The first case study I chose was “North River Sewage Treatment Plant”. The city planning commission didn’t get the input of the community on what their opinions of a treatment plant, which made it a bigger problem. The city then promised to build a state park which did not happen until 23 years later. The problem is that in the sewage treatment plant located in the northern part of Manhattan, New York City had an overbearing odor. The community made complaints about this issue and the problem is the odor is a bigger problem in the summer. Many of the residents that live there have complained about health risks and symptoms they have experienced due to the noxious odors. I think that this study relates to some of the information that was in this module. The reason why is in the reading I read how the impacts of the environment can harm certain people or groups, which then raises an issue of environmental justice. The goal is being able to handle this issue better and the only way is by carefully monitoring the levels of hydrogen sulfide. Although not all the issues have been addressed properly such as the smell, but an investigation has taken place to address this concern. The sewage treatment plant’s location was a bad location not to mention it was originally supposed to be located somewhere else. Overall, there is not much that can be done other than to maintain the odors and keep the hydrogen sulfide under control.
http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/ny.html
For the second case study, I chose “The reusing of waste water to reduce fresh water withdrawal”. The purpose of this concept is to reduce the amount of fresh water is used by the industrial process. It also hopes to cut down how much water is released to the public. This plant is located in Iberian Peninsula in a dry area Spain. This article relates to the module because it mentions how natural resources can’t be replaced. The thing is we take our resources for granted and they are becoming scarce. The Villaluenga cement plant has been able to reduce the amount of water they used. This plant is now able to use water plants and can recycle water to not use fresh water. This can help save a lot of water which helps with our natural resources. Overall, this has been able to reduce the amount of water being discharged and used.
http://www.lafarge.com/en/spain-reusing-waste-water-reduce-fresh-water-withdrawal
These two cases are different from one another. I believe these are both important because they can occur anywhere. I currently live in Mont Alto, PA, but I am from Abbottstown, PA. Thankfully, there are no current environmental issues that are a concern at the moment back where I am from. I think the reason for that is because I live in a small town and it’s rather easy to maintain everything going on. Although just because this isn’t a concern in my town it does not mean it does not occur in other places near me. For example, York is about 25 minutes away from where I am and I know that they face some odor problems like the residents of New York City in Manhattan. I think because they are cities they will face more situations like these with sewage treatment plants. I think that the concept of the case study on reusing wastewater to reduce the amount of fresh water being used is very important because it can help the environment by reducing the amount of water that is being used. I think that we are not aware of our environment issues because we take things for granted such as our natural resources. Although these case studies teach us a lot of things because we are not aware of situations that occur around us. By being able to understand current environmental issues we can help develop new strategies to improve these current problems.
Hello, my name is Kelsey Somers! The two case studies I’ve chosen are Bicycling Transportation in Japan, and Water Scarcity in China. Your second case study caught my attention. It’s interesting how much water supply will be cut down and released to the public. I agree with how you stated we take our resources for granted and they’re becoming too scarce. We tend not to think about how we’re affecting our environment. By examining these studies, we learn how different we have it from other countries and how fortunate we are. Nice job!
Here is a link to my post if you would like to check it out:
https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bzt
Hello, my name is Adam Abbott and I am a Senior in IST. I chose to analyze the Narmada Valley Dam Projects in India and the Zimbabwe National Water Project for the country’s small towns. I think the case of the sewage treatment plant happens too often. Governments or big businesses want to develop, but they don’t think about the social aspects. The odor factor is a huge impact that depreciates the value of the land around the plant, which was apparently not considered during the process of planning and building it. Furthermore, the promise that was made to build a park to help make a positive impact on the environment was pushed back as if it wasn’t a priority. When it comes to development it seems that a lot of people have money only in mind and don’t consider the impacts their projects have on people and nature. I like how you found a case near your hometown that actually relates to that case study as well. It is interesting to see an example of this kind of issue so near to you.
If you want to take a look at my post the link is here: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/26/module-5-development-study-cases/