Jacinto River Pollution

Improved Essays
According to the Panel convened by Texas health officials the issue of the polluted San Jacinto River is not of great importance due to the statement provided on the Houston chronicle “Panel says ‘no’ to more San Jacinto River cancer studies.” In this article it clearly states that the panel will make no further investigations or tests to the issue because according to them there are not enough cases to make it a big deal. I believe that the panel is wrong for doing this because what they are basically saying is that in order for them to give any importance to this topic there has to be more cases of children with cancer. The affected area with an abnormally higher rate than normal of children with cancer is East Harris County. …show more content…
Yes, the foundation did do things to lower the chances for people to get cancer but this proves that they had some idea or hunch about the waste spilling into the river that was causing children to obtain cancer. But the things they did didn’t make the people of the town feel any safer than before when they had a theory of their home river being polluted for example one of the few precautions they took was to put up signs saying things like “no fishing.” None of these things moved the company causing the pollution out of the state or just completely shut it down because it wasn’t certain that there were pollutants actually inhabiting the river so there was nothing they could have done in order to further please the people of east Harris County. The association created to protect citizens from pollutants did investigate and practice certain tests on the river water but after while of not finding anything linked to the above normal cancer rate they now decide to shut the whole thing down and completely ignore the fact that this river does indeed have something that is not safe for the population to be close to but since there are not enough cancer incidents they are going to stop founding the tests and investigations on the San Jacinto River. In 2011, word spread when Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan sued three major corporations for polluting the San Jacinto River: International Paper, Waste Management of Texas and McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation. These corporations had most of the blame to the pollution of the river. Not only are these corporations completely ignoring the fact these pollutants and chemicals are killing our people and is not killing them then partially destroying their lives, but the only reason they want to stop funding the program is not only because the mere fact that there aren’t enough cases of cancer but because the more tests they

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Unfortunately, Tar Creek was added to the National Priorities list in 1983 making it officially a Superfund site ("Tar Creek," 2014.) It contains 40 square miles of waistline. It is referred to as the “Superfund Site” because Congress donated an enormous sum of money to support it. At the same time, oil and mining companies were taxed in order to support this fund. The fund was established in the early 80’s to support sites which have experienced environmental disaster.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Case Study 7: Wichita Confronts Contamination The case study of “Wichita Confronts Contamination,” begins in 1990 when the KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment), reported that Wichita was sitting on an underground polluted lake. The pollution had a caused by a direct cause to various commercial and industrial chemicals. The KDHE did a preliminary study on it and later on handed the report to the City Manager Chris Cherches. Once the information came out, the banks then stopped lending, city lost investors, and the county appraiser lowered property values forty percent.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The chemicals had spread to the Virginia Subdivision, which sat against the border of the factory, and two years after the factory closed the Virginia Subdivision settled a class action lawsuit. This victory against the factory and its parent companies did not include the residents of Hyde Park, even though studies had shown that the pollution lead directly to the ditches that ran through the town, the same ditches that now have signs up warning children not to go near them. Because the residents of Hyde Park were not included in the law suit against the factory, they received not compensation. Residents attribute this exclusion to…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Fox River Case Study

    • 2232 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Through going up in Green Bay and De Pere, Wisconsin, there has always been a topic that has continuously appeared and disappeared. That is the condition of the Fox River, throughout my childhood I was never able to fully use the river to swim or fish within. That is because of the dangerously high levels of pollution that are within the water. The river has been found to have 209 chemicals found in a study by Sharon A. Fitzgerald and Jeffrey J. Steuer. Throughout my studies, I have found great effort to restore the river to the conditions it had been before the comings of the paper mills.…

    • 2232 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eutrophication Case Study

