Binaliw Landfill Collapse

By jbottero

(2026-01-09)

An avalanche of garbage and debris buried or trapped workers in low-slung buildings at a landfill in the Philippines, killing two people, injuring a dozen and leaving 36 others missing, officials said Friday. One of the buildings hit by the wall of garbage that cascaded down in the landfill was a warehouse where workers separated recyclable waste and rubbish. Such landfills and open dumpsites have long been a source of safety and health concerns in many cities and towns in the Philippines, especially in areas close to poor communities, where residents scavenge for junk and leftover food in the garbage heaps.

The RED area is the main mountain of garbage. The GREEN area is a building destroyed by the collapse of the garbage mountain.

Inglewood Oil Field - A Controversial Part of Los Angeles County

By jbottero

(2025-12-31)

The Inglewood Oil Field in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California, is the 18th-largest oil field in the state and the second-most productive in the Los Angeles Basin. Discovered in 1924 and in continuous production ever since, it produces approximately 3 million barrels of oil from some five hundred wells every year. Since 1924 it has produced almost 400 million barrels, and there are an estimated 30 million barrels remaining in the field's one thousand acres - recoverable with present technology. The field is operated by Sentinel Peak Resources.

Also seen HERE at Virtual Globetrotting.

Inglewood Oil Field - A Controversial Part of Los Angeles County

By jbottero

(2025-12-31)

The Inglewood Oil Field in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California, is the 18th-largest oil field in the state and the second-most productive in the Los Angeles Basin. Discovered in 1924 and in continuous production ever since, it produces approximately 3 million barrels of oil from some five hundred wells every year. Since 1924 it has produced almost 400 million barrels, and there are an estimated 30 million barrels remaining in the field's one thousand acres - recoverable with present technology. The field is operated by Sentinel Peak Resources.

Also seen HERE at Virtual Globetrotting.

Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant

By jbottero

(2025-12-24)

The Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant was a 8,493-acre government-owned, facility in Karnack, Texas that was established in 1942. The Monsanto Chemical Company selected the site in December 1941 to produce TNT. The plant produced 393,000,000 pounds of TNT throughout World War 2. After the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty on December 8, 1987, the Longhorn plant was used to destroy Pershing missiles. The plant was operated by Thiokol. The property is a Superfund Site, and was transferred to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 2000 to become the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

German submarine U-864 shipwreck

By Fab

(2025-09-11)

Illegal junkyard

By Fab

(2025-08-26)

Rocky's Auto Wrecking

By jbottero

(2025-07-19)

Huge junkyard, vehicles everywhere, even in the trees.

Denka Performance Elastomer Plant

By jbottero

(2025-05-14)

As of April 2025, the Denka Performance Elastomer Plant, a controversial chemical plant in the center of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” region has indefinitely suspended all production. The Denka Performance Elastomer plant in St John Parish has long been associated with chronic air pollution issues.

Byrnihat

By Fab

(2025-04-28)

World's most polluted town.

Marathon Anacortes Refinery

By jbottero

(2025-04-06)

The Anacortes Refinery is a petroleum refinery located about 70 miles north of Seattle on March Point in Puget Sound, just outside the city of Anacortes, Washington. The refinery has operated in Anacortes since 1955 under various ownership including Shell and Tesoro. The refinery receives crude feedstock via the Trans Mountain pipeline from Canada, by rail from North Dakota and the central U.S., and by tanker from Alaska and foreign sources. Gasoline, jet and diesel fuel are the primary products.

Garbage on fire

By Gattoforato

(2025-03-29)

Date: June 2022

Fire

By willi1

(2025-03-21)

Fire

By willi1

(2025-02-02)

1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash site

By Fab

(2025-01-22)

On 1/21/1968, an aircraft accident, sometimes known as the Thule affair or Thule accident (Danish: Thuleulykken), involving a USAF B-52 bomber occurred near Thule Air Base in Greenland. The aircraft was carrying 4 B28FI thermonuclear bombs on a Cold War "Chrome Dome" alert mission over Baffin Bay when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft before they could carry out an emergency landing at Thule Air Base. 6 crew members ejected safely, but 1 who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in North Star Bay, causing the conventional explosives aboard to detonate and the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, resulting in radioactive contamination of the area.

Ninth Avenue Superfund Site

By jbottero

(2025-01-18)

Midwest Solvent Recovery began operations at this site in 1973 involving industrial waste recycling, storage, and disposal. These operations included drum storage, drum burial, tanker truck storage, and disposal of bulk liquid wastes into excavated areas. Wastes accepted at this facility included: oil, paint solvents, sludges, resins, acids, and construction debris. An inspection in 1975 revealed over 10,000 drums were stored on-site. In 1980, over 500 deteriorating drum and 6 abandoned tanker trucks were still on-site. It became a EPA Superfund site in 1983.

