Blog

Case StudyPlease read the following case study and then answer the following 6 short answer questions. You can use the provided space here for notes – answers here will NOT be graded. Peter has been working with the Bigness Oil Company’s local affiliate for several years, and he has established a strong, trusting relationship with Jesse, manager of the local facility. The facility, on Peter’s recommendation, has followed all of the environmental regulations to the letter, and it has a solid reputation with the state regulatory agency. The local facility receives various petrochemical products via pipelines and tank trucks, and it blends them for resale to the private sector.Jesse has been so pleased with Peter’s work that he has recommended that Peter be retained as the corporate consulting engineer. This would be a significant advancement for Peter and his consulting firm, cementing Peter’s steady and impressive rise in the firm. There is talk of a vice presidency in a few years.One day, over coffee, Jesse tells Peter about a mysterious loss in one of the raw petrochemicals he receives by pipeline. Sometime during the 1950s, when operations were more lax, a loss of one of the process chemicals was discovered when the books were audited. There were apparently 10,000 gallons of the chemical missing. After running pressure tests on the pipelines, the plant manager found that one of the pipes had corroded and had been leaking the chemical into the ground. After stopping the leak, the company sank observation and sampling wells and found that the product was sitting in a vertical plume, slowly diffusing into a deep aquifer. Because there was no surface or groundwater pollution off the plant property, the plant manager decided to do nothing. Jesse thought that somewhere under the plant there still sits this plume, although the last tests from the sampling wells showed that the concentration of the chemical in the groundwater within 400 feet of the surface was essentially zero. The wells were capped, and the story never appeared in the press.

What factors would make reporting this spill now a proper engineering decision? Should this be up to Peter’s engineering judgment, and why?

Ben is assigned by his employer to improve an ultrasonic range-finding device. While working on the improvement, he recognizes that a novel modification of the equipment might be applicable to military submarines, which, if successful, could be worth a lot of money to his employer. However, Ben is a pacifist, a person who opposes war of any kind, and does not want to be involved in military work. So he does not develop the idea himself or mention it to anyone in the company. He has signed an agreement that all inventions he produces on the job are the property of the company but does not believe the agreement is relevant in this situation.Whether the military invention would be worth much to Ben’s employer is _____.

In law, the highest penalty for causing harm is for actions that are _____.

Describe with as much detail and depth as possible how Western Migration and Indian Removal are connected.

Describe with as much detail and depth as possible slavery in the Southern United States and its impact during the early to mid 1800s.

Describe with as much detail and depth as possible the movement for Women’s Rights.

Describe with as much detail and depth as possible the importance of Cotton not only in the Southern United States, but also in the Northern United States and Europe.

Describe with as much detail and depth as possible Manifest Destiny and its impact on westward expansion.

Describe with as much detail and depth as possible how Texas, Mexico and America are connected during the mid 1800s.