You have purchased a heavily wooded 200 acre tract of land with the intention of

Question

You have purchased a heavily wooded 200 acre tract of land with the intention of building 100 houses and a shopping center. The property is zoned for these uses. After purchasing the property you discover an old dump containing rotting steel drums containing toxic chemicals on a small portion of the property. The remainder of the property is pristine woodlands. The dump is several hundred yards from a stream running through the property that eventually flows to a local public reservoir. While investigating the dump, you also discover that several endangered Wood Turtles are breeding in wetlands located on the property. What options do you have? What remedies are available? What can be done with this property   

Explanation / Answer

This is the case of a point source of contamination.Firstly,the river water would have to be analysed chemically to confirm the presence of toxic chemicals.The river water has to be sampled over several miles in length.The toxic chemicals could have leached into the river waters through ground water flow or by over wash. In cases of river water contamination, suitable methods could be followed depending on the type of toxins. In case of an oil spill, bacterial bioremediation could be used along with other methods like soaking the spiiled oil with hyper absorbing peat moss and mats. In case of inorganic chemicals leached in the water, specific chemicals could be used to precipiate the toxins.

In the case,when the chemical might not have leached into the waters ,the the source of the toxins should be carefully collected and disposed at suitable spots. In case of radioactive wastes,the waste would be sealed off in special containers and disposed off deep into basement rocks, suitably granitic rocks,which could safely hold the waste for over a thousand years. Organic wastes could be processed at suitable facilities to make usable and safe products.

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