Coffin Butte Landfill

By jbottero

(2025-01-09)

Coffin Butte Landfill is a landfill located near Corvallis, Oregon, and currently operated by Republic Services, a major North American waste disposal company. A great deal of controversy surrounds the safety of Coffin Butte.

Litter

By Fab

(2023-11-03)

Keystone Pipeline Leak

By KRL

(2022-12-10)

Attached news link locates the area. Mill Creek flowing into the Little Blue River; Washington County.

The 600,000 barrel / day Pipeline has been shut down. A reported 14,000 barrels has leaked.

1 barrel = 159 litres. (42 U.S. Gallons).

Lagunas de oxidación de Paita (Paita Oxidation Ponds)

By alexstokes25

(2022-09-18)

Oxidation ponds, also called lagoons or stabilization ponds, are large, shallow ponds designed to treat wastewater through the interaction of sunlight, bacteria, and algae. Algae grow using energy from the sun and carbon dioxide and inorganic compounds released by bacteria in water. During the process of photosynthesis, the algae release oxygen needed by aerobic bacteria. Mechanical aerators are sometimes installed to supply yet more oxygen, thereby reducing the required size of the pond. Sludge deposits in the pond must eventually be removed by dredging. Algae remaining in the pond effluent can be removed by filtration or by a combination of chemical treatment and settling.

Red Forest

By Fab

(2022-03-29)

Edgware Road Underground Station “Green Wall”

By Mike_bjm

(2021-12-11)

The 200 square metre Edgware Underground Station ‘Green Wall’ was installed in November 2011 as an innovative way to trap pollution from the heavy traffic on the busy A40. The soil free wall is formed from hydroponic modules which provide plants with nutrients via irrigation channels.

Piney Point phosphate plant

By Fab

(2021-04-17)

Uru Uru Lake

By Fab

(2021-04-11)

MV Wakashio oil spill site

By Fab

(2020-08-17)

Hundreds of bomb craters at Yucca Flat, NV

By emilykind_

(2019-01-24)

Yucca Flat was the site of more than 1,000 nuclear tests starting in 1951 and ending in 1992, following the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. What remains is a huge swath of radioactive, bomb-scarred land.

Laurel Park Incorporated Superfund Site

By kkeps

(2017-05-01)

Listed on 9/8/1983.

Limestone Road Superfund Site

By kkeps

(2017-05-01)

Listed on 9/8/1983.

Lake City Army Ammunition Plant

By kkeps

(2017-05-01)

Listed as a Superfund site on 7/22/1987.

Rolling Knolls Landfill Superfund Site

By kkeps

(2017-05-01)

Listed on 9/23/2003.

Lipari Landfill Superfund Site

By kkeps

(2017-05-01)

The EPA ranks this as the worst toxic dump in the U.S. Listed on 9/8/1983.

Colonial Pipelines - Gasoline Spill, Explosion & Fire

By KRL

(2016-11-02)

Colonial Pipelines' Line 1 (Gasoline: 36") spilled 336,000 gallons in September 2016.

An excavator finishing the line repair caused and explosion and fire October 2016. One fatality & six injuries as a result.

More info, photos and video at links below

Sulphur Piles Ignited

By KRL

(2016-10-26)

Most recently ignited by ISIL forces.

Has previously been ignited on purpose. More info and video at links below

Clear vs. Smog

By KRL

(2016-10-07)

Image seam shows stark difference of a clear day compared to a smoggy one.

More info at link below

Shpack Landfill

By jbottero

(2016-09-12)

Shpack Landfill is a hazardous and radioactive "superfund" waste site in Norton, Massachusetts. Between 1946 and 1965 it accepted all types of waste including low-level radioactive industrial wastes consisting of uranium and radium from the Attleboro-based Metals & Controls Inc. who manufactured radium tipped, luminous, aircraft switches and circuit breakers. The company experienced a number of mergers, passing through the hands of Texas Instruments, and is now known as Sensata.

Toyon Canyon Landfill

By jbottero

(2016-09-12)

The Toyon Canyon Landfill was a controversial landfill wholly within Los Angeles' Griffith Park. Filling began in 1957 and ended in 1985. Landfill gas is collected from the waste and used for power generation.

Puente Hills Landfill

By jbottero

(2016-09-12)

Puente Hills Landfill is the largest landfill in the United States, rising 500 feet high and covering 700 acres. Though the landfill closed to new garbage in 2013, it produces 30,000 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas which is funneled to the Puente Hills Gas-to-Energy Facility, generating more than 40 megawatts of electricity per day.

