Disasters

Drinking water sources, purification, and distribution systems are essential to public health, and failures could be catastrophic.

Security of nuclear power plants was definitely on people's minds as the WTC burned and nobody knew where the next plane would hit.

The Bureau of Reclamation announced laconically Sept. 12 that it had stepped up security at Hoover, Glen Canyon, and Grand Coulee dams.

Because of their length, ubiquity, and remoteness, pipelines can be nearly impossible to defend.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many experts have become more concerned that terrorists may maliciously spread biological agents such as anthrax or smallpox.

There are places along the Mississippi River (e.g. New Orleans) where many people live in areas that would normally be flooded, were it not for levees or other flood control works.

The WTC victims were killed not just by terrorists, but by the buildings themselves.

Federal district judge Dee Benson ruled Oct. 9, 2007, that a group of news media companies could not have access to an investigation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) into the Crandall Canyon mine collapse in Utah Aug. 6, which killed six miners and three workers trying to rescue them.

A rule issued April 16, 2008, ostensibly to keep the public safe from shipments of highly hazardous materials by rail, has been little-understood by the public.