Major Pollution Incidents Research Articles

Monitoring public perceptions of contaminated sites based on social media

Contaminated sites have a negative impact on human health and the ecological environment, which can potentially lead to major pollution incidents, and frequently receive complaints and reports from the public. Therefore, monitoring public perceptions of contaminated sites is crucial for risk management. However, methods based on traditional questionnaire surveys are limited in terms of time, cost, and target audience size. The purpose of this study was to establish a method using social media to monitor public perceptions of contaminated sites in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. Thus, 6802 public opinions were collected from social media (mainly microblogs in China) and topic modeling and pollution and spatial mining techniques were employed. The topic modeling results indicated that public perceptions of contaminated sites mainly focused on the construction of prevention and control systems, law enforcement work, developments and challenges applicable to the coal industry, environmental public interest litigation (pertaining to pollution), pollution inspection and rectification, and green development and ecological governance, with intensities of 7.9%, 7.8%, 7.1%, 6.1%, 5.9%, and 4.8%, respectively. Three communities resulting from public opinions in the study area included “environment and pollution,” “enterprises,” and “environmental protection,” with proportions of 37.68%, 34.78%, and 27.54%, respectively. The field investigation results indicated that approximately 90% of the tweets in three typical cities (i.e., Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province and Wuxi and Changzhou Cities in Jiangsu Province) involved key industrial enterprises or contaminated sites located within 1 km of the surrounding areas. The emotional analysis indicated that >3401 tweets dealt with a pollution probability (i.e., the possibility of potentially contaminated sites mentioned in social media becoming contaminated sites) exceeding 0.90 for the period 2011–2021. This finding suggests that the pollution probability for the sites involved in these tweets was high. Our study provides methodological references for monitoring public perceptions of contaminated sites for large-scale, long-term, and high-resolution studies.

The impact of major pollution incidents on environmental performance

Recent work has shown that serious environmental incidents may act as trigger events to produce stronger regulatory enforcement in China. After a major pollution incident, Chinese authorities often impose severe penalties on polluters as a means to prevent future incidents and appease the public. In this paper, we examine how this increased regulatory stringency might affect firms’ environmental performance. We select Level I (extremely serious) and Level II (serious) environmental incidents from 2009 to 2019 as trigger events. Using city-level panel data on environmental violations, we find a significant deterrent effect of the incidents on violations: in the period following an incident, the number of violations falls roughly by 8%–11%. The effect is primarily driven by the incidents caused by illegal discharge of toxic pollutants. Other incidents, such as production safety accidents or traffic accidents, do not exert significant effects on environmental performance.

Review of the Researches on China􀆳s Ecological Environment Governance from the Perspective of Political Economics

The issue of ecology and environment is not only a technical and economic issue, but also a political one. The literature on environmental governance from the perspective of political economy can be divided into four categories: the perspective of governance capabilities of local government, the perspective of local government competition, the perspective of “government-enterprise collusion”, and the perspective of power balance. These four types of literature generally show a change from the benevolent government hypothesis to a self-interested government, from a holistic methodology that takes local governments as the unit of analysis to an individualist methodology that takes individual officials as the object of research, a change from a focus on the superficial reasons such as the government's ability to governance and the effectiveness of the policy to deep-seated reasons such as the power structure of the pluralistic subjects of society. This paper argues that ecological environmental protection involves the interests of multiple subjects, but the imbalance in the distribution of power and the pattern of interests among the subjects, and the excessive power of local government to speak and the insufficient ability of the public to participate in society, has led to the distortion of the environmental protection system in its implementation. This is why there local government has been behind all the major environmental pollution incidents in the country in recent years, and why almost all environmental pollution problems are obvious violations of existing laws and regulations, rather than a lack of institutions. The “interest-power-institution” equilibrium perspective provides a powerful theoretical framework for a comprehensive understanding of the prevention and control of ecological damage.

Transient Alterations in Streamwater Quality Induced by Pollution Incidents: Interim Losses Calculations and Compensation Alternatives Based on Habitat Equivalency Analysis.

Pollution incidents cause transient water quality alterations during the passage of contaminants' plume along watercourses, with plume passage period and contaminants' concentrations modelled by advection-dispersion equations. Despite being transient, water quality alterations can impose many impacts on the streamwater ecosystem services. This study proposes two frameworks based on Habitat Equivalency Analysis to be applied during assessments of streamwaters' pollution incidents and respective compensation panoramas: (1) Streamwater interim loss framework, to calculate interim loss debits caused by transient alterations in the streamwater quality; (2) Total credit framework, to calculate streamwater credits generated by improvements in selected watercourse's streamwater quality, produced by wastewater treatment plants in this study. The amount of credits calculated in the selected watercourses assists in the proposal of suitable compensatory remediation projects to offset interim losses. Frameworks' calculations are founded on IVA, a water quality index for protection of aquatic life and aquatic communities. Frameworks' calculations depend on three parameters: IVA, watercourses fluxes and the present value multiplier. The frameworks were calculated in ΔIVAxL, unit defined by multiplying sensed alterations in streamwater quality (as ΔIVA) and streamwater flux, in liters (L). The frameworks were applied to two major streamwater pollution incidents in Brazil, caused by the dam collapses of Mariana and Brumadinho, suggesting suitable compensatory remediations' projects for the respective streamwater interim losses. Depending on the selected project, Brumadinho compensation period varied from 2 to 5 years, with estimated costs in the 2020 Int.$ 5.7-18.7M range; Mariana compensation period varied from 8 to 20 years, with estimated costs in the 2020 Int.$ 16.7-58.1M range. Based on Brumadinho compensatory remediation projects, an average water pollution environmental damage value per interim loss was calculated, 1.17E-4 2020 Int.$/ΔIVAxL, which might be useful in comparing streamwater pollution evaluations around the world.

Benchmark and Legal Framework Study on Oil Spill Prompt Response and Contingency Resources for Oil & Gas Offshore Structures: A Global Cooperation

ABSTRACT A well-developed legal and regulatory framework on contingency planning and response arrangements with establishment of clear responsibilities and coordination between government and industry is one of the success keys for an effective oil spill preparedness and response strategy. Furthermore, international co-operation and mutual assistance in preparing for and responding to major oil pollution incidents have become critical in order to reduce potential impacts to the environment and populations. National policies on oil spill coordination and response vary from nation to nation. Governments are encouraged to ratify the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation of 1990 (OPRC 90) and develop laws and procedures for preparing for and responding to oil spills. This is often accomplished through the preparation of a national contingency plan under the auspices of an agreed national regulatory authority (IPIECA, 2000). Following recent oil spills, such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon within the Gulf of Mexico, interest on oil spill legislation has risen among stakeholders, as regional and national policies in some regions of the globe became stricter, notably on the need of available contingency resources, as well as transboundary and coordinated response (as required, for example, by the recent Europewide Safety of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations). In this context, a benchmark and legal framework study on oil spill prompt response and contingency resources for Oil & Gas offshore infrastructures was performed, focusing on six relevant Oil & Gas production areas: United States, Canada, North Sea, India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The continuous process of information gathering, review and consolidation throughout the analysis comprehended an establishment of a cooperation network of Oil & Gas consultant experts from these different areas of interest, including communication with local regulatory agencies in cases of uncertainties. The intent of this paper is to present the benchmarking and comparison of the legal requirements and regulatory framework on the availability of oil spill prompt response and contingency resources of these six areas of interest, as well as discuss potential legal weaknesses and opportunities for improvements on their regional and national contingency system.

Nurdle drifters around South Africa as indicators of ocean structures and dispersion

Dispersion processes in the ocean typically involve wind, ocean currents and waves. All these factors were included in an analysis to model nurdle dispersion from an accidental spill in Durban Harbour, South Africa, in October 2017. Nurdle sightings on beaches by members of the public are used as indicators of the dispersion which extended over 2000 km of the South African coastline in a period of 8 weeks. Using known oceanographic current structures, satellite imagery, wave data and surface wind drift values of between 5% and 8% of wind speed, good agreement was found between the modelled dispersion and nurdle sightings. In particular, it was found that nurdles remained in specific sections of the coast for long periods, and that sporadic wind events were required to move them into new coastal areas. Such results may also contribute to understanding the dispersal behaviours and strategies adopted by larval stages of marine organisms, particularly fishes, that have pelagic larval durations that extend over weeks to months. The event was recognised as a major pollution incident rivalling other nurdle spillages reported worldwide, and extensive efforts were made to collect the nurdles, particularly along the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast. However, 9 months later, less than 20% had been recovered. The results emphasise the connectivity of different ocean regions, and in particular that pollution of the ocean is not a localised activity. Matter discharged at one point will disperse over a wide area – in this case, significantly further afield than the area of recovery operations.
 Significance: 
 
 Wind drift in the upper metre or two of the ocean has been notoriously difficult to quantify, and the spread of nurdles along the South African coastline can only be explained by using drift percentages two or three times the generally accepted value of 3% or less. Nonetheless, it is important to realise that there are substantial differences in dispersion rates between the upper few centimetres of the ocean and that even a metre or two deeper.
 The rapid manner in which nurdles, and other microplastics, can be dispersed is important in terms of understanding the spread of this form of pollution in the world’s oceans. The results also confirm the important role that wind can play in the movement of eggs, larvae and invertebrates and the significance of vertical migrations in and out of the surface layers.

Research on video classification method of key pollution sources based on deep learning

China's environmental problems are not only related to the fundamental interests of the broad masses of the people, but also to China's national security and international image. At present, China's environmental protection work is facing a complex situation. Pollution sources can be divided into natural pollution sources and man-made pollution sources. Natural sources of pollution refer to places where nature releases harmful substances or causes harmful effects to the environment, such as active volcanoes. Man-made pollution source refers to the pollution source formed by human activities, and is also the main object of environmental protection research and control. Among the man-made pollution sources, air pollution sources, water pollution sources and soil pollution sources can be classified according to the main objects of pollution. Among them, air pollution sources and water pollution sources have the greatest impact on human life. Therefore, it has become an important subject worthy of in-depth discussion to take automatic and electronic measures for potential environmental pollution incidents, discover environmental pollution problems in time, reduce the probability of environmental pollution incidents, and even put some major environmental pollution incidents in their infancy. In this paper, deep learning method is used to classify the existing key pollution source video. Water pollution experiments show that the accuracy of video counting reaches 93.1%, which is better than other video processing schemes. The operation time of the system reaches acceptable range, and a solution to meet the real-time requirement is put forward.

Reduced manning with improved safety and reliability: how classification societies and digital solutions can support operators

The oil and gas industry is moving steadily towards automation and remote control of processes, which has the added advantage of removing personnel from the immediate danger of the offshore workplace. However, significant challenges remain to be met before the more complex type of offshore facility (especially floating facilities) can be operated fully unmanned, particularly when it comes to maintenance and repair campaigns. In particular, even though human life may be protected, the consequence of a major pollution incident occurring as a result of lack of sufficient manned surveillance is increasingly unacceptable in today’s society, and solutions have to protect these requirements as well. With today’s technologies and the pace of innovation, it is not difficult to envisage facilities in the near future where manned intervention is reduced to a far lower level than currently prevalent, perhaps even eliminated as robotics steadily advance. We can already begin to consider design features and systems that will make new facilities ready for such advances so that projects can absorb benefits from innovation as it occurs. The role of independent bodies such as the classification societies is to assess the design, construction and operation of offshore facilities and issue certification that gives regulators, financiers and insurers alike the confidence to support developments. For floating facilities this includes formal classification and a requirement for detailed knowledge of the state of the structure. This paper explores the methods that the classification society can use to support the aims of the offshore industry for reduced manning with improved safety and reliability.

Challenging the air quality discourse – people create pollution not technology

The London Smog of 1952 and subsequent health effects brought about a public outcry which triggered the generation and implementation of the UK’s Clean Air Act of 1956. This act and subsequent updates has been credited with ending the ‘pea-souper’ conditions synonymous with industrial and domestic coal burning. In recent years in the UK, the emergence of major smog events in urban areas due to road transport emissions, the growing volume of epidemiological evidence on the health effects of air pollution, the threat of fines by the European Commission towards Member states and the high profile court cases taken forward by ClientEarth against HM Government1has once again raise the media and political profile of air pollution but the same public outcry that was evident after the London Smog has not been seen. This story is replicated around the world, where major air pollution incidents are not (yet) resulting in wide scale social action – and consequent political changes – to our approach to tackling air pollution.

Accidental Water Pollution Risk Analysis of Mine Tailings Ponds in Guanting Reservoir Watershed, Zhangjiakou City, China.

Over the past half century, a surprising number of major pollution incidents occurred due to tailings dam failures. Most previous studies of such incidents comprised forensic analyses of environmental impacts after a tailings dam failure, with few considering the combined pollution risk before incidents occur at a watershed-scale. We therefore propose Watershed-scale Tailings-pond Pollution Risk Analysis (WTPRA), designed for multiple mine tailings ponds, stemming from previous watershed-scale accidental pollution risk assessments. Transferred and combined risk is embedded using risk rankings of multiple routes of the “source-pathway-target” in the WTPRA. The previous approach is modified using multi-criteria analysis, dam failure models, and instantaneous water quality models, which are modified for application to multiple tailings ponds. The study area covers the basin of Gutanting Reservoir (the largest backup drinking water source for Beijing) in Zhangjiakou City, where many mine tailings ponds are located. The resultant map shows that risk is higher downstream of Gutanting Reservoir and in its two tributary basins (i.e., Qingshui River and Longyang River). Conversely, risk is lower in the midstream and upstream reaches. The analysis also indicates that the most hazardous mine tailings ponds are located in Chongli and Xuanhua, and that Guanting Reservoir is the most vulnerable receptor. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses are performed to validate the robustness of the WTPRA method.

Climate Monitoring and Formation Mechanism of Smog Pollution in China

Based on environment monitoring data from China Meteorological Administration and Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, data of atmosphere probing and re-analysis data of NCAR/NCEP, and researches on sources of smog pollution and on smog composition analysis, the paper demonstrates characteristics of China's smog climate and climate change as well as the progress made in climate monitoring in China, explores the constituents of smog aerosol and its pollution sources, analyzes the air quality difference between metropolises and their adjacent small-sized cities and towns, and dissects the formation mechanism behind the recent three major smog pollution incidents from the perspective of air pollution dynamics. The findings of this study include: days with smog in eastern China are on rapid rise especially in 2013; smog pollution in metropolises are significantly much severer than that in adjacent small-sized cities and towns; and the rising smog pollution in China are mainly from motor vehicle exhaust, industrial emission, coal consumption among other factors. Based on the findings above, the study proposes combined principles and measures to eliminate smog pollution by integrating mitigation, joint prevention, and control. Causes of local variations of smog aerosol concentration fall into two categories: internal factors (pollution sources) and external ones (meteorological conditions). Among all external factors, horizontal convey of particulates is a major factor, and persistent smog pollution incidents are closely related to the vertical structure of static and stable atmosphere, wet deposition, and zones with low average wind speed.

Legal system of compensation for marine oil pollution in China

Compensation for vessel-source oil pollution is a key issue in protecting the interests of both victims and the marine environment, as well as in the prevention of oil pollution. International standards on compensation for vessel-source oil pollution have been established by various relevant international conventions. This paper investigates how China is implementing such international standards for vessel-source oil pollution compensation and reveals the potential problems on the way of improving its compensation standards. It is found that China is making efforts to enhance its compensation capacity, and is moving closer to the international standards. However, such compensation will not be adequate if a major oil pollution incident occurs in the Chinese sea areas, and becoming a member of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund may give stronger protection for victims in China.

Changes of public environmental awareness in response to the Taihu blue-green algae bloom incident in China

Environmental problems are becoming increasingly severe in China with industrial discharges and household sewages being the main sources of water pollution in the country. For example, in the case of Taihu Lake, more than half of the total phosphorus in the lake comes from household sewage. While industrial pollution can be treated through technology innovation and controlled by environmental regulations and laws, decreasing household sewage relies entirely on residents. Raising public environmental awareness therefore is essential for ensuring effective environmental improvement and protection. A quantitative assessment of public awareness can inform policy and decision makers; however, not many such studies have been conducted. Changes in the awareness levels in response to a major environmental pollution incident are of particular interest because of the people’s first-hand experience of the triggered consequences. The present paper establishes a system of indicators for the assessment of public environmental awareness. Combined with a fuzzy matter-element analysis method, a model is set-up to quantitatively assess the public environmental awareness. The model is then applied to assess the environmental awareness of the residents of Wuxi City after its major lake Taihu suffered a severe algae bloom in 2007. This study examines whether this serious environmental incident affected people’s environmental awareness and to what degree. The findings show that the matter-element model is capable to resolve well the fuzziness of the ranking affiliation and classification of subjective perceptions, such as public environmental awareness. They show that this environmental incident has had significant positive impacts on the environmental awareness of Wuxi residents. The paper concludes with recommendations related to raising public environmental awareness.

Environmental Monitoring System Based on ZigBee Wireless Sensor and Low-Power Technology

Environment monitoring system is an application service system for the management of industry and agriculture and the construction and operation of the national economy, which is conducive to the protection of the environment and ecology, can effectively avoid major environmental pollution incidents to threaten people's lives and property safety, and provide information support to safe energy system and to more efficient cooperative-work. The wireless sensor network is the product of the combination of sensor technology, communication technology and computer network technology. The wireless communication technologies in wireless sensor networks include infrared, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee, etc.. ZigBee technology is a set of communications technology for networking, security and application software with developed based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard, which are provided with low-power, low-latency, high security and other technical advantages. In this paper, the ZigBee wireless sensor network was used for data acquisition, wireless transmission in environmental monitoring site, which overcame the disadvantages and difficulties from traditional manual sampling monitors and from complicated wiring cable network monitoring. Quickly through ZigBee network data transmission to the monitoring platform to provide a reliable basis for environmental monitoring.

International Efforts to Establish Rules on Liability for Offshore Activities

Offshore activities account for a significant and steadily growing portion of worldwide oil and gas production. According to a report by the Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution (“GESAMP”) in 2007, it is estimated that between 25 and 30% of global oil production comes from offshore oil and gas reservoirs, with the main production areas being located in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa. However, this is not without costs to the marine environment. Oil pollution is the main concern with respect to sources of marine pollution. Despite advancements in the technology for the construction and operation of offshore installations, which have made possible that pollution levels from such activities be considerably low, offshore operations still remain a source of marine pollution because of the processes and risks they involve. Sometimes these processes and risks have been the cause of major pollution incidents. Many pollution incidents from offshore operations tend to be and normally are domestic in character. “Domestic pollution” in this case implies the situation where damage is suffered within the coastal State which has jurisdiction over the offshore operations causing the incident. Because offshore activities are usually carried out in the continental shelf of a coastal State, in many cases it will be that same coastal State which is likely to be the victim of an oil pollution incident. However, oil pollution can cross boundaries of national jurisdictions. Some sea areas with active offshore oil operations in their continental shelves are more prone to sustaining damage from international pollution than some other. Considering this problem, can the domestic legal system of a coastal State still be sufficient and effective to provide compensation in cases of “international pollution”, i.e. when oil from the continental shelf of a coastal State floats over to the continental shelf or shore of another coastal State? Could the citizens of the coastal State sustaining pollution damage be able to successfully claim compensation in the courts of that coastal State, even though damage was caused by offshore installations under the jurisdiction of a foreign State? Pollution from offshore installations affects a limited area of the continental shelf and/or the shore of the coastal State under which jurisdiction the installations operate, and in the worst case areas of the continental shelf and/or the shore of one or more coastal States located in the vicinity of the first coastal State. Thus one may question what sort of international regulation would be more effective and provide the most efficient mechanisms for determining liability and compensation for pollution damage, namely should it be a global or a regional regulation? Should this international regulation aim the uniformity of rules at an international level, or are pollution problems better addressed by regional agreements that take into account the different conditions of the particular areas where offshore operations are conducted?

Does the Alberta Tar Sands Industry Pollute? The Scientific Evidence

The extent to which pollution from tar sands industrial activities in northeastern Alberta, Canada affects ecosystem and human health is a matter of growing concern that is exacerbated by uncertainty. In this paper we determine whether physical and ecological changes that result from tar sands industrial activities are detectable. We analyze a diverse set of environmental data on water and sediment chemistry, contaminants in wildlife, air emissions, pollution incidents, traditional ecological observations, human health, and landscape changes from the Athabasca Tar Sands region, Canada. Increases in contaminants in water, sediment, and fishes downstream of industrial sources; significant air emissions and major pollution incidents; and the loss of 65,040 ha of boreal ecosystems are documented. Present levels of some contaminants pose an ecosystem or human health risk. The effects of these pollutants on ecosystem and public health deserve immediate and systematic study. Projected tripling of tar sands activities over the next decade may result in unacceptably large and unforeseen impacts to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and public health. The attention of the world's scientific community is urgently needed.

Evaluation of pastures for horses grazing on soils polluted by trace elements

Pasture established on polluted soil may pose a risk to grazing livestock creating a requirement for mechanical management which may affect biodiversity and expend energy. The risk associated with managing pasture by grazing horses (non-edible livestock) is being assessed in the Guadiamar Valley (SW Spain), where soils are polluted with trace elements following a major pollution incident. Soil pollution does not affect biomass production or floristic composition of pasture, although both variables influence trace element accumulation in herbage. Element concentrations in herbage are below maximum tolerable limits for horses. Faecal analysis showed regulated absorption of essential elements, while non-essential elements seemed preferentially excreted. Elemental content of horse hair did not differ in animals from polluted and control pastures. If pastures are managed by grazing, periodic monitoring is recommended in view of the long-term chronic trace element exposure in these systems.

Caenorhabditis elegans as a Biological Model for Multilevel Biomarker Analysis in Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment.

While in some instances, loss of diversity results from acute toxicity (e.g. major pollution incidents), in most cases it results from long-term sub-lethal effects that alter the relative competitive ability and fitness of certain organisms. In such cases the sub-lethal effects will cause a physiological response in the organism that ultimately leads to community level changes. Very sensitive tools are now available to study sub-lethal responses at the molecular level. However, relating such laboratory measurements to ecological effects represents a substantial challenge that can only be met by investigation at all scales (molecular, individual organism and community level) with an appropriate group of organisms. Among the various in vertebrates which can be used as model organisms in such a way, the soil nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans appear to be a promising biological model to diagnose environmental quality. This paper reviews the current status of multilevel biomarkers in environmental toxicology, and C. elegans as promising organisms for this approach.

EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL RESPONSE PREPAREDNESS IN THE WIDER CARIBBEAN THROUGH RAC/REMPEITC-CARIBE: ENHANCING A LONG TERM CYCLE

ABSTRACT RAC/REMPEITC-Caribe is a United Nation'S Regional Activity Centre, established in 1994 by the International Maritime Organization and the United Nations Environment Program for the Caribbean Sea. The Centre exists to assists countries in the Wider Caribbean region and Latin America to prevent and respond to major oil pollution incidents. While developing a systematic approach to capacity building, resulting in comprehensive regional projects including the Caribbean Islands Regional OPRC Plan and the Central America CAOP Project (design to establish a Central America Regional OPRC Plan), the constant interaction of the Centre within the region with the various cultures of response preparedness, regularly raises the following questions:– How to improve a standard, constant, and effective system for capacity building in regards to contingency planning?– How to improve the co-operation between the regional partners?– How to define a better mechanism for funding? The analysis of the last ten years activities developed by the Centre shows the alternation of established priorities developed under the objectives of the strategic plan for enhancing regional response preparedness. Key components for the definition of a long term development cycle, required to build capacity, and enhance regional co-operation, are identified. The elements to stand out are:– the development of a constructive succession in the activities thematic;– a time frame of 5 years to complete a cycle for a regional centre with RAC/REMPEITC characteristics;– the key role of metrics to assess priorities for the cycle;– the need of a common overview of the process to facilitate co-operation / co-ordination;– the need of sustained commitment. The identification of those parameters allow a regional centre to clarify the status of national contingency planning for governments, establish the extent of training and exercises needed in the region and most importantly, facilitates the synchronization of resources and support between stakeholders.

Water over the Bridge

Water over the Bridge