Examples of Business Law and Ethics in the Buffalo Creek Disaster

Finally, the Elwha dam was removed in 2012 again for similar reasons as the previous dams. An additional reason for the Elwha removal was the dam’s dangerous materials, PCBs and asbestos [3], polluting the surrounding area, the cost to remove and rebuild the dangerous materials was astronomical compared to the economic and environmental benefits of removing it. The dam was drained in a slow controlled fashion similar to Glines Canyon, and the original flow channels were even restored. This resulted in salmon population restoration, and more biodiversity in the river system that spread to the

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States of America. At least 1,245 people in the hurricane and subsequent flooding. In reading the excerpt from Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink, there are certain ethical and legal issues that arise and ones that holds all those medical and health professionals accountable for their actions. Dr. Ana Pou was one of the head doctors who took a leadership role at Memorial Hospital after the backup generators had failed and the rescue teams were few and far between. A team of medical personnel which included Dr. Pou had categorized the remaining patients into an evacuating category. They felt that the most sick patients would be evacuated last because of available resources and essentially decided who would live and who would die. Dr. Pou denies her actions and states that she did what she felt was the right thing to do? But as Sherri Finks poses the question in her article “where is the line between comfort care and mercy killings”.

On April 20, 2010 off the Gulf of Mexico, there was a blowout of the Macondo well which is owned by British Petroleum also known as BP. When the blowout took place it got immediate media attention because aspects of the event were known over the world. Within events transpiring it was discovered how limited the resources and reaction to the disaster was going to be. This paper will detail aspects of the event from symptoms of the problem, the root cause, important unresolved issues, roles of the organization’s key players and stakeholders, and explain the focus of specific ethical systems. Also discussed in this paper are relevant strategies and alternatives, the effect of globalization

In the early 20th Century, West Virginia was a place where coal barons held immense power. Coal companies owned towns, mayors and governors. Miners were forced to live on coal camps and rent houses from them, as well as purchase all of their coal and other items required to survive from the companies. With this control, mining families where forced to live and work in brutal conditions. In 1921, after a generation of violent suppression, miners erupted in the largest class war in US history. For 5 days miners fought the coal barons, over 1 million rounds of ammunition were fired, this is known as the Battle of Blair Mountain.

By 1919, the largest nonunionized coal region in the United States was Mingo and Logan counties in West Virginia. In September 1919, rumors of miners being harassed and beaten for attending labor meetings reached Charleston. Around 5,000 miners met at Marmet, near Lens Creek, they prepared to go to Logan County. Since Governor John Cornwell was aware of the danger, he went to Marmet to convince the miners to go home. Almost all of the miners went home.

After a considerably large renovation, the coal mine now has the Rahall Company Store, visitor center, a coal museum, a fudgery, and gift shop. Many features include mining artifacts and tools, photographs, and various artifacts from the coal town of southern West Virginia. The main attraction of the Exhibition Coal Mine is a tour that takes visitors 1500 underground. The tour shows visitors the history of coal mining from the early hand-loading days to modern-day mining. Visitors can also take a tour throughout the coal camp. Here they can explore the Coal Company House, Superintendent's Home, Pemberton Coal Camp Church, and the Helen Coal Camp School. The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine is a great way to discover how life in the area was in the early 20th

However, the dams were of faulty construction. Dam number one which caused the flooding was constructed of coarse mining refuse that Pittston had dumped into the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek starting in 1968. This dam failed first on the heels of heavy rains. The water from Dam number three then took out dams number two and then number one. Dam number three had simply

Communities that was adjacent to Buffalo Creek. When operation of the mine commenced in 1945 the practice dumping of slurry or coal mining waste into the hollow also began. Coal companies who operated upstream of the communities dammed Buffalo Creek to facilitate mining operations, which created an earth dam that held back 130 million gallons of water and coal waste. On average, a thousand tons of slurry had to be dumped every day. Although there were many complaints about the safety of the coal company and its regulation of the Buffalo Creek site, nothing was ever done to improve the dam’s conditions. The Buffalo Creek project had three earth dams ranging in

On May 31, 1889, a 35-foot-high wall of water, set loose by days of rain and a failed dam, rushed into the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In its wake, most of the town was destroyed and more than 2,200 lives were lost. The Johnstown Flood was one of the worst natural disasters ever seen in the United States and brought in relief from all over the nation and world. For Clara Barton, the Johnstown Flood disaster was the first test for her newly formed Red Cross. About 3:00 p.m. on May 31, 1889, water had backed up to the point where it began to spill over the South Ford Dam. It wasn't long before the entire dam broke, sending 20 million tons of water rushing down the narrow Conemaugh Valley. The "terrible wave" reportedly sounded like a freight

|On the morning of the 26th February 1972 a coal company's massive coal-waste refuse pile which dammed a stream in middle fork hollow |

Burns, Shirley Stewart. Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal Surface Coal Mining on Southern West Virginia Communities, 1970-2004. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2007. Print.

The discovery of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s led to the development of a robust coal industry in the eastern part of Pennsylvania that grew rapidly and contributed greatly to the history and the economy of Pennsylvania. The book The Face of Decline written by Thomas Dublin, Walter Licht, provides a well written historical and personal account of the discovery, growth, and finally the collapse of the anthracite coal industry in Pennsylvania in a chronological format. Half way through the book one starts to notice some changes in the authors format to cause and effect. The change occurs in order to discuss the cause and resulting effect of events in the region and the solutions. The story is one of great growth and opportunity in the early years which are highlighted by the documented economic growth experienced and supported through testimony within the eastern Pennsylvania coal region. After a period of economic prosperity and community growth from 1900 through 1940 challenges began to erode and occur that created problems for the community and the economy that the coal industry provided. Finally the region’s economy suffered horrendous losses as described by interviews of local residents and families who lived and experienced the rise of the region’s economy. Many of the scars are still evident by the blight and decaying scenes one would experience by traveling through the region’s communities that once fueled the American economy with the energy

Ethics are very important in the business world and to the general public. Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles or the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group. Using a moral compass should be a requirement for every CEO and executive. Any person who will have some impact on society needs to understand the difference between right and wrong. Since businesses touch such a large segment of our society, codes of ethics must be established and followed to protect the general public. In the following pages we will discuss the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster and examine how it relates to (1) the state of business ethics since 2000, (2) examples of the classic

1. Consequentialist moral theories see the moral rightness or wrongness of actions as a function of their results. If the consequences are sufficiently good, the action is right; if they are sufficiently bad, the action is wrong. However, nonconsequentialist theories see other factors as also relevant to the determination of right and wrong.

When it comes to conducting research, you would need to find which way would be best to inform the customers on the issue that’s presented. You would need to have basic information on how much money this will cost the customer and how cost effective this will be. Research should be done to find out what the city leaders have done unethically and if these individuals should still be employed within the company.