Pollution

There are three main types of pollution Land Pollution Water Pollution Air Pollution There are laws to protect the citizens of the United States from each type of pollution Superfund Clean Water Acts Clean Air Act and revisions

Since the end of World War II, productivity in the United States has increased significantly. One of the side effects of this productivity is a change in the way products are treated. We have become a throw-away society. According to Commoner, B (1971) The Closing Circle; Nature, Man and Technology; Knopf, New York From 1946 to 1968 we saw the following increases: Non-returnable bottles:53,000% Synthetic Fibers:5,980% Industrial Mercury:3,930% Plastics:1,960% Nitrogen Fertilizer:1,050% Electrical Appliances:1,040% Wood Pulp313% Truck Freight (replacing trains)222%

Land Pollution

At the beginning of the 20 th century, William T. Love imagined a model community in New York, on the edge of Niagara Falls. He dug a canal to supply the community with water power. He never completed the project. In the 1920s, Love’s canal was sold to Hooker Chemical operated as a landfill. In 1953, Hooker sold the site to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for $1, with the disclaimer: “That the premises above described have been filled…to the present grade level thereof with waste products resulting from the manufacturing of chemicals…” The city built an elementary school on the site. The houses came later.

Over the years, the underground containers filled with approximately 21,000 tons of chemical waste corroded. In 1977, a record rainfall caused waste to begin to leach into people’s homes, backyards and playgrounds. Love Canal has been officially associated with high rates of birth defects, miscarriages, and other severe illnesses resulting from land contamination. When news of the Love Canal tragedy reached the general public, people were outraged and concerned. What could be lurking in their backyard? In 1980, Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the first U.S. federal law to address toxic waste dumps. CERCLA, also known as Superfund, is the emergency fund to clean up toxic waste dumps when the owners are unknown or unable to pay for the necessary cleanup. In Lowell we have the Silresim site.

The following table shows the number of Federal and general sites for each status and milestone as of February 23, 2011: StatusNon-Federal (General)FederalTotal Proposed SitesProposed Sites57562 Final SitesFinal Sites Deleted SitesDeleted Sites Milestone Non-Federal (General)FederalTotal Partial DeletionsPartial Deletions * Construction CompletionsConstruction Completions Sites that have achieved these milestones are included in one of the three NPL status categories. * 69 partial deletions have occurred at these 56 sites.

In September 2004 Love Canal was removed from the National Priorities List (Superfund) Silresim’s removal is slated well into the future.

Water Pollution YouTube - Cuyahoga River Pollution Ohio 1967 The Cuyahoga in 1969

The Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters. The basis of the CWA was enacted in 1948 and was called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, but the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in "Clean Water Act" became the Act's common name with amendments in 1977.

As a testament to the Clean Water Act, the Cuyahoga River is today an entirely different waterway. An interesting quote from the New York Times June 2009: “This didn’t happen because a bunch of wild-haired hippies protested down the street,” Mr. Perrecone said. “This happened because a lot of citizens up and down the watershed worked hard for 40 years to improve the river.” I’m pretty sure the Clean Water Act may have helped too…

Additionally….. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the main federal law that ensures the quality of Americans' drinking water.Under SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and oversees the states, localities, and water suppliers who implement those standards.

Air Pollution

Air Pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere

The 1948 Donora smog was a historic air inversion resulting in a wall of smog that killed 20 people and sickened 7,000 more in Donora, Pennsylvania, a mill town on the Monongahela River, 24 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant were frequent occurrences in Donora. What made the 1948 event more severe was a temperature inversion, in which a mass of warm, stagnant air was trapped in the valley, the pollutants in the air mixing with fog to form a thick, yellowish, acrid smog that hung over Donora for five days.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) ―originally enacted in 1963, but strengthened in 1970― is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. Among other things, this law authorizes EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. This is one of the more difficult battles to face. We won the battle of leaded gasoline, but what about mercury?

Mercury Pollution Contaminates Merrimack River Boston, Massachusetts – Today environmental advocates and academics released a report detailing the public health and environmental hazards of mercury pollution from power plants. Locally, this includes health advisories that strongly warn Massachusetts residents not to consume white sucker and largemouth bass from the Merrimack River. More U.S. waterways are closed to fishing because of mercury contamination than due to any other toxic contaminant. --Reported by Environment Massachusetts Journal Jan. 26, 2011

In 1984, 30 tons of lethal methyl isocyanate gas were released into the air in Bhopal, India. According to the Guardian newspaper, this Union Carbide accident killed up to 20,000 people within days and affected up to 600,000. Many were blinded instantly. A year later in West Virginia, another Union Carbide released toxic gas into the atmosphere sickening hundreds.

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) requires companies that handle hazardous waste to furnish complete disclosure of their annual polluting activities, storage and handling facilities, any accidental release of hazardous material into the environment in a quantity above an established safe limit, and all material necessary for local authorities to respond to an accident involving the hazardous material(s) on site.

On March 24, 1989 the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground at Bligh Reef Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into the fragile environment of Prince William Sound. The recovery continues even today. One response to the Valdez disaster was the passage of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, which, among other things, required oil tankers to be double-hulled, and gave states more say in their spill-prevention standards.

You have to ask: Are all of these regulations necessary? Are they worth the lack of productivities for industry? You might want to ask yourself a couple of things Why has industry and manufacturing left the USA and gone overseas? Is it cheap labor or something even more insidious? Would all of the progress that we have made really happened without the arm twisting regulations require? Something to think about, eh?