Industrial Landfill in Unionville, Ohio: an Overview of Waste Management

Unionville is a small town located in Ohio, relatively close to Akron. After the year 1966, this land was no longer being utilized for the mining of sand and gravel and ultimately became a landfill. This landfill operated until the year 1980. After this, the area received a lot of chemical wastes that were dumped into it. Mostly coming from rubber companies located in the nearby city of Akron. It was estimated that some 780,000 tons of solid wastes and one million gallons of liquid wastes were deposited to this single site. These wastes proved to be very hazardous and methane gas was regularly reported in this area (Environmental Protection Agency,2017).

During the year of 1984, the environment was not the only thing being harmed, but now this waste was collected in a family’s home. The house immediately exploded, and many claim this to be an example of environmental racism and toxic terrorism. Environmental racism occurs to areas that are high in minorities. These issues are lessoned because they are not a high priority and often are not handled promptly. Environmental racism can also help explain what happened in Flint, MI (Environmental Protection Agency,2017).

On the other hand, environmental terrorism can occur in three ways. It can either be the sale, export, or construction of any dangerous or hazardous chemicals. We can see these instances not only in the case above, but all throughout the world. All countries create these hazards, mainly for war purposes. Potentially Responsible Parties, PRP, and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA are responsible for the cleanup of these sites. Every five years, the EPA makes reports of these efforts being conducted. They reveal to us the status of these issues, and promote safety and health. The long-term goal of these efforts was to provide safe and clean water to some 100 homes, capping the site, and lastly expansion of the landfill gas extraction and treatment system (Environmental Protection Agency,2017).

The groundwater in this location is certainly of no use. It is claimed to be contaminated with a few volatile organic compounds. These contaminations, however, are decreasing in number over the past years. This is due to the efforts of PRP and EPA. Although little information was provided on the financial standings of this company. They were fully responsible for cleanup costs and compensation to the households who were affected (Environmental Protection Agency,2017).

Although these situations caused many problems, I feel that the ideas of eternity are still present. These companies are still conducting processes for cleanup and have compensated the families who were affected. This may not appear to be much, but they admitted to their wrongdoings and are still paying for it. In my opinion, they have gone above and beyond to help fix the damage they have done(Environmental Protection Agency,2017). Most companies do not admit their mistakes and do not compensate those affected. If you don’t believe these ideas, watch the documentary Gassland and you can see the typical treatment of these persons.

Many companies dump illegal wastes in areas for several reasons. It is most likely occurring somewhere now as we speak. These issues are very common because it is often cheaper to dispose of these wastes elsewhere and just pay the fines. These issues are extremely important and I am satisfied with the efforts of this company.