Columbia Ridge Landfill

By jbottero

(2016-09-12)

Columbia Ridge Landfill receives garbage from Portland, Seattle, and other cities in the Pacific Northwest.

Gold King Mine - Spill

By KRL

(2015-08-26)

The US Environmental Protection Agency's contractors were working in the historic Gold King/ Red & Bonita Mines causing a 3 million gallon spill of contaminated waste-water.

Links below have photos & maps; along with reports critical of the EPA's handling of the event.

The spill was possibly caused by the release of an ice plug.

Tailings Dam Failure

By KRL

(2014-08-06)

On 04 August 2014; the tailings dam at the Mount Polley Mine - Copper/Gold (Imperial Metals) failed.

Attached link shows aerial footage of the extent of the breach.

Slag spoil tip

By Fab

(2014-06-25)

Louisville Gas & Electric Caught Dumping Coal Ash into Ohio River

By jdubble07

(2014-05-29)

With the use of hidden cameras and satellite imagery, Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) has been caught dumping coal ash, a toxic byproduct of energy production including arsenic and mercury, into the Ohio River. LG&E can be fined up to $68M for dumping.

Bayou Corne sinkhole

By kjfitz

(2013-08-22)

The Bayou Corne sinkhole was created from a collapsed underground salt dome cavern operated by Texas Brine Co. The sinkhole was discovered on August 3, 2012 and 350 nearby residents were advised to evacuate. Scientists have stated that the evacuation order could last for years. Most of the affected residents have received $875 per week from Texas Brine Co.

The sinkhole is at least 750 feet deep and covers approximately 15 acres.

Yuba Goldfields

By kjfitz

(2013-08-13)

The Yuba Goldfields is a valley of 10,000 acres (40 km²) on both sides of the Yuba River in Yuba County, California, located northeast of Marysville. The goldfields are noted for their otherworldly appearance, filled with oddly shaped gravel mountains, ravines, streams and turquoise-colored pools of water. From the air, the goldfields are said to resemble intestines.

Wild turkeys, deer, ducks, Beavers, herons, bald eagles, Northern river otters and even mountain lions now call the goldfields home.

They were created during the California Gold Rush. Mining companies in the Sierra Nevada foothills blasted gravel hillsides with high-pressure jets of water—a process called hydraulic mining. Rivers and streams carried the flood of sediment—called slickens—down to the Sacramento Valley.

In 1893, the California Debris Commission began to dredge the Yuba near Marysville to mitigate the environmental damage, and piled the gravel along the river's banks, creating the irregular hills seen today.

Cocaine Plant

By skyeye

(2013-05-28)

The Stepan Company plant is the only legal importer of coca leaves
in the USA. The extracted cocaine is used for pharmaceutical purposes, while the cocaine-free leaves are sold to The Coca Cola Company for flavoring beverages.

The northwest corner of the property, between the railroad and highway, is the Maywood Superfund Site, where thorium and rare earth elements had been extracted before 1956.

Excessive Trash In Front Of A Vacant House

By Touringfmhome

(2013-03-30)

Hinkley Pacific Gas & Electric

By chixixoplix

(2013-03-18)

The location that brought on a major lawsuit, making Erin Brokovich famous.

Fuel Spill

By DivSock

(2013-01-10)

There is oil sorbent boom in the area as well.

Alang Shipbreaking Yard

By Ozzy

(2012-12-18)

The shipyards at Alang recycle approximately half of all ships salvaged around the world.
See Bing image search on Alang: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=alang+ship+breaking+yard&qs=IM&form=QBIR&pq=alang+ship&sc=8-10&sp=1&sk=

Supertanker Torrey Canyon oil spill lake

By Dania

(2012-11-27)

The Torrey Canyon was a supertanker capable of carrying a cargo of 120,000 tons of crude oil, which was shipwrecked off the western coast of Cornwall, England in March 1967, causing an environmental disaster. At that time, the tanker was the largest vessel ever to be wrecked.

Much of the oil hit the coasts of the island Guernsey.

Some of the oil from the ship was dumped in a quarry on the Chouet headland, on Guernsey in the Channel Islands, and is still there today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrey_Canyon_oil_spill

Half the world's supply of palladium

By nico

(2012-11-14)

Serious pollution concerns, some of the pictures on Google Earth show some of the rather crude and outdated practices concerning this mine. Also most of Russia nickel is produced here.

