Environmental Science, 10th Edition (Cunningham)

<a onClick="window.open('/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=jpg::::/sites/dl/free/8888888555/484165/google.jpg','popWin', 'width=210,height=178,resizable,scrollbars');" href="#"><img valign="absmiddle" height="16" width="16" border="0" src="/olcweb/styles/shared/linkicons/image.gif"> (34.0K)</a>

Take a virtual field trip with Google Earth!
Google Earth is a free, online application that uses satellite imagery to allow the user to zoom across the globe in a realistic, virtual environment. Downloading Google Earth is free at http://www.earth.google.com.

An overview manual is available by clicking here... Google Earth Overview (342.0K)

To continue:
- Make sure you have the Google Earth software installed and running.
- Copy the following latitude and longitude and paste into the "Fly to" field under the Search tab.
- Hit “Enter” for Google Earth to take you to the specified coordinates, then come back here and read the following overview.

Latitude/Longitude: 43.0815, -78.9521

Overview: U.S. Superfund Sites, p. 489

As you can read in your textbook, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) passed in 1980 and modified in 1984 authorized rapid containment, cleanup, or remediation of abandoned toxic waste sites. The EPA estimates there are at least 36,000 seriously contaminated sites in the United States. The 1,305 sites on the National Priority List (NPL) are identified by the place markers on Google Earth. You can find a ranking of these sites based on the toxicity and hazard of the material they contain at http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/land/rank-sites.tcl. Only 5 new sites were proposed for the NPL in 2007 because of declining funds available. The EPA reports that remediation or containment is complete at 1,010 of these sites.

This folder contains place markers for all Superfund sites. Each site has basic documentation as well as a link to the U.S. EPA Superfund web site, which reports the site's contaminants, as well as its clean-up status. This file was produced by U.S. EPA, which updates the data regularly. Those updates as well as documentation describing the contents of the file can be found at http://www.epa.gov/enviro.

This file was downloaded from the EPA website on 1/20/2007 and was converted to the KML format by Michigan Tech Research Institute (www.mtri.org).
(Note: Answers depend on the site chosen.)

1			If you live in the United States, find a Superfund site near your home (if you live elsewhere, find a site that sounds interesting). What is its name?
2			What sort of activity created this site?
3			What wastes are stored there?
4			What is its current status?