Abstract

Hurricane Sandy brought many hazardous to the United States in 2012. The amount of spill runoff on the Eastern Coast proved to be a difficult yet tedious task to be cleaned up. Many guidelines needed to be followed and problems needed to be assessed. As time went by companies and organizations came together to tackle the hazardous wastes runoff which included untreated sewage, oil, and your everyday household items. Plans for future natural disasters were also implemented to prevent lasting effects from spill runoff.

In October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy became a devastation to the Eastern Part of the United States. Sandy not only wiped away homes, buildings, businesses, etc., it also left behind many hazards and lasting damages. One main problem that this hurricane promoted was the release of sewage. It is said that over ten billion gallons of treated sewage flooded into the streets and homes. This amount is equivalent to piling up forty-one feet of sewage across the span of central park. Not only did the sewage flood streets and homes, it also leaked into the rivers, canals, and bays of New York and New Jersey. Needless to say, this overwhelmed the states as they were not prepared to combat or handle this type of pressure (Schwirtz, Michael).

Time had passed and operations had come into play to begin cleaning up the hazardous waste. Just when the clean up began, other problems began to occur. Due to the water being so high, it shut down motors and killed electrical equipment. This made it very difficult for treatment facilities to get a leg up on the natural disaster. Now, most people may think, “Well eventually the water level will disperse and the waste will be cleaned up with very few lasting effects.” Unfortunately, this is not the case by any means. A Climate Central Report had