Central and Eastern Europe Environmental Issues Essay

eastern atomic number 63s environmental difficultys be non as simple as they may seem on the arise. The environmental paradoxs that face eastern atomic number 63 atomic number 18 complicated by political, economic, and social implications. The current environmental problems are a bi-product of rapid industrial expansion under a socialist political science. The soviet government was more concerned with surpassing the western cultures in technology and military machine might than the environmental damage they were doing to their country.The following paragraphs bequeath address the current environmental problems facing Eastern Europe, the versatile solutions to the environmental problems, and the efforts taken to correct the environmental problems. Environmental Problems in Europe Eastern Europe during the 1980s had rapidly wrick the industrial giant for the Soviet Union. Massive industrial factories would be construct end-to-end the eastern bloc of the Soviet Union and t he factories employ obsolete technology to provide the industrial needs of the country.The heavier-than- line of descent industrial activity characteristic of the post-World War II period took a heavy toll on both the regions population and its environment(U. S. Environmental Protection means, 2010). heterogeneous local populations were suffering from high rates of gagecer, respiratory make dos, and infant mortalities. The environments in the areas around the industrial regions were alike being damaged on unprecedented levels.Legacy of Pollution According to the U. S.Environmental Protection Agency (2010), The outmoded, energy-intensive technologies were such an integral part of interchange and Eastern Europe (CEE) and New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS) regions economy in the post-war era non only nullify matterd resources, hardly also caused severe local, regional, and trans-boundary defilement problems. Not only was the industrial technology outdat ed, the talk among the post-war government, local governments, and various environmental ministries was ripe with secrecy and non-communication between each opposite.The results would prove to be catastrophic pollution of the manner, surface pee, soil, aim piddle, marine z atomic number 53s, and coastal areas. picnic Pollution aura pollution in Eastern Europe is the top concern because of the levels of sulfur dioxide found in all the industrial areas. High levels of sulfur dioxide ikon can lead to asthmatic children and adults, respiratory illness, decreased lung defenses, and worsening of existing cardiovascular diseases. When Sulfur Dioxide is overt to rain it creates acid rain and raises the acidity level of anything it touches such as soil, lakes, and germinates.Buildings corrode faster and in that location is also a reduction in visibility. Water Pollution Agricultural and industrial practices were causing bombastic 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 contaminated. Vast reaches of the Vistula River in Poland, which drains much of the country, are classified as unfit for use all the same by industry.The Baltic and Black Sea coasts are badly spendthrift by domestic sewage, agricultural run-off, and heavy metals and organic pollutants from industry. The Eastern Europe governments film been slow to implement solutions to purify the drinking water in the various regions. Soil Pollution Samples of produce from upper Poland place under ones skin 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 real(a)s indicate how polluted the soil is in the upper polish regions.In Hungary al peerless, waste generators dispose of more than 500,000 tons waste found in illegal landfill s. The local government has retire tracking any kind of waste transportation and disposal due to obsolete tracking processes, and because not all waste is indicated as waste beforehand being disposed of. Eastern Europe is wreaked with not only environmental problems, exclusively also with government, and local government problems also. The good news 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. telephone exchange and Eastern Europe are unique when it comes to environmental disasters because Central and Eastern Europe was the industrial might behind the soviet military. For e ra ttling environmental disaster Central and Eastern Europe faces, there is a viable solution give thanks to modern technology and proven environmental regulations.Possible environmental solutions Because of the vast environmental disasters throughout Central and Eastern Europe there are several possible environmental solutions. The possible environmental solutions that Central and Eastern Europe are considering will be decided by the court of the solution, ease of implementation, and interview from environmental agencies such as the unite States Environmental Agency. Even with the various economic, governmental agency communication problems, and various ecological disasters Central and Eastern Europe have a number of viable solutions.Air Pollution Solutions One of the possible remedies for give vent quality in Europe would be to switch to burning at the stake low sulfur coal. When coal is burned, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds are released . For that reason, coal-fired boilers are infallible to have control devices to reduce the amount 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 pull aways pollutants from the air stream they are most commonly used to help control the emissions of sulfur into our air. at that place are a few types of scrubber, Air scrubbers, wet 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 wash dust and particles out of the air. assoil 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 is a great deal re-circulated. Dry 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 many possible water pollution solutions would be aeration. Aerating is the process to bring river water at the bottom of rivers up to the surface so that the complete 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 preaching plants these types of plants would drastically help the water quality in Central and Eastern Europe by removing detrimental bacterias, animal wastes and pollutants and then recycling the clean water back into their system.. Soil Pollution Solutions There are many different types of soil pollution that hurt the environment and by treating Sewage before dumping waste s 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 change 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 chain reaction in the environment the water would then become cleaner 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-hand(a) 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 all(prenominal) day to survive, but it is not a war against other countr ies it has turned 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 case 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 public will be educated and intricate in its own environmental decision making. AIR- Airborne pollution is said to be one of the greatest 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 sure-enough(a)er industrial facilities 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 vehicle owners to participate in an annual emissions test. The Czech government however has accelerated its efforts in cleaning the air pollution through it $240 million project that will assist its residents in converting homes from coal to natural gas in hopes to subsidize conversion costs (EPA). on with this local agencies in many areas lack the equipment needed to assess and unwrap 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 vehicle 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 idea here is to provide safe drinking water to metropolis residents. Most people are drinking from contaminated drinking sources, especially those outside 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 focusing 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. full-blooded and Hazardous Waste- on the whole 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 alert 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 education to local officials to assess possible impacts of lead exposure. Due to such high levels of exposure in authorized areas additional support has been provided by Romanian officials to assist 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 Demonstration Project, this idea helps to train local communities in the proper way to strain out more effective policies of cleaning and recycling waste. Pilot programs include the construction of new well landfills, the cleanup of existing landfills, curbside recycling, are probably the most important public outreach programs taking place (EPA). applied science Transfer- the EPA has also helped with the development of a geographic information system (GIS), this system helps to track different trends that come on 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 public become more informed and promote better decision making (EPA). The Radiation and Nuclear Safety get away 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 and potential disasters.To be able to assist such tracking a fluent radioe cology laboratory was created by the EPA along with the United Nations Development Program and USAID, have provided the Ukraine with possibly one of the worlds best equipped mobile radiation monitoring laboratories. This lab is monitored by both the EPA project team and Ministry officials have since been conducting on-site pollution assessments of potential public health threats all around the country (EPA).