Pollution... in pictures. Pre-EPA.

[underpants]

Vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what America looked like before pollution was regulated
Link here https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-america-before-epa-documerica-2017-10





Smog, seen here obscuring the George Washington Bridge in New York, was a far bigger problem.


Smog was common, as this shot of Louisville and the Ohio River from 1972 shows.
Smog, seen here obscuring the George Washington Bridge in New York, was a far bigger problem.

Factories burned discarded automobile batteries in the 1970s, releasing pollutants into the air. Current regulations require the batteries to be recycled without contaminating the surrounding area, though some are exported.






EPA officials used briefcase-size monitors to test radiation levels. This image shows them testing the monitors in a Las Vegas lab before sending them out to be used.


This photo shows a burning barge on the Ohio River in May 1972. A fire on the Cuyahoga River in 1969 (the 13th time that river had caught fire) helped to inspire the creation of the EPA.


Mary Workman of Steubenville, Ohio, holds a jar of undrinkable water from her well in this photo. She filed a lawsuit against a coal company, accusing it of polluting her water. The EPA now uses the Clean Water Act to prevent companies from contaminating drinking water.

[BigmanPigman]

1. We don't need those stinkin regulations...

What's wrong with smelling Napalm in the morning?

I can't believe that Nixon was actually anti-pollution and started a lot of good policies. He would be shunned by today's GOP anti-regulation capitalists.

[scrutineer]

2. Environmentalism used to be referred to conservationism

Conservationism is something you would think conservatives could get behind.

I read recently that Nixon considered conservationism to be uncontroversial, not something he gave much thought to, and a sop to his detractors on the left. He figured if it was gonna be done, then do it even better than that “other guy.” That “other guy” being Teddy Roosevelt.

[Nitram]

4. Nixon had no choice. a veto-proof Democratic majority in congress guaranteed passage. So Dick went

along.

[dalton99a]

5. Give the crook some credit. He created the EPA by executive order

http://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Richard_Nixon_Environment.htm

[Nitram]

6. Nixon's executive order just consolidated existing environmental agencies under one roof.

He only went along with conservation because he couldn't fight it. Rivers were catching on fire!

[Nitram]

3. the Mafia had all the toxic waste disposal contracts in the states of NY and NJ.

They took tanker trucks out on the New Jersey turnpike after midnight and opened the valves, disposing of the waste in the road and surrounding waterways.