There is more to safety than simply protecting the people who work with hazardous materials and waste and those that may come into contact with it when accidents, such as the steam pipe explosion and the Oroville Dam spillway, happen. It is important to remember these hazards can affect our environment when not properly regulated and monitored, which in turn impacts us because of our dependency on the environment. Think of it as a pollution butterfly effect, a small amount of pollution can have wide-reaching implications.
Companies that utilize hazardous materials or produce hazardous wastes in their plants have to be careful to properly regulate and dispose of them or else they risk contaminating the surrounding environment. One such example is the Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Memphis, TN which recently found that the ground water surrounding the plant had been contaminated with arsenic and lead from its coal ash waste (http://wreg.com/2017/07/12/arsenic-lead-found-in-groundwater-at-memphis-power-plant/).
In addition to polluting the environment around the plant it is possible that if left unchecked these contaminates could make their way into the deep aquifer that supplies the drinking water for the area. If that were to happen many people could become seriously ill and remediation would be much more difficult and widespread, but fortunately it appears that the toxic materials have not spread that far. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued a report on the subject, which you can read here http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/35869385/arsenic-lead-fluoride-found-in-groundwater-under-memphis-power-plant.
The bright side of this situation is that the plant has monitoring equipment in place and they alerted the state that the surrounding wells were testing positive for increased levels of contaminates, before it because a much larger problem (http://wreg.com/2017/07/12/arsenic-lead-found-in-groundwater-at-memphis-power-plant/). This is a prime example of why regulations, monitoring, and proper techniques are so important when dealing with hazardous materials and waste.
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