Sewage pollution in New York, USA: impact of the ‘Right to Know’ Act

Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 1303-1316
Author(s):  
Sridhar Vedachalam ◽  
Parmeet Singh ◽  
Susan J. Riha
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Sewage Pollution ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽  
Sewage Discharge ◽  
The People ◽  
Treated Sewage ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Right

In 2012, New York, USA enacted the Sewage Pollution Right to Know (SPRtK) Act, which requires public notification of untreated and partially treated sewage discharges. With the passing of this law, New York joined 12 other states that have similar laws but none as comprehensive as New York's. As part of the SPRtK Act requirements, aggregated sewage discharge reports (SDRs) are made available on the web. For this study, we made use of one year's worth of SDRs to identify spatial and temporal patterns in sewage discharge incidents. The SDRs were strongly associated with the type of municipality, density and age of the treatment plant. New York has some of the oldest infrastructure in the USA, and this law enables the state environmental agency to document instances of failure and take corrective action. Proper implementation of the law would place information in the hands of the people and protect public health.

scholarly journals A study of the statutory background for worker cooperatives in the US: a proposal for a regulatory framework

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-54
Author(s):  
Sofía Arana Landín
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Limited Liability ◽  
State Level ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Economic Stress ◽  
Agricultural Cooperatives ◽  
The People ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Worker Cooperatives ◽  
Worker Cooperative

The lack of a clear and comprehensive regulatory framework for worker cooperatives is one of the main causes for their scarcity in the USA, as it causes ignorance and uncertainty even though cooperatives are one of several forms of doing business recognized by the Internal Revenue Code (like sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies, LLC’s, and Subchapter S corporations). Tax laws divide businesses into those categories, each with its own special tax provisions and worker cooperatives try to fit into any of those forms of business while “acting on a cooperative basis”, thus, having their own specificities. Even though at a State level there are regulations for agricultural cooperatives in all States, there are only less than 30 States that have either worker cooperative regulations, general cooperative regulations or consumer regulations which worker cooperatives can use. However, the situation in the USA now demands for these entities. The fact that a particular attention is being given to worker cooperatives as an aftermath of the recent crisis is not news, as we have seen, historically2, cooperatives have traditionally emerged in situations where the public sector was unable to provide the response required by the people, for instance in support for financial access, housing, or decent livelihoods. As ZEULI and CROPP state it: “The historical development of cooperative businesses cannot be disconnected from the social and economic forces that shaped them. Co-ops then, as now, were created in times and places of economic stress and social upheaval”. Different studies during the previous recession show how worker cooperatives increase their turnover and number of jobs, while other enterprises shrink, being this the reason why their study at this moment becomes a must. Thus, there should be a minimum understanding and control of what a worker cooperative is in order to be able to register and act like a real worker cooperative. Quoting GUTNECHT “allowing something that is not a cooperative to call itself a cooperative squanders a precious asset – the goodwill and public trust that reposes in the word ‘cooperative’”. Thus, the USA is missing a very important instrument in order to fight against unemployment, inequality, income maldistribution and unsustainable development at a time when there is a conscience by a majority of the population in different movements that demand a change. This change is possible if educational, cultural and legal issues are properly addressed, as it has been done in other countries and higher instances, creating a fairer, equitable and more cohesive and sustainable society, thus a better world to live in. This paper aims to conduct a comparative statutory research on cooperative law for worker cooperatives in the USA, with a view of promoting an increased understanding within the academic and governmental communities, at a national and international level in order to promote worker cooperatives. In the case of New York public policies tacking this issue are already being devised. If this goal is achieved we will all benefit from them.Received: 26 April 2018 Accepted: 08 April2019Published online: 22 July 2019

scholarly journals The question of crime: How much does the public have the right to know?

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Cameron-Dow
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Crime Reporting ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
International Scale ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right To Know ◽  
The Right

The public right to know is of particular significance when considering the reporting of crime and criminal justice. The internet has demonstrated strong influences upon crime reporting in mainstream media, including the range of material it provides to audiences. In addition, the internet has exposed journalists to new legal and ethical ramifications that accompany reportage on an international scale and, while it may be ‘giving the people what they want’, it has also exacerbated the controversy surrounding the perennial question of how much the public has a right to know. 

scholarly journals “What’s Happened to the People?” Gentrification and Racial Segregation in Brooklyn

