Beyond flooding and destruction, Hurricane Irene is likely to have caused less visible environmental damage by dumping sewage, pesticides and other contaminants into waterways along the East Coast, federal officials said.
This squall line continued to renew its energy as it passed through the Midwest, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England, causing wind and water damage, and dumping 6 inches of snow in central and eastern Massachusetts.
Shell's acceptance of full liability for the spills follows a class action suit bought on behalf of communities by London law firm Leigh Day and Co, which represented the Ivory Coast community that suffered health damage following the dumping of toxic waste by a ship leased to multinational oil company Trafigura in 2006.
Lawyers representing Ecuadorean Amazon Indians won a judgment in a local Ecuadorean court ordering Chevron to pay more than $18 billion in damages for the dumping of toxic waste into a vast area of Amazon jungle by Texaco in the 1970s before it was acquired by Chevron years later.
The Vietnamese ecosystem has also been damaged by the dumping of Agent Orange in a number of "hot spots" in central and south Vietnam, where it remains in the land and water, poisoning people, the fish, and the wildlife.
The full damage from the stream dumping is only beginning to emerge, said Mr. Lovett and his co-counsel in the lawsuit, James M. Hecker of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.
Residents with smartphones can report environmental hazards, pollution, illegal dumping or damage from storms.
Mr Mazza, who recently published his findings in the Lancet, says: "The land has been so badly damaged by illegal waste dumping it is already practically unusable.
About 500 longshoremen stormed the new $200 million terminal in Longview before sunrise Thursday, carrying baseball bats, smashing windows, damaging rail cars and dumping tons of grain from the cars, police and company officials said.
The community has struggled since the late 1960's, when county welfare officials damaged its fortunes by dumping welfare clients into the area, depressing property values and driving away upper-income whites and blacks alike.
