Central and Eastern Europe Environmental Issues Essay

eastern atomic number 63s environmental problems atomic number 18 not as simple as they may seem on the surface. The environmental problems that face easterly atomic number 63 argon complicated by political, economic, and social implications. The menstruum environmental problems argon a bi-product of rapid industrial expansion under a socialist g overnment. The soviet government was more concerned with surpassing the western cultures in technology and army strength than the environmental damage they were doing to their rural area.The fol depressive dis set uping paragraphs leave al one(a) address the current environmental problems veneer east europium, the mixed solutions to the environmental problems, and the efforts taken to correct the environmental problems. Environmental Problems in atomic number 63 eastern atomic number 63 during the 1980s had rapidly become the industrial giant for the Soviet Union. Massive industrial factories would be built passim the eastern ax is of rotation of the Soviet Union and the factories used obsolete technology to provide the industrial admits of the country.The heavy industrial activity characteristic of the post- military personnel War II period took a heavy toll on twain the arenas population and its environment(U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2010). Various local anesthetic anesthetic populations were suffering from high rates of cancer, respiratory issues, and infant mortalities. The environments in the areas nearly the industrial regions were also be damaged on unprecedented levels. legacy of taint According to the U. S.Environmental Protection Agency (2010), The come to the foremoded, energy-intensive technologies were such an organic part of underlying and Eastern europium (CEE) and New Independent States of the actor Soviet Union (NIS) regions economy in the post-war while not besides drive offd resources, but also caused severe local, regional, and trans-boundary contaminant probl ems. Not only was the industrial technology outdated, the communication among the post-war government, local governments, and various environmental ministries was ripe with secrecy and non-communication between each other.The results would prove to be catastrophic defilement of the atmosphere, surface body of water, soil, ground water, marine zones, and coastal areas. circularise Pollution bearing pollution in Eastern Europe is the discharge concern because of the levels of sulfur dioxide found in all the industrial areas. graduate(prenominal) levels of sulfur dioxide motion-picture show can lead to asthmatic children and adults, respiratory illness, flag lung defenses, and worsening of existing cardiovascular dis gos. When Sulfur Dioxide is exposed to rain it bring ons paneling rain and raises the acidity level of boththing it touches such as soil, lakes, and streams.Buildings corrode high-speed and there is also a reduction in visibility. Water Pollution Agricultura l and industrial practices were causing large spread water pollution because of outdated waste regulation practices and no environmental regulation. According to Liroff (1990), Drinking-water supplies throughout Eastern Europe are heavily grime. Vast reaches of the Vistula River in Poland, which drains untold of the country, are classified as unfit for use even by industry.The Baltic and Black Sea coasts are badly degraded by domestic sewage, agricultural run-off, and heavy metals and organic pollutants from industry. The Eastern Europe governments form been slow to implement solutions to purify the drinking water in the various regions. Soil Pollution Samples of produce from upper Poland overhear yielded 30 to 70 higher percentages of cadmium, lead, zinc and mercury then acceptable levels listed by the World Health Organization. The high percentages of these heavy cloths indicate how polluted the soil is in the upper polish regions.In Hungary alone, waste generators dispose of more than 500,000 gobs waste found in illegal landfills. The local government has dread shrouding both kind of waste transportation and disposal delinquent to obsolete bring in processes, and because not all waste is indicated as waste before being disposed of. Eastern Europe is wreaked with not only environmental problems, but also with government, and local government problems also. The good tidings is that there are viable solutions to the environmental problems that the Eastern Europe countries are having. Viable Environmental SolutionsThe environmental problems that face rudimentary and Eastern Europe are much the same as any other country in the world with one exception, the proximity of the environmental hazards. most countries in the world deal with environmental hazards, but the hazards are spread out over different parts of the country. primaeval and Eastern Europe are unique when it comes to environmental disasters because Central and Eastern Europe was the indu strial might behind the soviet military. For every environmental disaster Central and Eastern Europe faces, there is a viable solution thanks to innovative technology and proven environmental regulations.Possible environmental solutions Because of the vast environmental disasters throughout Central and Eastern Europe there are several(prenominal) possible environmental solutions. The possible environmental solutions that Central and Eastern Europe are considering will be decided by the cost of the solution, ease of implementation, and consultation from environmental agencies such as the linked States Environmental Agency. crimson with the various economic, governmental agency communication problems, and various ecological disasters Central and Eastern Europe birth a number of viable solutions. standard pressure Pollution Solutions ane of the possible remedies for lineage quality in Europe would be to switch to burning low sulfur scorch. When combust is burned, carbon paper dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds are released. For that reason, coal-fired boilers are required to deliver see devices to reduce the center of emissions that are released. The amount of sulfur oxides produced by power can be reduced by using coal with low amounts of sulfur present. Another possible air solution would be to use scrubbers.Scrubbers are an air pollution control system that subscribes pollutants from the air stream they are most commonly used to help control the emissions of sulfur into our air. There are a few types of scrubber, Air scrubbers, peeved scrubbers, and gas scrubbers are differentiated by the manner in which they remove gases and particulates from the air either wet or dry. Wet scrubbers literally lick dust and particles out of the air. Exhaust air is forced into a spray chamber, where fine water particles cause the dust to drop from the air stream.The dust-laden water is then treated to remove the solid material and i s often re-circulated. teetotal scrubbers are used more commonly with acid gases. The pollutant is collected on or in a solid or liquid material, which is injected into the gas stream. A dry scrubber produces a dry product that must be collected downstream