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-572
Author(s):  
Themis Chronopoulos
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Black Neighborhoods ◽  
The People ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Racial Desegregation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article explores the relationship between gentrification and racial segregation in Brooklyn, New York with an emphasis on Black Brooklyn. With more than 2.6 million residents, if Brooklyn was a city, it would be the fourth largest in the USA. Brooklyn is the home of approximately 788,000 Blacks with almost 692,000 of them living in an area that historian Harold X. Connolly has called Black Brooklyn. In recent decades, large portions of Brooklyn, including parts of Black Brooklyn have been gentrifying with sizable numbers of whites moving to traditionally Black neighborhoods. One would anticipate racial segregation to be declining in Brooklyn and especially in the areas that are gentrifying. However, this expectation of racial desegregation appears to be false. While there are declines in indices of racial segregation, these declines are frequently marginal, especially when the increase in the number of whites in Black neighborhoods is taken into consideration. At the same time, gentrification has contributed to the displacement or replacement of thousands of long-term African American residents from their homes. This persistence of racial segregation in a time of gentrification raises many questions about the two processes and the effects that they have on African Americans.

Saving Ireland in Juteopolis: Gender, Class and Diaspora in the Irish Ladies’ Land League

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Whelehan
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Gender Balance ◽  
Local Setting ◽  
The People ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Working Class Women

Abstract First established in New York in 1880, the Irish Ladies’ Land League soon had branches across Ireland, the USA, Britain, Canada and Australasia and represented an unprecedented advance in Irish women’s political activism. In Dundee, Scotland the organization found a particularly receptive environment due to the distinctive gender balance of the Irish community there, with working-class women a large majority. This article analyses how a transnational movement translated into a local setting and how emigrants’ activism was shaped by factors of class, gender and religion. The circulation of mobile agitators and newspapers connected local branches in Dundee with the wider world of the Irish land reform movement, and this article seeks to uncover a more textured picture of the people who collected funds, attended rallies, and who are too often considered in the plural, as anonymous supporters grouped together under ethnic or political banners. The picture that emerges challenges existing views of the Ladies’ Land League as a predominantly middle-class affair. In Dundee the members were overwhelmingly working-class and their harsh experiences in the city’s jute industry shaped their activism. Local Catholic networks and ideas of religious humanitarianism contributed significantly to the branches, yet clergymen did not direct their activities, rather they responded to women’s mobilization.

scholarly journals WHEN GOD TALKS BACK. UNDERSTANDING THE AMERICAN ENGANGELICAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. ALFRED A KNOPF, NEW YORK.

Al-Albab ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Luhrmann ◽  
Reviewed by: Hatib Abdul Kadir
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Gallup Poll ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Right ◽  
American Churches

This book is started with the main question, how come some people in the USA believe in an invisible being, that is God. How has belief in God come to influence people’s lives? How has God come to be really present in human life? Almost 100 percent people in the US, believe in God according to a Gallup Poll (Luhrmann, 2012: xi). In addition, religious enthusiasm for American has grown increasingly rapidly. Throughout the 20th century, American churches and congregations have developed remarkably (Luhrmann, 14). Even Luhrmann gives an example about the paradoxical things. Many people thought that the hippie vision would bring radical revolutionaries movement that threated the right wing. As a contrary, Christian Hippies play significant roles in making religion to be able publicly accepted (even though there were on drugs) (Luhrmann 16-17)

scholarly journals Influence of Treated Sewage Discharge on the Benthos Ciliate Assembly in the Lowland River

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Babko ◽  
Tatiana Kuzmina ◽  
Zbigniew Suchorab ◽  
Marcin K. Widomski ◽  
Małgorzata Franus
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Maximum Amount ◽  
Lowland River ◽  
Municipal Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Sewage Discharge ◽  
Ciliate Species ◽  
Treated Sewage

AbstractThis paper presents results of the studies of ciliate assemblage in benthos of lowland river influenced by sewage discharged from the municipal wastewater treatment plant. During the presented research the 47 ciliate species, including 45 species from the benthos of the river and 18 from the activated sludge of aeration chamber were identified. Only two species registered in the activated sludge were not observed in the river. Against the background of the lowest number of species in the point located in the distance of 50 m below the discharge of sewage the maximum amount and biomass of these species were observed. Whereas, 200 m below the discharge the decrease in number and biomass of ciliate to the level noted for location before the discharge was observed. Thus, generalizing, one may state that influence of municipal WWTP sewage discharge for ciliate assemblage in the river’s benthos was clearly visible but local.

scholarly journals Influence of Sitkówka sewage treatment plant on the Bobrza River water quality

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Kanownik ◽  
Agnieszka Policht-Latawiec ◽  
Anna Gajda
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
River Water ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Sewage Treatment Plant ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Electrolytic Conductivity ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Dissolved Solids ◽  
Sewage Discharge ◽  
Treated Sewage