"...Nickel ore is smelted on site at Norilsk. The smelting is directly responsible for severe pollution, generally acid rain and smog. By some estimates, 1 percent of the entire global emissions of sulfur dioxide comes from this one city. Heavy metal pollution near Norilsk is so severe that mining the surface soil is now economically feasible, as a result of acquiring high concentrations of platinum and palladium through pollution."

Uranium Disposal Cell

By skyeye

(2012-06-28)

A disposal mound for radioactive tailings, located at the site of a former uranium mill.

OK Tedi Mine

By KRL

(2012-04-25)

Open pit Copper and Gold.

Past environmental damage discussed in attached link:
http://www.atimes.com/oceania/AH13Ah01.html

Evidence visible just to south of mine; pink sediments visible in river drainage.

Aznalcollar Mine - Donana disaster site

By hhgygy

(2010-12-13)

Cornell-Dubilier Superfund site

By tuttleberry

(2010-10-21)

As of the 2000's, the South Plainfield Superfund site, former location of Cornell-Dubilier Electronics from 1931 to 1962, was considered one of the 3 most toxic sites in New Jersey.

During the time Cornell-Dubilier was operating at the site, the company tested and dumped transformer oils and also transformers, both of which contained PCB's, among other chemicals, including TCE.

1985: NJ Dept of Env. Protection discovers black, unnatural soil at site.
1986: Site inspection reveals PCB's in soil.
1994-1996: PCB's and other chemicals are determined to have contaminated water, sediment, and soil outside the site.
1997: Cleanup finally begins. Site is paved over. EPA cleans homes near site and treats soil near site. Many businesses near the site are relocated.
2000+: ongoing operations to clean up site continue.

Major environmental disaster site

By hhgygy

(2010-10-04)

On 04.10.2010. the dam of the red sludge storage pond of the Ajka Bauxite Works broke and the sludge flooded the nearby village of Kolontár and then headed towards the neighbouring town of Devecser. So far one person has been found dead, three are missing, there are 60 injured of which 8 to 10 are serious.

Gruinard Island

By kjfitz

(2010-01-20)

Gruinard Island (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Ghruinneard) is a small, oval-shaped Scottish island approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long by 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool. The island was made dangerous for all mammals by experiments with the anthrax bacterium, until it was decontaminated in the late 20th century.

Bio-hazard waste

By kjfitz

(2009-12-23)

Acerra waste incineration

By giove

(2009-12-01)

Opening in march 2009, but not in function

Mokattam - city of garbage

By kjfitz

(2009-11-25)

It's a suburb of Cairo, called Garbage City. A community of mainly Coptic Christians were allowed to collect and dispose of Cairo's waste by feeding it to their pigs.

EPA to buy Kansas town

By kjfitz

(2009-10-30)

"The Wichita Eagle reports that Congress has approved funds to relocate the population of the southeast Kansas town of Treece, which is plagued with lead, zinc and other chemical contamination left by a century of mining. Estimates say it will cost about $3 million to $3.5 million to buy out the town, which is surrounded by huge piles of mining waste called 'chat' and dotted with uncapped shafts and cave-ins filled with brackish, polluted water. 'It's been a long, dusty, chat-covered road, but for the citizens of Treece, finally, help will be on the way,' said Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas who has been pushing for a buyout of Treece for two years. The population of Treece has dwindled to about 100 people, almost all of whom want to move but say they can't because the pollution and an ongoing EPA cleanup project makes it impossible to sell a house. The EPA has already bought out the neighboring town of Picher, Oklahoma, stripping Treece of quick access to jobs, shopping, recreation and services, including fire protection and cable TV. Both cities were once prosperous mining communities but the ore ran out and the mines were abandoned by the early 1970s. Of 16 children tested for lead levels in Treece, two had levels between 5 and 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood and one had a level of more than 10, the threshold for lead poisoning."

Quarry/Landfill in Chiaiano

By giove

(2009-03-20)

Abandoned quarry now used as landfill to solve the problem of dumps of the last summer in Naples. The site is now a military zone

Coal Fly Ash Spill (December 22, 2008)

By KRL

(2009-01-07)

Dam Breach of wet Fly Ash from Coal Fired Power Plant covers 300 acres, several homes and into the adjacent river. Link below to more details and better resolution Landsat Image.

Former Oil Tank Field

By Tyco

(2008-10-03)

What Exxon leaves behind.

Two sinking fishing boats and an oil slick

By kjfitz

(2008-09-10)

Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail and Museum

By kjfitz

(2008-08-28)

It's a seven-story high tomb of radioactive waste. The mountainous site covers 45 acres and stores 1.5 million cubic yards of material. And it's there for you to explore.

