Ep 80 Love Canal and Minamata
This week's engineering failures are from our mini failure library. We’re talking about the Love Canal and the Minamata.
Love Canal - After a decade of dumping toxic waste, the location was a bad spot to put a school. Even the chemical company knew it, but it would take years for the school board to understand the consequences of their decision.
Minamata - Factory wastewater was dumped into Minamata Bay for decades, and poisoned the town of Minamata Japan.
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Episode Summary
Hi and welcome to Failurology; a podcast about engineering failures. I’m your host, Nicole. And I’m Brian. Our podcast journey has been a wild ride and we are immensely thankful for all of your support throughout the course of our show. Especially to our Patreon supporters. So today we’re sharing some more of our mini failures. We’re going to share 6 of our mini failures over the next three episodes. These mini failures come from our environmental disaster series we did last fall. The first two we’re going to share with you are the Love Canal and Minamata. After a decade of dumping toxic waste, Love Canal was a bad spot to put a school. Even the chemical company knew it, but it would take years for the school board to understand the consequences of their decision. Minamata is the story of how one small Japanese town suffered from decades of mercury poisoning. So without further adieu, here is our mini failure on the Love Canal, with the Minamata episode to follow afterwards.
Hi, and welcome to Failurology; a podcast about engineering failures. I’m your host, Nicole. And I’m Brian. And we’re both from Calgary, AB. Welcome to our 28th mini-failure episode. This week’s mini failure is about the Love Canal. This is the first of four in a series of environmental disasters.
A neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located on the north side of the Niagara river, about 10km upstream from the American falls.
Was previously the location of a 0.28km2 landfill that was the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s.
The community was created in 1890, but only partially developed. It was named after William T Love, a railroad entrepreneur.
The plans for the community included a shipping lane to bypass Niagara Falls. Love had received backing from New York, Chicago and England banks, but the panic of 1893, an economic depression that lasted until 1897, caused the investors to end their sponsorship of the project. In 1906, environmental groups lobbied to preserve Niagara Falls and prohibit removal of water from the river. At that point, about 1.6km of the canal had been dug, 15m wide, and 3-12m deep, stretching north from the river.
The panic of 1907, which saw the downfall of the Knickerbocker Trust Company, combined with development of power transmission lines that could carry electricity long distances and generate hydroelectric power, put the last nail in the coffin for the canal project.
In the 1920s the abandoned canal became a dump site for garbage from the City of Niagara Falls.
In the 1940s, the site was bought by the Hooker Chemical Company where they dumped 19,800kg of chemical byproducts from manufacturing dyes, perfumes, and solvents for rubber and synthetic resins. They were given permission to do so by the Niagara Power and Development Company. To mitigate seepage into the ground, the canal was drained and lined with thick clay. When it was clear the land would be developed, Hooker stopped using the site as a dumping ground in 1952, covering the canal with a clay seal to prevent leakage. Overtime, vegetation started to grow on the site.
Then it was sold to a school district in 1953 by eminent domain or expropriation as we call it in Canada. This worked out really well for Hooker. They sold the land for $1 with a liability limitation clause to relieve them of risk and liability from the chemicals underground.
The school construction then breached containment structures in several ways and allowed the trapped chemicals to seep out. The architect, after discovering two dump sites, encouraged the school board to shift the school 25m north. The playground also had to be shifted because it was right on top of the dump. When the school was completed in 1955, 400 children attended. That same year, a 2.5 metre square area crumbled, exposing more chemical drums. That area then filled with rainwater that children loved to play in. Shortly after, another school opened 6 blocks away.
In 1957, more of the clay seal was damaged after the school board sold some of the land for public residential development and installed gravel sewer beds. Over the next few years, 800 private houses and 240 low income apartments were built.
After years of complaints, the city hired a consultant to begin an intensive air, soil and groundwater sampling and analysis program in 1977.
In 1978, then president Jimmy Carter announced a federal health emergency which allowed him to use federal funds to assist in the cleanup of the Love Canal. This was the first time emergency funds were used for a situation other than a natural disaster. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), which is a long and terrible name, so they called it the Superfund Act. The act taxed chemical and petroleum industries to address the release of hazardous substances that endanger public health or the environment.