Abstract The paper presents an analysis of 20 physicochemical elements in the Bobrza River water sampled above and below the treated sewage discharge point. Sitkówka mechanical and biological sewage treatment plant with a value of 289 000 People Equivalent discharges on average 51 000 m3 of treated sewage daily, which makes up 29% of mean daily flow in the Bobrza River. On the basis of hydrochemical analyses it was stated that the discharge of treated sewage led to worsening of 18 out of 20 studied water quality indices in the Bobrza River. In the river water below the sewage discharge statistically significantly higher values of electrolytic conductivity, dissolved solids, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium were registered. A decrease in dissolved oxygen content in the water and increase in its electrolytic conductivity caused a change of water quality class in the Bobrza River from the maximum potential to potential below good. On the other hand, increase in concentrations of dissolved solids and sulphates caused a change of the water class from the maximum potential to good potential. Statistical factor analysis (FA) made possible a reduction of a set of 20 physicochemical elements to four mutually orthogonal factors explaining 95% (above the treatment plant) and 96% (below the treatment plant) of the internal structure of primary data. The first factor is connected with point source pollution (sewage discharge), the second describes oxygen conditions in water, the third results from seasonality and is responsible for the pollutants from natural sources, whereas the fourth factor has not been unanimously defined yet.

scholarly journals The Donation of Gametes and the Anonimity of the Donors

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
R. Krastev ◽  
V. Mitev
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Family Status ◽  
The People ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
The Right To Know ◽  
The Family ◽  
Level Of Significance ◽  
The Right ◽  
Demographic Features

Summary A study of the public opinion in Bulgaria in regard to the possibility of the adult children, created by gamete donation, to learn who their biological parents are was made. This investigation was an on-line survey. The participants in the study are individuals between 18 and 65 years of age - Internet users. The survey was included into different web sites and this enlarged the number of respondents (up to 994) and 85% of them were persons in fertile age - from 18 to 43 years. The answers of the respondents in relation of the demographic features - gender, age, education, family status and place of living were studied. The data were calculated with the special statistical product SPSS 16. A critical level of significance 0.05 was used. Results: Almost half (47%) of the respondents agree that the children born from gamete donors have the right to know at adulthood their biological parents, 35% disagree and 18% have no opinion. The demographic features influencing the answers of the question are the gender, the education and the family status of the respondents (p < 0.05). Most of the men (60%) consider that the children have the right to know their biological parents while only 44% of the women approve. The highest support of the idea about contact between the donors and their genetic off springs show the people with secondary education (56%) and the most skeptical are the respondents with high non-medical education (40%). The family status influences the opinion of the respondents - the approval of the married and unmarried is 38% and 60%, respectively.

The Voiceless Citizens

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Solis
Keyword(s):  
Financial Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right To Know ◽  
The World ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
The Right ◽  
To Receive

As reproduction by surrogacy increases, the problems arising from surrogacy contracts also increase. Countries around the world are being asked to solve never-before-seen legal problems arising from surrogacy agreements. When trying to solve the newly arisen problems, the rights of the child born from the surrogacy contract tend to be overlooked. Enacted laws try to solve the enforceability of the contract and protect the rights of the parties involved— such as, who are the legal parents of the child if both sides of the agreement wish to keep the child. However, few of these laws address a situation where the opposite is true, a situation in which neither side wants to keep the child. In these situations, the primary focus should be the rights of the child, not the rights of the people involved in the contract. The law should be up to date and ready to protect the well-being of the child—a person who never asked to be born. Specifically, rights such as the citizenship of the child, the right to financial support, the right to inherit, and the right to identity should be protected. The Comment discusses how prepared U.S. and Texas law is to handle problems arising from a surrogacy contract in which neither side wants to keep the child. In this case, a child with intended American parents should have the right to be a U.S. citizen, the right to receive financial support from a party involved in the contract, the right to inherit, and the right to know his or her identity. These problems may not be currently present, but with the increase of surrogacy use, it surely could be an issue in the future.

Paris is Not Responding: Views on the French Condition, Colloquia at New York University’s Institute of French Studies, Spring, 1985

1986 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-321
Author(s):  
David Beriss
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
French Studies ◽  
The People ◽  
The Right ◽  
Economic Future

When the Socialists arrived in power in 1981, the word of the day was changement, and the people dancing in the streets of Paris seemed to indicate an exuberant optimism for the political and economic future. Now, with the 1986 legislative elections approaching, the Right seems almost certain to win; public opinion appears to have swung against the Left in power. If people take to the streets today, whether they be angry parents d’élèves or workers, they are more than likely to be protesting against the Socialists. Has the Left in power proved to be incompetent? Have they mismanaged political power, or have they misunderstood their constituency? That a changement has occurred there is little doubt, but the changes do not seem to be those expected. In last spring’s colloquia at New York University’s Institute of French Studies various aspects of the practice of the Left in power and the changing context in which that power is exercised were examined.

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