE CANAL DISASTER (1978)
 One of the most famous and important examples of
groundwater pollution in the U.S. is the Love Canal
tragedy in Niagara Falls, New York.
 The ditch was dug in the 1890s for hydroelectric
power but remained unused for decades, except for
swimming by local residents.
 In the 1920s Niagara Falls began dumping urban
waste into Love Canal, and in the 1940s the U.S.
Army dumped waste from World War II there,
including waste from the frantic effort to build a
nuclear bomb.

11.  Hooker Chemical purchased the land in
1942 and lined it with clay.
 Then, the company put into Love Canal
an estimated 21,000 tons of hazardous
chemical waste, including the
carcinogens benzene, dioxin, and PCBs
in large metal barrels and covered them
with more clay.
 Hooker sold the land to the Niagara Falls
school board for $1.
 The school board promptly built a public
school on the site and sold the
surrounding land for a housing project.

12.  Eventually, the chemical waste seeped into
people’s basements, and the metal barrels worked
their way to the surface.
 Trees and gardens began to die; bicycle tires and
the rubber soles of children’s shoes disintegrated in
noxious puddles.
 Finally, in 1978 President Carter declared a state
of emergency at Love Canal, making it the first
human-caused environmental problem to be
designated that way.
 The Love Canal incident became a symbol of
improperly stored chemical waste.

13. CLEAN UP OF LOVE CANAL
 Clean up of Love Canal was funded by Superfund
and completely finished in 2004, involved removing
contaminated soil, installing drainage pipes to
capture contaminated groundwater for treatment,
and covering it with clay and plastic.

14. 4- THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
EXPLOSION IN CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE
 The Chernobyl nuclear power plant
was located 11 miles north of the
city of Chernobyl.
 Plant consisted of 4 reactors.
 Produced 10% of Ukraine’s
electricity.
 Construction began in the 1970’s.
 Reactor #4 was completed in
1983.
 At the time of the accident,
reactors #5 and #6 were in
progress.

15. WHAT HAPPENED?
 Reactor no 4 was undergoing a test to check the backup power
supply in case of a power loss.
 The power-regulating and safety systems were both shut off
before the test to avoid interruptions.
 The reactor was to supposed to run at 25 percent capacity
during the test but dipped to less than one percent, forcing
workers to slowly increase the power levels.
 An unexpected power surge caused fuel pellets in the reactor to
explode, triggering a larger explosion.
 A cloud of radioactive material was released into the
atmosphere, while air mixing with carbon monoxide gas in the
reactor ignited, causing a fire that burned for nine days.

16. EFFECTS
 203 people were hospitalized immediately.
31 of them eventually died.
 20% of Belarus land area was evacuated.
 2.5 million Belarusians affected.
 100% increase in the incidence of cancer
and leukaemia.
 250% increase in congenital birth
deformities.
 1,000% increase in suicide in the
contaminated zones.

17. CLEAN UP
 Liquidators
Approximately 300,000 to 600,000
liquidators were involved in the
cleanup of the 30 km evacuation
zone around the plant in the years
following the meltdown.
 Robots
United States supplied
Specifically designed to enter
reactor core and help build the
sarcophagus.

18. 5- EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL (1989)
 The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a manmade disaster.
 It occurred when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by
the Exxon Shipping Company, spilled 11 million gallons of
crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William.
 It was the worst oil spill in U.S. history until the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in 2010.

19. PROBLEM
 The captain for Exxon Valdez on that
night was Joseph Hazelwood.
 He was considered to be an
experienced captain. However, he left
his post when the oil tanker headed for
Bligh Reef.
 Third Mate Gregory Cousins who was
in charge of Exxon Valdez waited too
long to get the order about turning
direction for the oil tanker, as a result;
the tanker had run aground on the
rocks with ripping open a huge hole in
its hull.
 After the oil tanker hit reef, it leaked
massive crude oil in Prince William
Sound.

20. EFFECTS
 Tourism losses
 250,000 Birds
 250 Bald Eagles
 2,800 Sea Otters
 300 Harbor Seals
 Thousands of fish, herring eggs, and crabs
 At least 22 Killer Whales
 Exxon was to pay $5 billion in punitive damages
Clean Up
•Cleanup workers skimmed oil from the water’s surface
•sprayed oil dispersant chemicals in the water and on shore
•washed oiled beaches with hot water and rescued and cleaned
animals trapped in oil.

21. LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
EXAMPLE

22. 6- LAHORE SMOG (2016)
 Thousands of citizens of Pakistan’s Lahore,
one of the world’s most polluted cities,
complained breathing difficulties and irritable
eyes as a blanket of thick smog was forecast
to persist for several days.
 Readings of dangerous “fine particulate
matter” were more than four times the World
Health Organization’s recommended level.
 Visibility plunged to less than 20 metres and
citizens wore face masks to help with
breathing.

23. EFFECTS
 Separately, at least 13 people
were killed and nearly 100
wounded in two pile-ups involving
16 vehicles on the Lahore-
Islamabad motorway due to dense
smog.
 The first collision was between two
trucks and a bus, accounting for
most of the casualties, while the
second pile-up involved multiple
cars.

24. 7- QUETTA COAL MINE ACCIDENT (2011)
 At least seven miners were killed and 41 others trapped
underground when explosions triggered a collapse in a coal
mine in Balochistan province.
 There is a huge quantity of methane gas inside the mine.
 rescue work was postponed earlier because some of the
emergency crew had been left unconscious by the noxious
fumes.
 Some of the rescue team members fell unconscious due to the
huge presence of poisonous gas inside.
 Most coal mines in the province are notorious for poor safety
standards and facilities. Similar deadly accidents have occurred
in the past.

25. REFERENCES
 https://www.dawn.com/news/614617
 https://www.thestar.com.my/news/environment/201
6/11/03/pakistan-lahore-chokes-on-toxic-smog/
 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180
719121748.htm
 https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/exxon-valdez-
oil-spill
 https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/envirobiology/c
hapter/6-4-case-study-the-love-canal-disaster/
 https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/12/bhopal-
the-worlds-worst-industrial-disaster-30-years-
later/100864/