CounterSpill

A huge, natural gas blast in Cleveland Ohio took the lives of at least 130 people in 1944. The disaster was later determined to be completely preventable and due to faulty design. 

Read more about the lives affected by the blast in the hand-selected articles below. 

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"'I Knew Everything Was Gone' -- The East Ohio Gas Explosion"

By Grant Segall, Plain Dealer

The worst and most well-known of all nuclear disasters, Chernobyl haunts the nuclear power industry as a scenario of epic proportions. The effects of it still linger as deformities and cancers are still being studied today throughout western Europe. 

Compelling stories about this tragic event can be found below.

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"Voices From Chernobyl"

Up until that date, the Amoco Cadiz was the largest spill of its time. Oil from the spill covered hundreds of miles of coastline and killed much of the ecosystem in its path. A contentious legal battle over compensation resulted in multiple cleanup delays over the span of a decade. 

Check out these articles for more info about the spill.

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"Spills: A Matter Of Liability"

The Windscale Fire Disaster is one of the worst nuclear accidents to occur in the Western world -- however, it also seems to be among the least well known. It ranked a severity of 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (Chernobyl ranked at 7). Even so, it took over three decades for cleanup actions to take place and its real effects are still not understood. 

For more in-depth information, check out the following hand-selected articles. 

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Although officials knew of the oil spill lurking underneath Brooklyn, N.Y. since 1950, little was done for almost three decades. But who spilled those millions of gallons of oil? After an investigation, it was determined that ExxonMobile was to blame, but they weren't quick to take accountability. In 2010, nearly 60 years after the spill's first reports, the oil company agreed to a settlement.

The following articles give some background on the spill's half-century battle.

When the BP Oil Spill gushed into the public eye in 2010, many thought it to be the largest spill on record. However, in terms of the U.S., there was one that was estimated to be much, much larger -- the Lakeview Gusher. 

For background and context, check out the following articles selected by our editors. 

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"California's Legendary Oil Spill"

By Steve Harvey, Los Angeles Times

The partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island gave way to a legacy of atomic danger. Many locals still await unknown consequences of a power plant gone wrong. This disaster created an anti-nuclear movement that still carries on today.

The following articles tell its story.

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This highly publicized spill that occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. is often credited as the disaster that started the anti-oil movement in the late 1960s. Immediately following the public outrage that surrounded this disaster was a series of important environmental acts -- including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Water Act.

In what many call New Zealand's worst environmental disaster, a oil tanker ran aground on Oct. 5, 2011 and spilled 93,000 gallons of oil in the Bay of Plenty. The captains of the ship were eventually found negligent. The true impact of the spill remains unknown.

These hand-selected articles give an overview of what happened down under. 

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Intentional and premeditated, the oil released by Iraqi forces during the Gulf War created one of the largest - and most expensive - oil spills in human history. Although the spills were done in the early 1990s, cleanup actions continue today. 

The following articles outline the history and background of this avoidable disaster.

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