The federal government says radiation levels are low enough for people to visit the mountain of nuclear weapons waste it has built and covered in St. Charles County. A building with explanatory exhibits was opened Aug 5, 2002.

Mount Trashmore

By kjfitz

(2008-08-28)

Mount Trashmore Park, also known simply as Mount Trashmore, is a city park located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Mount Trashmore is an example of landfill reuse as its creation consisted of the conversion of an abandoned landfill into a park. The park spans 165 acres (0.67 km²) with hills over 60 feet (18 m) high, over 800 feet (240 m) long. Facilities include four large and 11 small picnic shelters, playground areas, a basketball court, four volleyball areas, parking, vending machines and restrooms. Mount Trashmore Park also has multiple walking trails; a Perimeter Trail that measures 1.95 miles (3.14 km), a Lake Trail that measures 1.45 miles (2.33 km), and a Mountain Trail that measures 1.30 miles (2.09 km). The Lake Trail and the Hill Trail may be combined for a trail measuring 2.75 miles (4.43 km). The park also features two lakes where fishing is permitted. Since its opening in the 1970s, it ranks as the most popular park in Virginia Beach, with attendance of over one million visitors a year.

Mount Trashmore Skate Park is located in the northeast corner of the park, where numerous professional skateboarders have made appearances, including Tony Hawk. The 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m²) skate park features an extensive street course including an above-ground, seven-foot deep bowl. The park also has a competition-sized vert ramp over 13 feet (4.0 m) tall and 40 feet (12 m) wide. On 16 August 2006, a fire damaged a significant portion of the skate park. The skate park was completely rebuilt as of March 2007.

10 million automobile tires

By kjfitz

(2008-06-30)

Millions of tires are sitting in the middle of the Sonoran Desert National Monument.

Between 3 million and 10 million of them are stacked in vast piles, lined up in rows more than 10 feet high.

The mounds of discarded rubber - believed to be the largest stockpile in the Southwest.

Big Pile of Something in East St. Louis

By jbottero

(2008-04-19)

It's East St. Louis, so who knows... I'm guessing it's residue from East St. Louis's industrial past.

Black Vultures at a garbage dump in West Palm Beach

By adrbr

(2008-03-13)

Sparging (underground pollution removal)

By kjfitz

(2007-12-08)

In chemistry, sparging is a technique which involves bubbling a chemically inert gas, such as nitrogen, argon, or helium, through a liquid. This can be used to remove dissolved gases (e.g. oxygen) from the liquid.

Solvents used in HPLC are often sparged with helium gas.

In chemical engineering, sparging can also be a method to remove low-boiling liquids from a solution. The low-boiling liquids tend to evaporate most quickly, hence it is removed from the bulk solution more quickly than the other components. It is an alternative to distillation, and it does not require heat.

This technique is also used in environmental chemistry to extract the oil contaminants from subsoil water and the ground.

Recently dumped, still glowing blast furnace slag

By kjfitz

(2007-09-05)

Found by Felippo in the GE Forums.

View this in GE or change the z value down to z=21 to really get a good look at this.

See the discussion and pictures in the link above too.

Toxic cleanup using bioventing and sparging

By kjfitz

(2007-07-05)

At former Mather Air Force Base.

Air sparging is an in situ technology in which air is injected through a contaminated aquifer. Injected air traverses horizontally and vertically in channels through the soil column, creating an underground stripper that removes contaminants by volatilization. This injected air helps to flush (bubble) the contaminants up into the unsaturated zone where a vapor extraction system is usually implemented in conjunction with air sparging to remove the generated vapor phase contamination. This technology is designed to operate at high flow rates to maintain increased contact between ground water and soil and strip more ground water by sparging. [amiadini.com]

Bioventing is an in situ remediation technology that uses indigenous microorganisms to biodegrade organic constituents adsorbed to soils in the unsaturated zone. Soils in the capillary fringe and the saturated zone are not affected. In bioventing, the activity of the indigenous bacteria is enhanced by inducing air (or oxygen) flow into the unsaturated zone (using extraction or injection wells) and, if necessary, by adding nutrients.

When extraction wells are used for bioventing, the process is similar to soil vapor extraction (SVE). However, while SVE removes constituents primarily through volatilization, bioventing systems promote biodegradation of constituents and minimize volatilization (generally by using lower air flow rates than for SVE). In practice, some degree of volatilization and biodegradation occurs when either SVE or bioventing is used. [EPA]

Firing up the boilers off Spain

By Pdunn

(2007-06-04)

In most the other views, the ship is at anchor. This one appears to catch her just as she's about to set sail.

