Monday, January 31st 2022
Toxic Spillage at Samsung Austin Leaves "Virtually no Surviving Aquatic Life"
Electronic waste isn't the only environmental concern when it comes to technological manufacturing; toxic byproducts also have to be contended with, with tech companies spending millions of dollars to comply with environmental disposal regulations. Sometimes, however, things don't go as they're supposed to. Such was the case with a toxic spillage from Samsung's Austin, Texas manufacturing facility, which spilled the equivalent of 763,000 gallons of acid waste towards a nearby stormwater pond. This same pond ultimately feeds into a tributary of the Harris Branch Creek in Northeast Austin.
The spillage is estimated to have occurred over 100+ days, and the consequences are severe. According to a report published by an Environmental Officer working for Austin City Council, the spillage left "virtually no surviving aquatic life" due to it lowering the water body's pH down to levels between 2 and 3 (which is deadly toxic even for adult aquatic life). According to Samsung, it stopped the discharges as soon as they were noticed, saying that "a majority of the wastewater was contained on-site; however, a portion was inadvertently released into an unnamed small tributary that is upstream of Harris Branch Creek." The company further stated it has hired a cleanup specialist, with aims to "restore the tributary" and prevent dissemination of the toxic waste throughout the main branch of the Harris Branch Creek.
State-appointed investigators have in the meantime confirmed that the toxic discharge has ceased, and measured recovering pH levels between January 14th and January 19th, which so far seem to have normalized at the expected pH 6.7 and 8.5 interval. The damage to aquatic life is done, however, and recovery efforts will still have to be monitored.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
The spillage is estimated to have occurred over 100+ days, and the consequences are severe. According to a report published by an Environmental Officer working for Austin City Council, the spillage left "virtually no surviving aquatic life" due to it lowering the water body's pH down to levels between 2 and 3 (which is deadly toxic even for adult aquatic life). According to Samsung, it stopped the discharges as soon as they were noticed, saying that "a majority of the wastewater was contained on-site; however, a portion was inadvertently released into an unnamed small tributary that is upstream of Harris Branch Creek." The company further stated it has hired a cleanup specialist, with aims to "restore the tributary" and prevent dissemination of the toxic waste throughout the main branch of the Harris Branch Creek.
78 Comments on Toxic Spillage at Samsung Austin Leaves "Virtually no Surviving Aquatic Life"
Anyhow, Sweden does a lot of testing, at the water treatment plants. Mainly to see how much drugs there are in the sewage and these days they try to estimate how many has that thing that's going around.Right, well, discharge doesn't have to be on purpose, it can be by accident as well, or negligence, which is more likely in this case I would say.
Also, Europe is a big place.
www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39618685
When it comes to mining, Sweden has its own interesting problems, although I guess it's not quite fair to blame the mining company here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiruna#Moving_the_town
As for foundries in general, they're doing more and more to recycle at least their own water, which will hopefully help reduce these kind of things in the future.
spectrum.ieee.org/fabs-cut-back-water-use
But i looked it up and all definitions of discharge require an action: the action of, the intention of. Accidents don't fall under discharges as far as i can see. Negligence is just poor management by other words, there should be redundancies to control something so serious.
My idea of Sweden is only based on those two things though, for the record, I love IKEA. lol
Also, the whole policy thing is something that no-one seems to be able to read up on and understand, it's against the Swedish constitution, it's really that simple. A nation wide lockdown would mean an end to whatever government enacted it. There are ways to enable smaller, regional lockdownds, but apparently it wasn't used.Hmmm, IKEA is alright I guess, I just wish they made less stuff in the PRC.It was the Mekong delta in Vietnam, from about six years ago.www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/accidental-discharge
For some reason, most examples are related to guns... I wonder why...
Dark Reign. It will happen. Soon we'll be flooded and yet still in need of clean water.
I once worked with a person who conducted consumer research and the results are a big part of my misanthropy. You guys (a.k.a the consumers) overwhelmingly said you wouldn't pay 25 euros more for an item worth a thousand euros if it meant the workers would be treated in accordance with European employment laws. In other words, for 25 euros people are willing to accept child labor and forced labor. Remember that for a single person who actually cares abut the real cost of consumer greed there are hundreds of thousands who don't care, they just want a new toy and will only buy the top result of sorting by "price: lowest first".
Also, guess who will pay for this little mishap? Consumers directly through higher prices, or consumers indirectly through government subsidies and tax breaks?
They wanted to make their products cheaper, so more people could live the American dream, no?
And now we're in a situation where slave labour or near enough are being used in many countries to produce a bunch of crap, well, not all of it is crap, but we do really make way too much crap that no-one ever asked for, but hey, it's cute... or something.
OK, seriously this is tragic. Life, wild or otherwise, is irreplaceable. Even if they throw money at the problem it doesn’t fix the situation.
If you're that angry, boycott Samsung
Best to risk neither, but muh infotainment systems and talking fridges (and practically any other anthropogenic activity, but since we're hating on modern ones here...)!The Mekong may be heavily polluted, but to be fair, turbidity is not always synonymous to "dirty." Not in this thread's context, at least. Relatively high turbidity is natural and acceptable -perhaps even required- to some ecologies...
"According to Samsung, it stopped the discharges as soon as they were noticed, saying that "a majority of the wastewater was contained on-site; however, a portion was inadvertently released into an unnamed small tributary that is upstream of Harris Branch Creek."
Um wouldn't you confirm and check before discharging that amount to make certain there is not a bo bo or potential bo bo ??