It's sacrilegious how major polluters call their own human negligence an "Act of God." Two of the worst water pollution episodes in the United States in the past 3 years have both been called by their perpetrators as "Acts of God" even though it was their own actions that were to blame. In Thousand Oaks, just north of Los Angeles, California, in February 1998 there was a sewer pipe washout that resulted in the release of over 80 MILLION gallons of raw sewage which flowed downhill to the coast and affected Ventura and Los Angeles County coastlines (during a time when some of the best waves ever hit the California coast). Though the same sewer line had ruptured twice before and was replaced in the SAME location, the water district people responsible for the pipe claimed it wasn't their fault. Fortunately, LA County didn't buy that argument and looked more closely into the matter; now the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the Thousand Oaks water district officials for criminal negligence and endangerment of public health for not relocating the pipe to a safer location after the previous washouts.
In eastern North Carolina in June 1995, an open air lagoon of hog manure breached it's flimsy sandy dirt embankment and flowed into the pristine New River, dumping 25 MILLION gallons of hog pooh, a toxic spill over twice the size of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. The corporate hog farmers responsible called the hog manure spill an "Act of God" even though the open air feces lagoon was illegally filled way beyond capacity thereby putting enormous and constant pressure on the sandy embankments holding the lagoon in place. Not to mention that the whole idea of massive open air hog feces lagoons in the low-lying coastal plains of eastern North Carolina was irresponsible and just plain stupid. So next time you hear of a water pollution episode that is blamed as an "Act of God" then remember that that is a strong signal of criminal negligence and endangerment of public health by the people in positions of responsibility.
(Sources: The Surfrider Foundation; And the Waters Turned to Blood by Rodney Barker, Simon & Schuster, 1997, pg. 237; several articles in The Los Angeles Times in February 1998)
Coastal Factoid is updated at least once each weekday.
Last update: Fri Apr 24 08:43:10 1998
The Coastal Factoid is available at http://www.surfrider.org
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