Over the next three decades, a number of public health problems originated from the site, leaving families with health issues and symptoms such as high white blood cell counts and leukaemia.
In 1989, the new york state department of health commissioner called it a “national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations”
In 2004, Love Canal was officially removed from the Superfund list. The cleanup took 21 years, cost $400 million USD and displaced 950 families
So there you have it, the Love Canal. After a decade of dumping toxic waste, the location was a bad spot to put a school. Even the chemical company knew it, but it would take years for the school board to understand the consequences of their decision.
Thanks for listening to this mini-failure episode. For our regular episodes, check out Failurology wherever you get your podcasts.
If you want to chat with us, our Twitter handle is @failurology, you can email us at thefailurologypodcast@gmail.com, you can connect with us on Linked In or you can message us right in the Patreon app. There are links to all of these in the show notes.
Bye everyone, talk soon!
Hi, and welcome to Failurology; a podcast about engineering failures. I’m your host, Nicole. And I’m Brian. And we’re both from Calgary, AB. Welcome to our 29th mini-failure episode. This week’s mini failure is about the Minamata disease. A neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning that originated in Minamata, Japan. Which is how it got its name. This is the second in a series of at least 4 environmental disasters that were covering. I say at least 4 because one of the interesting things that happens when I research these failures is that I come across others that are similar or recommended and the list is ever expanding. I don’t think we will cover every single one of these environmental disasters, but 4 is a soft number that we may exceed if I find more interested stories.
Minamata is located on the west coast of Japan, almost at the southern tip of the main island.
It was established in 1889, designated a town in 1912 and a city in 1949. The population is somewhere between 20 and 25 thousand.
A local chemical plant had been emitting untreated wastewater into Minamata Bay from 1932 until 1968. The wastewater contained methyl mercury, which was accumulated in fish, which were then eaten by people, who then developed mercury poisoning. The mercury poisoning disease was discovered in 1956.
Despite the awareness of poisoning in 1956, experts didn’t suspect and/or understand that it was coming from the chemical plant. It wasn’t until 1965 that experts officially acknowledged that mercury containing effluent could cause Minamata disease.
The plant didn’t stop discharging poisonous effluent until 1968 when they stopped production. By that time there was already 35+ years of contamination.
Fishing nets were installed to fence the bay in 1975 and a dredging project started in 1977 lasting until 1990. They removed over 780,000m3 of sludge and reclaimed over 580,000m3 of land.
The environment was pronounced safe on July 29, 1997.
By 2004, the chemical plant owners had paid $86 million USD in compensation and were ordered to clean up their contamination.
By 2007, over 2,600 people were diagnosed with Minamata disease, with more than 650 alive today.
Minamata Disease
Neurological disease caused by severe mercury poisoning
Signs and symptoms include ataxia, numbness of hands and feet, general muscle weakness, loss of peripheral vision, and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma, and death can occur within weeks of the onset of symptoms. For pregnant women suffering from Minamata disease, a congenital form of the disease can occur fetuses and may lead to cerebral palsy.
Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan
These are a group of man-made diseases caused by environmental pollution due to improper handling of industrial waste in Japan.
Minamata and Niigata were both caused by methylmercury poisoning, but from different sources and occurring in different parts of Japan. Niigata is over 1,000km north of Minamata. These two also occurred 9 years apart with Minamata recognized in 1956 and Niigata recognized in 1965.
Then we have Itai-itai disease, which translates to “it-hurts it-hurts” caused by cadmium poisoning in 1912. Symptoms include debilitating pain, bone fractures from coughing or walking, skeletal deformities, anemia, and kidney disorders.
And Yokkaichi Asthma caused by sulfur dioxide in 1961. The asthma presented as bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and complications associated with those.
Following the creation of the Environmental Agency in 1971, there was a significant increase in public awareness, and changes to industrial practices. These changes led to the decline of these diseases and set precedent for private tort law and civil law to hold corporations accountable for the damages caused.
Thanks for listening to this mini-failure episode. For our regular episodes, check out Failurology wherever you get your podcasts.
If you want to chat with us, our Twitter handle is @failurology, you can email us at thefailurologypodcast@gmail.com, you can connect with us on Linked In or you can message us right in the Patreon app. There are links to all of these in the show notes.
Bye everyone, talk soon!