from this control device. Water Pollution Solutions One of the numerous possible water pollution solutions would be aeration. Aerating is the process to kick in river water at the bottom of rivers up to the surface so that the consummate river is oxygenated by the atmosphere surface to bottom.They can do this by pumping air into bodies of water at the very bottom. On the other hand Central and Eastern Europe could use more wastewater treatment plants these types of plants would drastically help the water quality in Central and Eastern Europe by removing harmful bacterias, animal wastes and pollutants and then recycling the unused water back into their system.. Soil Pollution Solutions There are some(prenominal) different ty pes of soil pollution that hurt the environment and by treating sewerage before cast away wastes would cut back on many of the current environmental issues.Spraying pesticides may be good for the crops but its destroying the soil and the drain off into the water system is affected by this as well. Cutting down on the usage of fossil fuels would create less solid waste and harmful gasses that may seep into the soil. Eastern Europe needs to adapt to more of these possible solutions. Using low sulfur coals, Scrubbers and limestone in the remedies of air pollution would set a range of mountains reaction in the environment the water would then become clean along with the soil. These remedies may not fix the issue completely for Eastern Europe, but it would help them greatly.Efforts to correctCentral and Eastern Europe have been left untouched since the end of the Nazi/German rule and the fall of the Great Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989. Many of the people living in such a terrible environment still struggle every day to survive, but it is not a war against other countries it has off into an environmental war and one that is near impossible for them to win without help. As with most all larger countries around the world Eastern and Central Europe are suffering from the same types of environmental issues but, in their suit they do not have the means that we do in order to make the necessary changes that they need.Practical and low cost solutions need to be the wave of the future and used as often as possible. The problems need to be prioritized based on the highest health risk and the surrounding worldly concern will be taked and involved in its own environmental decision fashioning. AIR- Airborne pollution is said to be one of the superlative environmental risks identified in the region. There is a large amount of sulfur dioxide found in the air, it comes from several different places but are byproducts of several different types of older industrial faci lities like the old coal burning power plants that used to be found there (EPA).The United states are one of the few countries in which it is a law for fomite owners to participate in an annual emissions test. The Czech government however has accelerate its efforts in cleaning the air pollution through it $240 jillion calculate that will care its residents in converting homes from coal to natural gas in hopes to subsidize conversion costs (EPA). along with this local agencies in many areas lack the equipment needed to assess and identify local problems so the Krakow Air Monitoring project.This project is under the supervision of the EPA and the Polish environmental experts are working together to identify and measure the major sources of industrial, residential and fomite emissions testing (EPA). Along with such a huge problem facing the countries the EPA has also transferred some very low-cost techniques to help them out. Water pollution- Along with clean air there is the Krakow Water and Wastewater Improvement project, the estimation here is to provide safe drinking water to city residents. Most people are drinking from contaminated drinking sources, especially those outdoor(a) of the city limits.The idea here is not only to decontaminate the water before it is consumed, but to attack the problem at the source and to educate the people of the possible affects that waste dumping in unsecure facilities can have on them and their families. The Krakow project as a result installed modern ozonation and chlorination equipment that in turn disinfected the drinking water of 400,000 residents in the area. It also focused on the improvement the forming of the Raba River Watershed Association as well as focussing on the agricultural runoff into local streams and rivers (EPA).In addition to this a team of EPA, Wisconsin, and Latvian environmental managers have also come up with a solution to protect supplies of future ground water in Daugavplis, this is where the national ground water protection strategy is based. Solid and risky Waste- All types of waste needs to be dumped somewhere and the most contaminated solid waste sites are often found on military bases in Eastern Europe. They can be found on alive(p) or former military base cites, these are still dumping cites.Children in these areas are affected the most and are still being diagnosed with very high blood-lead levels, due to these case studies the EPA has provided special equipment and training to local officials to assess possible impacts of lead exposure. Due to such high levels of exposure in certain areas additional support has been provided by Romanian officials to give ear areas in the cleanup of contaminated soil, the Czech Council of Ministers even committed to assist the cleanup of future development cites by approving $40 million to get started, this is called Project Selesia.This is not the only cleanup plan in effect there is also the Solid Waste Policy inference Proj ect, this idea helps to train local communities in the proper way to gestate out more effective policies of cleaning and recycling waste. Pilot programs take the construction of new sanitary landfills, the cleanup of existing landfills, curbside recycling, are probably the most important human beings outreach programs taking place (EPA). Technology Transfer- the EPA has also helped with the development of a geographic nurture system (GIS), this system helps to track different trends that occur over time.The GIS is a computer-based mapping system that over time will store and track other environmental information that identifies pollution source and tracks it over time. This system will help the general become more informed and promote better decision making (EPA). The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Manage ment Project is yet one more idea that is hoped to assist different storage areas of nuclear material in a quick-turnaround of radiochemistry data in case of any future leaks a nd potential disasters.To be able to assist such tracking a mobile radioecology laboratory was created by the EPA along with the United Nations study Program and USAID, have provided the Ukraine with possibly one of the worlds take up equipped mobile radiation monitoring laboratories. This lab is monitored by both the EPA project team and Ministry officials have since been conducting on-site contamination assessments of potential public health threats all around the country (EPA).