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Case Studies Winter 2024

Case study reports produced by students in UCI Anthro25A, "Environmental Injustice," in Winter 2024.

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elizabeth.diblasio

The hazard in this artifact is in relation to the polluted water system throughout urban New Jersey areas. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission and the D.E.P are working together to create new infrastructure upgrades to the local sewer systems. This long term plan will help limit the amount of toxic waste that runs off into the drinking water for surrounding urban communities. 

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elizabeth.diblasio

There are many vulnerabilities listed in this artifact that directly affect the community. To begin with, Bergen, Hudson, and Essex county are listed as the state's worse air quality. It also states that more than four in 10 people experience unhealthy air quality in the community within NJ.  

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Kristine.Gerges

''Nature is eventually going to take its course,'' said David Turner of the United States Forest Service. ''It is a cataclysmic event for humans. But this is a dry habitat. Fire has been sweeping through this land for centuries.'' The flames are part of a cleansing process with real benefits, a lesson the Indians learned long ago to their hunting advantage but forest officials came late to. Now, in part due to budget restrictions, they do not rush in to fight every blaze everywhere. Some isolated fires are left to burn themselves out, naturally.

 

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elizabeth.diblasio

This artifact states the solutions that local lawmakers have come up with in order to effectively clean up the toxic waste in the Passaic River. There are many sources of resilience here as the E.P.A added to a superfund program worth $1.38 billion to clear the city of chemicals, pesticides, and all other contaminants that deterioate the Passaic River. This plan extends into the Belleville area as well. For three decades the E.P.A has used this Superfund program to clean up the countries' most hazardous waster sites. The efforts to clean up the Passaic are a result of the intesnse cleaning of the Husdon River and Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. 

pece_annotation_1524605898

Kristine.Gerges

The nation’s busiest subway system sustained the worst damage in its 108 years of operation on October 29, 2012, as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Millions of people were left without service for at least one week after the storm, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rapidly worked to repair extensive flood damage (Photo credit: William Vantuono, Railway Age Magazine, 2012).