Colorado Flood

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/09/130919-colorado-flooding-causes-oil-spill/

The flooding in Colorado has become a major issue not only with humans but now putting the environment in a threatened state. The massive flood has damaged multiple oil tanks which all have the potential to start leaking their contents into the rivers and streams nearby and contaminating massive amounts of land. There is no guarantee to how bad the oil spills are because the crews examining them are just basing it off of visuals.    It is difficult to even get to the main points of damage and much less to fix the problem "because many roads are still inaccessible,'' says Todd Hartman. He goes on to say that most operations are underwater and are too difficult to fix for now. There is also a huge concern for the hazardous wastewater and toxins that are often near these oil wells that have the potential to start leaking out into the waters. I think that they aren't taking enough measures to be as safe and cautious as they should be. Basing the amount of oil that is spilling into the environment by visual perception is such an inefficient way of measuring and could lead to serious issues later on.  

Nuclear Spill at Fukushima

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/fukushimas-radioactive-ocean-plume-due-reach-us-waters-2014-8C11050755


Japan was hit with a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami in 2011. This caused the Fukushima nuclear plant to be crippled and started to leak massive amounts of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. A new study shows that these radioactive plumes coming from Japan will likely reach the U.S. in 2014. While this long journey of radioactive water courses through the Pacific Ocean, researchers will be able to tack its flow and understand how the ocean's currents circulate around the world. Luckily, The spill occurred in the two ocean currents off the eastern coast of Japan, the Kuroshio Current and the Kuroshio Extension, which played a major role in diluting the radioactive material. However, cancer concerns are high on the health risks due to the spill. Japan estimated about 24-2,500 deaths from the spill and the plume of radioactive material is headed our way.