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Des Moines Water Works Lawsuit began on March 16, 2015 and is the Board of Trustees of Des Moines Water Works versus thirteen Iowa drainage districts with the claim that these thirteen districts are draining harmful water into the rivers of Iowa which breaks the Clean Water Act. This was found when the DMWW had to meet requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act but when a high amount of nitrate was found, it led to the certain districts that are being sued. This relates to personal property rights because in these counties, individual landowners can tile their land so the harmful runoff can drain into the pipes and into these districts’ draining system (Essman,…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I find it fascinating that people believe that they will be able to outrun the contaminated soil, air, and water through their wealth. I wish they understood that wealth and status can’t save you forever. Eventually, these consequences will come back to get…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    They assume they’ll be gone when it starts to really affect them, so why should they worry? Think about future generations of kids, they have to deal with what people today do to the world and have no choice in the matter. It’s up to people today to make a real change in the world. Sandra Steingraber, ecologist, and cancer survivor, finds her passion in researching and writing about environmental effects on cancer. In her recent essay, “Despair Not”, she went in depth about how many childhood illnesses are linked to toxic chemicals being exposed to the environment.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The central valley water board has only tested 8 or so of those 100 nearby water wells. It has been shown that these contaminated waterways are proven to cause infections to people.…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Water is Florida’s best natural resource in the Sunshine State simply because it surrounds all of Florida and it is what draws people to our state. There are two big beautiful oceans that surround the state of Florida. There are also several lakes, rivers, springs and other bodies of water. Although, the biggest problem in Florida is the pollution going into Florida’s waterways; everyone has a role on the pollution. Homeowner’s are a part of the problem because they are trying to keep their lawns green and lush by using fertilizer and pesticides that eventually run into some type of body of water (Call and Stephenson).…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On Superfund Site

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There were about 9 different chemicals that were mixed with diesel fuel for the treatment of wood. These chemicals included pentachlorophenol (PCP), Chlorinated dioxins and dibenzofurans, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and heavy metals. Instead of disposing the waste the correct way, the company reportedly dumped the waste into a well. That well led to underground water underneath the facility. The underground water led to a stream which empties into the Delaware River. There are about 26,000 people that lived within a 1 mile radius from the Superfund site.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Tar Creek Superfund Site

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Abstract This paper details the causes and extent of the pollution at Tar Creek Superfund site in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. This Superfund site is a heavy metal-contaminated area that was created by the aftermath of zinc and lead mining operations throughout the 1900s. The pollution has put local inhabitants at risk of different health issues, and while risk assessments have shown that no significant health risks are obvious compared to the rest of the state of Oklahoma, blood lead levels have been recorded to be high in Ottawa county children. Many different organizations, both government and private, are involved in the remediation of Tar Creek Superfund site.…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Water Pollution In Texas

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hi, I’m Alexis Vo and I’m writing to you about an issue I am currently concerned about: damaging and polluting our surface waters. Recently in Texas, our state’s natural waters have been polluted which damaged our wildlife with toxins and trash. Due to the pollution, 9,400 miles of our streams and a total of 1,412,000 acres of lakes and bays in Texas alone has been considered “impaired”. Surprisingly, Caddo Lake is the only natural body of water left in East Texas that has not been yet polluted nor damaged.…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People in New Mexico enjoy and depend on rivers just like a lot of other places in the US. That’s where they love to swim, fish, canoe, kayak or just enjoy the scenery. Rivers supply them with clean drinking water. Unfortunately, pollution industries have put New Mexico’s and all clean water supplies in danger. They’ve been trying to weaken the Clean Water Act ever since it first passed more than 40 years ago.…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Among the other environmental issue, the most pressing health issue in Maryland that I selected as being the top priority and most essential is “Saving the Chesapeake Bay”. The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary, a body of water that is formed where freshwater from streams and rivers flows into the ocean, mixing with sea water. The nation’s water is in jeopardy to 10,000 miles of Maryland streams affected by the polluting industries that carved loopholes in the Clean Water Act.1 "Save the Bay" campaign is the Chesapeake Bay Foundation – the largest conservation organization in Maryland that their mission focus on reducing pollution, restoring and protecting the wetlands and forests. Some of the major issues saving the Bay are not only of saving the 200-mile-long inlet that runs from Havre de Grace, Maryland to Norfolk, Virginia, also the 50 major rivers and streams that pour into the bay each day, and the creeks that feed those rivers and streams.1 A…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fighting Back Against Water Pollution Water pollution needs to be reviewed as the increase in toxins in possible drinking water has increased in the last 20 years. Through the use of our technology and use alternative renewable energy sources, re-evaluating our usage and methods of disposing waste preserving both fresh and marine water in the United States. A common discrepancy that is brought up when discussing water pollution is whether the cost will become too large to even begin creating change, that the amount of resources required to implement could be used elsewhere for a more immediate impact. The discussion of environmental problems is a topic of many political debates, but throughout the years scientific evidence has documented the…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays