Public Nuisance Research Articles

Sources of Liability for Geologic Hazards: ABSTRACT

End_Page 434------------------------------The range of liability for damage from geologic hazards has a basis in common law and consequently is explicit in most states as such or as modified by statute. The range of liability extends from absolute through phases of contingent to limited or no liability. In general, absolute liability in civil cases is imposed for acts which are ultrahazardous, inherently dangerous, or public nuisances. Contingent liability exists where an act or omission is intentional or the result of a breach of a duty which leads to a foreseeable damage. Liability is limited or there is no liability where the damage resulted from an act of God, where there were supervening acts of others or where no legal injury occurred. For each potential attachment of liability, there is a defense or range of defenses. In addition, persons who speak out in a defamatory manner may incur liability for that speech unless protected by privilege or on constitutional grounds. The legal basis for liability for damage from geologic hazards is in tort and property law (including water law) where traditionally the different degrees of liability have been imposed for differing damages to land and the use of land. Loss of vertical support, flooding, and pollution are commonly absolute liability or intentional torts. Damage from landslides and mixed geologic situations commonly fall under the rules of negligence and one would expect the same to apply to damage to manmade structures from earth movements. Interferences with groundwater supplies may result in civil liability depending on one of the four major theories of groundwater law. Professional geologists in public practice or those who involve themselves in public debate without adequate preparation are likely target defendants where damages result from projects which incorporate their recommendations, where they fail to act when there was a duty to do so, and where their unwarranted alarms cause expensive delays. End_of_Article - Last_Page 435------------

PUNDITS

"On the occasion of his taking over the seat of English Literature at Cambridge University in 1913, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch said: ‘Definitions, formulae (some would add creeds) have their use in any society in that they restrain the ordinary unintellectual man from making himself a public nuisance with his private opinions.’ . . . The blasted thing is that the statement is almost precisely true. In most human beings there exists a terrible need to be told what to think. . . . There is this hunger for definitions. The guys who provide these consolatory formulae are called pundits. . . . The pundit, it may be argued, serves a useful function in society. . . . If enough predigested opinion is foisted upon the world, the grumblings of the malcontents are muted. You may have noticed that the people who have the most violent opinions are those who read either superficially or not at all. . . . If the world were filled with people of this stripe, it would be virtually ungovernable. . . . It is the steadying influence of the pundit, the priest and the professor that puts all this mental ferment down. . . . In return for your confusion, [they] offer the comfort of certainty. In return for your instinctive knowledge that there are two sides to every story, [they] offer the resounding authority that there is only one."

Public nuisance and entropy increase

Public nuisance is the inevitable physical conclusion of the second law of thermodynamics, the increase of entropy, under which humans make efforts to build up order, that is, to make states of lower entropy, scattering much entropy into the environment. In other words, humans live on negentropy, negative entropy. Saving of negentropy is the first means of conserving the environment. Soon after C. E. Shanon had introduced the idea of entropy in information theory, N. Wiener showed the relation between entropy of thermodynamics and entropy of information. Wiener showed that the paradox of Maxwell is not a contradiction if we consider the entropy of demon's information. This idea is very suggestive. Moral principles, tax systems, and price mechanisms are effective for the conservation of the environment. Good information systems can conserve good environments. This is the second means. The third way is the use of biological systems. For example, in sewage treatment plants the active sludge purifies polluted water. The reason why microorganisms can select some substances in polluted water is that they have received the information by heredity, the information carried by the double helical structure of DNA.

Characterization of odors and other volatile emissions

The phenomenon of olfaction is complex. Several models have been proposed to explain the observations relative to odor perception and identification, yet none of the models is entirely satisfactory. Psychological aspects of odor evaluation compound the difficulties in making objective measurements of either odor strength or odor quality. Correlations between the chemical composition of air and its odors have proven more difficult than anticipated. Anaerobic decomposition of manure is a stepwise process in which complex organic compounds are degraded to successively smaller, less complex molecules. Since, at a given moment, any or all of these intermediate compounds may be present, the observed odor represents the sum of the individual contributors. Data indicate that the total odor may not represent the simple summation of indiduaual contributors but that extensive interaction is occurring. Research to identify the chemical compounds presents in odorous air from animal waste degradation has yielded about 45 compound to date. Even though this list i s undoubtedly incomplete, it indicates the complexity of the situation and forewarns of the difficulties to be encountered in odor control. The amines, mercaptans, organic acids, and heterocyclic nitrogen compounds are generally regarded as being of greatest odor signif icance. Chemical techniques exist for measuring the concentration of many odorous compounds produced by the anaerobic decomposition of manure. The low concentration at which these compounds are odorous in air, however, frequently exceeds the sensitivity of existing analytical techniques. Thus, extensive modification of traditional analytical techniques is necessary. Ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, mercaptans, and volatile organic acids have been quantitatively measured in the air-volatilized material from manure storagetanks. Although certain odorous gases are known to be toxic to both humans and livestock, the primary concern is one of annoyance or nuisance to humans. Rules and regulations relative to livestock odors are based primarily on the concept of nuisance. Whenever a neighboring property owner feels the odor from an animal production unit isunreasonably interfering with the use and enjoyment of his property, he has the right to initiate legal action to recover damages or to seek an injuction to halt or modify an operation. Both private and public nuisance have involved major expenses for the livestock producer and, in a few instances, required that a producer cease operation to a more appropriate location. Ammonia has been the most widely studied odorous gas being evolved by anaerobic manure decomposition. The evalution of ammonia is of interest not only because of its odor but also because the potential for reabsorption by nearby water bodies would lead to the possibility of aquatic enrichment. The atmosphere near livestock production units has been measured in enough locations to demonstrate a significant increase in ammonia concentrations in these areas compared to residential or other agriculturalareas. The volatilization rate of ammonia is a function of temperature, pH, and ammonia content of the material from which it would escape. Various chemical treatments have been explored for reducing the odor of stored animal manure. Chlorine, lime, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, and paraformaldehyde have been applied to manure for their characteristics of inhibiting anaerobic bacterial activity and their reaction with known odorous compounds. These chemicals have been demonstrated to be temporarily effective when added in sufficient concentration. There are several proprietary odor control chemicals being sold for odor reduction or masking. Their performances have received only limited study and the published results are highly variable.

Odour problems and odour control in intensive livestock husbandry farms in the Netherlands

With the help of the technical improvements of recent years, a farmer is able to keep more animals as previously; a phenomenon we find back in the statistics. In the Netherlands we have some legal possibilities for fighting odour nuisance: The Public Nuisance Act, which obliges a livestock farmer to have a permit if there is a storage of manure at the farm. As most complaints dealt with odour nuisance, the Public Health Officer may impose further conditions to control bad odours. In most cases a minimum distance between the stable and the neighbouring dwellings is dictated; this distance depends on the number of animals at the farm as well as on local circumstances. Beside the Public Nuisance Act, there are also local police regulations and the Act on air pollution, but the last Act is not applicable to livestock husbandry farms. Apart from a minimum distance, the local Public Health Officer can impose other measures to abate odour nuisance. These technics, which result partly from research, are briefly dealth with in the paper.

住工混合地域の地域構造とその推移動向 : 住工混合地域の研究 (その 1)

Areas where houses and factories are mixed are typical of the established urban districts in question. For firstly, the 2 issues are complexed and concentrated ; (1) Local public nuisance made by factories and cars are impacting the enviroment. (2) And the housing is over-densely inhabited and damaged. Secondarily these mixed land use areas take up 25〜30% of urban districts in metropolitan areas. The purpose of studying these mixed land use areas where work and dwelling are compounded is to understand the urban structure and to improve the environmental quality in these districts. There are 3 methods of explaining the structure of these districts; (1) The environmental conditions in the concentrated industrial districts are seen as a factor of the production's social division of labor and the organizational structure of the industrial (parent industry and subsidiary) complex. (2) A detailed analysis of how the managerial level can improve the factory environment. (3) Where industry and housing are inseparated but adjacent area. Factries pervasive enviromental influences that an industrial areas impacts onto the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

An Evaluation of Environmental Policy: With Reference to the Public Nuisance Prevention Law in Korea

An Evaluation of Environmental Policy: With Reference to the Public Nuisance Prevention Law in Korea

The assessment of noise, with particular reference to aircraft

It is now some 20 years since aircraft noise became a significant public nuisance and every conceivable aspect of the problem has been scrutinised and discussed in a vast literature. The scope of the present paper, in relation to this broad canvas, will appear extremely narrow. Nothing will be found herein about such important questions as the influence of noise on the development of aviation, engine technology, operational procedures, reduction of noise by acoustical means, the economics of air transport, regulatory action, or the planning of airports. It is only necessary to make slight reference to these matters to sketch the framework within which a system of measurement and assessment of noise has developed. The circumscribed nature of these aspects, unfortunately, does not mean that they can be dealt with briefly or summarised easily.

市街地における建築物周辺気流の立体的構造に関する研究 : その 1. 規則的配列模型周辺気流の性状について

The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavior of airflow in urban area and to obtain some information on the points mentioned below. 1) Calculation of natural ventilation. 2) Precise estimation of heat road for building air conditioning. 3) Protection against air pollution due to gas emission from auto-mobiles and buildings. 4) Prevension of public nuisance due to strong wind around tall buildings. For the purpose, several wind tunnel experiment were made. At first, we arranged many city-block models regularly in the wind tunnel and measured wind velocity, momentum flux, mixing length and so on. As a result, following remarks may be made. 1) Wind profiles above the streets to which wind direction is at right angles are nearly conform to the log-low in upper part (Z≧Z_0), but above the streets with which wind direction is in parallel, those are not necessarily conform to log-low. 2) The pattern of vertical distribution of friction velocity u_* is that in lower part (Z≦Z_0) the value of u_* is small, but in upper part u_* increases and becomes constant (u_*≃0.2). [cf. Fig.35, 36] 3) Mixing lengths increase in proportion to height (Z) in upper part (Z≧Z_0), but near the limit of boundary layer, they decrease to zero. [cf. Fig.37, 38] and so on.

K.S.U aerobic swine-waste handling system (6 years of problems and progress)

The Kansas State University Swine research Unit's aerobic-oxidation waste disposal system is functioning satisfactorily with minimum maintenance and supervision. Labor requirements are low. Odor is no problem. Waste fluid can be spread on the fields any time without creating a "public nuisance." Pigs are performing satisfactorily in the unit. Flies are easily controlled and suitable sanitation is easily maintained.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 13, 1975

Development of Superconducting Levitated Train in Japan

For the development of the superconducting levitated train in Japan, high speed, low public nuisance and easy-maintenance are required in addition to the advantages of the conventional railway.Basic experiments by rotational test device and running test on the 220m and 480m length test track have been conducted.Now, a 7km test track it to be built to check the feasibility of superconducting levitation and linear synchronous motor propulsion up to 500km/hr. The testing on this track is scheduled to commence in the spring of 1977.

REPRESENTATION OF MINIMUM AMOUNT OF BICHROMATE IN WOOL DYEING WITH MORDANT DYESTUFFS

In commercial processing of wool dyeing using mordant dyestuffs, bichromate has been in use. After chromating it has been a common practice to use potasium bichromate equal to 1/2-1/3% of dyestuffs.Lately the pressure of chromium in water waste contained in heavy metals came to light as a cause of public nuisance, its amount being in excess beyond the allowance for public safety. As a result of it further investigations has been carried on.Among the processes directed toward alleviation are to change mordant dyestuffs to some others for instance, such as 1:2 type metal complex dyestuffs; use of reductive agents; application of ion exchange resins to mention the outstanding attempts.The present paper reports the findings consisted of the following three parts(1) Amount of chromium in dyebath at the end of dyeing was much influenced by next factors; amount of bichromate and sodium sulfite, chroming temperature and time.Chromium was hardly detected when potassium bichromate was used less than 0.7% owf under ordinary dyeing conditions.(2) Purity of dyestuffs in market was investigated and then calculated the stoichiometric chromium amount. Dyeing was practised under this chromium amount and chromium in dyebath was checked. Both change of shade and dyeing fastness properties was also checked.In the results, it was shown that the minimum amount of bichromate required to develop the dyestuff was nearly the stoichiometric chromium amount.(3) Application to actual dyeing the stoichiometric chromium amount i.e., to actual dyeing “Potassium bichromate Factor” was considered. Dyeing was practised on the basis of this factor. Actual yarn and piece dyeing tests over six months followed that chromium in waste water was hardly detected and that both fastness properties and reappearance of shade was very satisfied.

Practical Problems with Implementation of Muncipal Noise Control Regulations and Ordinances

Until states and municipalities assumed some responsibility for the abatement of noise, courts provided remedies on a case-by-case basis by awarding damages to the private property owner or enjoining the continuance of the noise nuisance. Close to the private nuisance are. the theories of trespass, assault, and “taking” (the exercise of eminent domain by inverse condemnation or easement). Springing from this basic common law action is the remedy of public nuisance municipal ordinances, which take the additional step of striking at the source of noise itself. In this paper we discuss the effectiveness of municipal noise ordinances based on the private nuisance concept, and regulations based on zoning, tax incentives, and outright prohibition. Also related are our opinions of notably favorable and unfavorable enforcement procedures in the San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Palo Alto, and the League of California Model Municipal Noise Ordinances.

The Distribution of Public Nuisance in Sapporo City

It is commonly recognized that public nuisances are classified to three categories due to their characters; industrial, urban and others. The author will discuss in this paper on the industrial and urban nuisances in Sapporo.Among these nuisances, urban one may be considered not only as occurring in urban area, but also as results from the unbalance between increasing city population and urban public facilities such as sewerage system or others. The lack of public facilities are main factors of urban nuisance.The author analyzed air and water pollution in Sapporo as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Air pollution with high sulphur content is limited to CBD area and it seems to have diminished with the completion of district central heating in a part of the CBD. But residential districts around the city have been gradually polluted with low sulphur content. In order to eliminated air pollution, it is necessary to equip the district central heating adjacent to CBD area and also at residential districts.Water pollution is most closely related to the lack of sewerage system. At the Shinkawa river which runs through the western parts of the city, extreme pollution is caused by waste water from chemical factories and fish processing ones.From the above view points, there are many latent factors outside the 6 kilometers sphere where population is increasing much higher than any other districts.

Lumber Shops in Urban Area

Many lumber shops in urban area, which have no urban appearance compared with neighbouring retail shops, offices or residences, are going to cause public nuisance such as noise and others.Present distribution of lumber shops in many cities is concerned to the city planning in feudal era, and some of which are newly located in the neighbourhood of the railroad station where urban renewal has not come. There are few lumber shops in the recently developed residential area.New lumber shops in urban area are changing their character to the dealer of miscellaneous construction materials, and the shops look to adapt to various kinds of function.

FEDERAL — STATE — LOCAL SHARING IN AIR POLLUTION CONTROL

Whether forced by the circumstances of states predating a viable central government, convinced by pure logic of inter-level division of powers for a large land mass, or moved to innovate, the constitutionframers did provide for adaptive sharing of governmental functions. Never described as efficient, this adaptive model has permitted an astounding array of cooperative and conflictual patterns in the administration of public business. The variations seem boundlesswhether between issue-areas, the same issue-area over time, or between levels of government in the same issue-area. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the policy implications of the emerging federal-state-local sharing system in air pollution control. Special emphasis is devoted to stationary source pollution. Given the uniformity of the emission source and the lack of widespread state-local action, the federal government preempted motor vehicle emissions regulation within two years of authorizing federal controls. Stationary source control, on the other hand, has traditionally been a state-local (primarily local) responsibility-an exercise of police power and/or authority to regulate public nuisances.2

Seasonal and spatial distribution of Tinea fuscipunctella on poultry ranches.

Populations of Tinea fuscipunctella Haworth larvae, breeding on coastal and inland poultry ranches in southern California, characteristically showed annual spring and early-summer peaks followed by two smaller mid- and late-summer surges. Larval distribution in hen manure was relatively uniform, although some larvae tended to concentrate near warmer areas of ranches during the spring. This species probably has increased in importance as a public health nuisance coincident with urbanization. No evidence exists to suggest a significant density rise or distributional extension over the past decade.

Some Problems of Public Nuisance in Morioka City

This is a study of latent urban public nuisance in Morioka City. In the city, daily life of the citizens is not affected by urban public nuisance. But, before public nuisance is exposed in the citizen life, it is necessary to study on the principles of the policy to prevent.Morioka is a city where local central administrative functions are highly accumulated, a nuclear city in the northern part of northeast Japan. In Morioka City, the urban institutions are comparatively accumulated. Though the urban public nuisance is not remarkable here, but it is not true that the city is free from urban public nuisance. The urban public nuisance in Morioka City is gradually increasing in quantity.An instance is as follows.In the suburbs of Morioka, the residental quarter is sprawling, and the construction of drainpipes does not follow the speed of the urban expansion, Accordingly, in the outskirts of Morioka City, the irrigation water is polluted by the drainage from the residential areas.In Morioka City, factories, the source of public nuisance, are highly accumulated, but the pollution of atmosphere in Morioka City is rather slight. Numerous printing factories and lumbermills in Morioka, there are, so that there is noise public nuisance.The streets in Morioka are narrow and complex. Especially, in the neighborhood of the bridges, many streets join, and the road system is very complex; consequently, there is traffic jam, and hence public nuisance of transpotation noise.As the counter-measure of urban public nuisance in the city, we claim that industrial parks where all manufactories of the city are concentrated be constructed, and by this powerful means public nuisance be prevented.Then, we should utilize, the open space which the nanufactories have been moved as public land.

Some Problems of the Urban Public Nuisance of the Cities in Rikuchû Coast and the Structure of the Cities

Since Rikuchu Coast (the central part of the Pacific Coast in northeastern Japan) is a Rias coast, the damage in case of seismic sea wave in is great. Accordingly, land for the urban development is limited, urban institutional arrangements densely accumulate in the small spaces, and rationality is lacking in the arrangement. This is a factor for urban public nuisance in this point.The coastal cities in Rikuchu are small scale cities with populations from thirty thousand to seventy thousand, and in every city its own finance is scanty, and its constructive investment is retarded. For that reason, the lack of balance between city population and urban institutions occurs, and the imperfection of urban environments results. And in this point, there is another factor of urban public nuisance.The coastal cities in Rikuchu, with such predestinated factors of urban public nuisance, become fishing industrial bases, as the coast faces to the Sanriku fishing ground to the east, and in the cities there are many marine product processing manufactories.Consequently, the sea waters in the bay with coastal cities around is polluted by plenty of drainage from the manufactories. At the same time, as coastal industry locates in the coastal cities, the atmosphere of the coastal cities are becoming polluted by the smokes and dusts from the manufactories.

Public Nuisance, the Restatement (Second) of Torts, and Environmental Law

THE LAW OF PUBLIC NUISANCE AS A TORT IS INCREASINGLY BEING USED IN ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION. THE POSITION OF THE AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE IS REVIEWED WITH RESPECT TO THE TORT OF PUBLIC NUISANCE AS IT IS REPRESENTED IN THE TENTATIVE DRAFTS LEADING TO THE RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS. THE CASE LAW IS EVALUATED TO IDENTIFY THE TRENDS THAT THE RESTATEMENT (SECOND) EMPHASIZES. THE USE OF PUBLIC NUISANCE THEORIES IN VARIOUS TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION SUCH AS WATER, AIR, AND NOISE POLLUTION IS SCRUTINIZED, AND THOSE AREAS ARE IDENTIFIED WHERE PUBLIC NUISANCE LAW MAY MOST APPROPRIATELY BE USED.