Environmental disaster

Environmental disasters

• Seveso disaster, 1976 – Release of dioxin.
• Love Canal, 1978 - Neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York that was contaminated by 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals, including at least twelve that are known carcinogens, from a former chemical waste dump site. President Carter declared a state of emergency in 1978, and it eventually led to the destruction of homes and relocation of more than 800 families. The effects of the disaster led to the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, better known as Superfund. The Love Canal disaster is also credited as the start of the environmental activism movement in the United States.
• Amoco Cadiz oil spill, 1978 – the vessel broke in two, releasing its entire cargo of of oil.
• Ok Tedi environmental disaster, 1984., mine operators have discharged about two billion tons of tailings, overburden and mine-induced erosion into the Ok Tedi river system. About of forest has died or is under stress.
• Bhopal disaster, 1984 – Release of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals Some estimate 8,000 people died within two weeks. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.
• Chernobyl disaster, 1986 – The official Soviet count of 31 deaths has been disputed. An UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. The eventual death toll could reach 4,000. Some 50 emergency workers died of acute radiation syndrome, nine children died of thyroid cancer and an estimated total of 3940 died from radiation-induced cancer and leukemia.
• Hanford Nuclear, 1986 – The U.S. government declassifies 19,000 pages of documents indicating that between 1946 and 1986, the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington, released thousands of US gallons of radioactive liquids. Radioactive waste was both released into the air and flowed into the Columbia River.
• Exxon Valdez oil spill, 1989 – spilled of crude oil.
• Prestige oil spill, 2002 – spilled over of two different grades of heavy fuel oil.
• Prudhoe Bay oil spill, 2006 – spilled up to.
• Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill, 2008 – spilled of slurry from a coal plant, covering 300 acres, flowing down several rivers, destroying homes and contaminating water. Volume spilled was over 7 times as much as the volume of oil spilled in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
• Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 2010 – An explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 34 others. The gushing wellhead was capped, after it had released about of crude oil.
• Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, 2011 – was an energy accident, initiated primarily by the tsunami following the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011. Immediately after the earthquake, the active reactors automatically shut down their sustained fission reactions. The insufficient cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, hydrogen-air explosions, and the release of radioactive material. Level 7 event classification of the International Nuclear Event Scale.

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