Closed landfill ("dump") ownd by LRI

By jbottero

(2007-06-01)

Pollution on Ticino River

By Effi

(2007-05-18)

Oil leaking ship

By DonMartini

(2007-05-18)

This ship is apparently losing oil or maybe some kind of fuel. You can see smaller ships trying to drag the leaking ship out of the harbour.

Giant tent over a radioactive cleanup site

By kjfitz

(2007-04-20)

(This article was written in 2001 and stated the cleanup would last two years. It looks like it is still going on. At one time, it was one of the most heavily polluted bases in the nation. Cleanup started in the 1980s. As of 2005, it is still ongoing and expected to take at least another decade.)

Five stories high, two football fields long and wider than the state Capitol, the bright white polyester shell will encompass a long-abandoned grave of radioactive waste from a still-secret Cold War mission. The mammoth tent will be a compelling symbol of how big the business of environmental cleanup in the region has become.

The big top will be up for as long as it takes moon-suited workers to unearth, evaluate and ship off an estimated 1,000 corroding steel drums of waste from the 30-foot deep landfill on the west side of the decommissioned Watt Avenue base.

The job probably will take two years, according URS Corp., a global engineering company performing the $38 million cleanup for the McClellan Air Force Base Conversion Agency.

Unlike other toxic burial grounds on the 2,800-acre installation, this two-acre site is largely a mystery to environmental investigators. That's because it contains debris and chemical solutions from a top-secret analytical laboratory that operated nearly 50 years on the base without disclosing the full nature of its work or the substances involved.

"If these drums are crushed and opened, we don't know what will be released," said Ray Lidstrom, URS project manager.

Former lab workers, said Roxanne Yonn, a URS spokeswoman who interviewed several of the technicians, told cleanup officials only that they might uncover any amount of radioactive samples, solutions and tainted lab equipment at various degrees of potency.

Yonn said cleanup crews aren't taking any chances. "We're treating the whole site as radioactive," she said.

The dig will be much like an archaeological excavation. Front-loaders and excavators will gingerly remove dirt in 30-square-foot grids, one foot at a time, to avoid striking and damaging buried drums. Any barrels spotted will be removed carefully with hand shovels, and their contents will be analyzed and inventoried by a laboratory on site.

The $2 million shell of PVC polyester fabric and aluminium frames, which takes three weeks to erect, is designed to keep out wind and rain.

Workers will wear full containment suits equipped with oxygen tanks to avoid potential lethal inhalation of radioactive elements. Air in and around the shell will be monitored for contamination.

Nearly three-quarters of the project's $38 million cost goes toward the transportation and disposal of the waste, officials said. The unearthed soil and drums will be shipped to landfills in Andrews, Texas; Clive, Utah; Barnwell, S.C.; and the federal Department of Energy's Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.

The estimated time and cost of the cleanup mushroomed after URS crews made an unexpected discovery in an exploratory dig of the landfill last August.

Workers found a container of glass laboratory bottles labelled "Pu," for plutonium. Highly poisonous and radioactive, the metallic element is produced in nuclear reactors and is the primary fuel in nuclear weapons.

"Everything was placed on hold," Yonn said.

Air Force officials knew from earlier surveillance that the site contained low-level radioactive waste, presumably from the radium in paint once used to illuminate cockpit gauges and gun sights.

Plutonium, however, came as a complete surprise, Air Force spokesman Lt. Robert Firman said after the discovery.

Firman said the base had no records of the element's use at the military installation, where the chief mission was aircraft maintenance.

The McClellan Central Laboratory, however, had a different mission. That operation was staffed with nuclear scientists and technicians who are still sworn to secrecy about whom they worked for and their chief duties.

The plutonium find, which was locally televised, prompted some former lab workers to inform cleanup officials that the radioactive material probably came from their operation.

"When I first saw that picture (of the bottles), I chuckled, thinking, 'Gee, I wonder whether my fingerprints are still on them,' " said Mike Chinnock of Citrus Heights, a nuclear chemistry technician at the lab from 1966 to 1970.

Chinnock and other lab workers agreed to share certain details with Air Force officials in charge of the cleanup

after getting clearance from unspecified national defense authorities.

"Some workers won't talk at all," Yonn said. Those who did talk divulged enough to convince cleanup officials that the old landfill could contain material much more radioactive than previously thought.

"It made everybody pause," she said."

Pond Scum

By daggerwell

(2007-04-13)

Nuclear waste being discharged into the ocean

By kjfitz

(2007-02-18)

1983 was the year of the "Beach Discharge Incident" in which high radioactive discharges resulted in the closure of a beach. BNFL received a fine of £10,000 for this discharge. 1983 was also the year in which Yorkshire Television produced a documentary "Windscale: The Nuclear Laundry", which claimed that the low levels of radioactivity that are associated with waste streams from nuclear plants such as Sellafield did pose a non-negligible risk.

In its early days, Sellafield discharged low-level radioactive waste into the sea, using a flocculation process to remove radioactivity from liquid effluent before discharged. Metals dissolved in acidic effluents produced a metal hydroxide flocculent precipitate following the addition of ammonium hydroxide. The suspension was then transferred to settling tanks where the precipitate would settle out, and the remaining clarified liquor, or supernate, would be discharged to the sea. In 1994 the Enhanced Actinide Removal Plant (EARP) was opened. In EARP the effectiveness of the process is enhanced by the addition of reagents to remove the remaining soluble radioactive species. EARP has recently (2004) been enhanced to further reduce the quantities of Tc-99 released to the environment.

Pile chimney at Windscale nuclear accident site

By kjfitz

(2007-02-18)

Following the decision taken in January 1947 for the UK to have an independent nuclear deterent, Sellafield was chosen as the location of the plutonium production plant with the initial fuel load into the Windscale Piles commencing July 1950. By July of 1952 the separation plant was being used to separate plutonium and uranium from spent fuel.

Unlike the early US reactors at Hanford, which consisted of a graphite core cooled by water, the Windscale Piles consisted of a graphite core cooled by air. Each pile contained almost 2000 tonnes of graphite, and measured over 24 feet high by 50 feet in diameter. Fuel for the reactor consisted of rods of uranium metal, approximately 1 foot long by one inch in diameter, and clad in Aluminium.

The piles were shut down following a fire in Pile 1 on 10 October 1957 which destroyed the core and released an estimated 750 terabecquerels (TBq) (20,000 curies) of radioactive material into the surrounding environment, including Iodine-131, which is taken up in the body by the thyroid. Consequently milk and other produce from the surrounding farming areas had to be destroyed. Following the fire Pile 1 was unservicable, and Pile 2, although undamaged by the fire, was shut down as a precaution.

In the 1990s, the UKAEA started to implement plans to decommission, disassemble and clean up, both piles; the decommissioning is now partially complete.

Disposal site for nuclear submarine reactors

By kjfitz

(2007-02-10)

Area 200 / Trench 94.

The burial ground contains 138 trenches running north and south. Sixty one of the trenches are 370 meters (960 feet) long, thirty one of the trenches are 293 meters long, and the remaining trenches vary. Trench 94 contains defueled US Navy submarine reactor compartments. The burial ground is marked and radiologically posted.

Waste Description: Trench 94 is oriented in an east-west direction. The reactor compartments are composed of various types of steel and approximately 392 tons of lead shielding.

Hull sections containing defueled reactor compartments of decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines are put in disposal trenches. In 1986, the Patrick Henry's hull section was the first one placed in Trench 94.

Once full, the trench will be filled with dirt and buried. The compartments are expected to retain their integrity for more than 600 years.

Use of the thick steel submarine hull as a disposal provides extra isolation between the environment and the low-level waste and hazardous lead that remain after the spent nuclear fuel has been removed.

Oil Seep to Ocean

By KRL

(2007-02-08)

Oil seepage to Ocean near Refinery.

Former uranium ore open-cast mining

By mstoess

(2007-01-13)

1946 - 1990 the WISMUT company, a german-soviet venture, prospected for uranium ore needed in the soviet nuclear industry at several sites in Thuringia and Saxony. The miners took high health risks. Approx. 5.000 - 15.000 men died of miners lung diseases and radiation induced cancers in the latter years. Surface devastations and rock heaps remain unresolved problems to this day.

All About Auto Wrecking (business)

By jbottero

(2006-12-17)

Oil slick

By kjfitz

(2006-12-15)

Old Tires

By gamma

(2006-12-10)

Giant toxic gas bubbles

By kjfitz

(2006-10-16)

Plastic membranes used to collect methane leaking from the landfill. Odor control.

Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

By jbottero

(2006-10-13)

The Umatilla Chemical Depot is one of eight Army installations in the U.S. that currently store chemical weapons. The chemical weapons stored at the depot consist of various munitions and ton containers, containing GB or VX nerve agents or HD blister agent. The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is designed for the sole purpose of destroying the chemical weapons stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. The facility was completed in 2001.

Zelazny Most

By Hinkkanen

(2006-10-09)

The Zelazny Most is depository of wastes from copper-ore processing. It iis the largest mineral waste repository in Europe. The construction of Żelazny Most began in 1974 and it was in full operation three years later.

Oil Slick at Pearl Harbor

By voldude123

(2006-10-01)

This oil spill is probably from oil leaking from a ship or an aircraft at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. The USS Arizona leaks about a quart of oil a day, and a large environmental disaster in the future is feared. As the hull weakens from the pressure and the corrosive nature of salt water, a major realease of oil from the ship could cause the deaths of thousands of marine life, and threaten the extremely endangered population of Hawaiian Monk Seals. The US Navy is researching non-intrusive ways to remove the oil.

Love Canal Site

By mikeb9991

(2006-09-21)

President Carter declared a state of emergency at Love Canal on May 21, 1980 and the EPA agreed to evacuate all Love Canal families temporarily until permanent relocation funds could be secured.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

By romulusnr

(2006-09-10)

U.S.'s major storage bunker for military nuclear waste. A project is underway to find ways to inform the next 10,000 years of humanity to keep away from it.

Reef Coral Mine

By mgterp

(2006-08-15)

This fan shaped man-made formation is a reef coral mining operation. This is off the mangrove area off the Ohwa coast on Pohnpei. The coral is mined to supply infill for road-beds and other construction projects. There are alternative natural resources, like rock. Fishing is on the decline off these reefs in the Pohnpei atol and this fragile fishing eco-system is in jeopardy.

Niederaussem Power Station

By bubaonline

(2006-08-15)

The power plant's capacity
of 3,900 megawatt (MW) is distributed across
nine units, the largest and most modern being
the lignite-fired power station with optimized
plant engineering (BoA). With its efficiency
of 43.2 %, it has chalked up a new all-time
high for power generation from lignite.
(Source
Niederaussem Power Station is No. 10 of Europe's Dirty 30 (worst climate polluting) power stations.

Ordot Landfill

By romulusnr

(2006-06-30)

Ordot Landfill was a Japanese WWII supply depot, and then a US Navy landfill. The landfill's overflowing stock of toxic chemicals made it a Superfund hazardous cleanup site.

Radioactive dump site

By AlejoHausner

(2006-06-20)

Cactus crater on Runit island, part of the Enewetok atoll, in the Marshall Islands. Radioactive debris from many nuclear bomb tests was dumped into this crater, which was capped with 18-inch-thick concrete panels in 1982. Soil from many of the contaminated islands was scraped off. The original inhabitants of the atoll were allowed to return in 1980, despite radioactive elements like Cesium 137 in the ecosystem.

Entrance to Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project

By kjfitz

(2006-06-11)

The purpose of the Yucca Mountain project is to determine if Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste storage. The present prime contractor for the project is Bechtel SAIC Company, LLC (a consortium of government contractors Bechtel Corporation and Science Applications International Corporation). The consortium employs 1,300 people on the project. The main tunnel of the Exploratory Studies Facility is U-shaped 5 miles (8 km) long and 25 feet (8 m) wide. There are also several cathedral-like alcoves that branch from the main tunnel. It is in these alcoves that most of the scientific experiments are conducted. The galleries (smaller tunnels perpendicular to the main tunnel) where waste will be stored have not been constructed.

The proposed repository zone will cover 1150 acres (4.7 km²), be 1000 feet (300 m) below the surface of the mountain and 1000 feet (300 m) above the water table. The waste will be encased in a multilayer stainless steel and nickel alloy package covered by titanium drip shields that function also as rock shields.

By early 2002, 7 billion US dollars had been spent on the project which has made Yucca Mountain the most studied piece of geology in the world. Total cost is expected be between 50 and 100 billion dollars. The cost of the facility is being paid for by the public using nuclear generated electricity and the federal government for disposal of defense nuclear waste.

Giant smoke stack and plume

By kjfitz

(2006-06-11)

Oil spill

By kjfitz

(2006-06-03)

At a oil transfer pier.

Playground on a nuclear waste dump

By kjfitz

(2006-06-03)

MacArthur Field... is often packed with hundreds of young soccer players. Errant balls often fly off the field and into a ravine that borders both the field and the dog park, and which is surrounded by a chain-link fence. And down in that ravine is evidence that this idyllic playland may have a poisonous heart.

Players and curious kids access the ravine through an unsecured gate on the VA field, ignoring the faded paper warning signs. The ones that say: “THIS IS A CLOSED SITE.” What those signs don’t say is that this ravine is the barely covered core of a radioactive waste dump, which stretches underneath parts of the dog park and borders the athletic field. From 1952 to 1968, UCLA and the West L.A. Veterans Administration, now called the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Healthcare Center, used the land adjacent to and under the park to bury radioactive biomedical research waste.