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ECO NEWSLETTER A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EPA By Martha T. Pelensky, PE, Chairperson - Ecology/Environment ЕРА United Slates Environmental Protection Agency Dear Friends: In our last Newsletter, the Environmental Pro tection Agency (EPA) was discussed in terms of its duties to the public, its overall structure and its scope of activities. While the EPA initials do not have the same “brand name recognition” or emotional connota tion as the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) or the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), its impact and influence on our lives cannot be overstated. Therefore we should become familiar with how, when and why it came into being. The EPA became an offi cial governmental entity on December 2, 1970 when President Richard M. Nixon signed it into law. This momentous event was a culmination of a long se quence of events. The American back to nature movement dates back to mid-19lh century as a result of the environ mental degradation caused by industrialization. The most prominent literary works addressing that matter were Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854). Other writers concerned with the environment were John Burroughs and John Muir. President Theodore Roosevelt, a rugged outdoorsman, came to symbolize the campaign of conservation. During the Great De pression of the 1930’s several major conservation pro grams were launched as part of the New Deal. After the prosperity and runaway consumerism of the Fabu lous Fifties, came the Turbulent Sixties. The counter culture of the 1960s, for all of its faults and excesses, forced us to take a look at ourselves and at our rela tionship with our surroundings. In the 1960s, a brain trust called The Club of Rome came into being. It published a study entitled The Limits to Growth, based on world-wide demo graphic growth projections and their effect on the global economy and environment. It painted a disturb ing picture of the effects of unchecked population growth, especially in developing countries, on local and global economy and the inherent pressures on the natural resources and the environment, and on the in creasingly deteriorating environment in highly devel oped countries. In 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published. Carson was a marine biologist who spent her career working for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and her book was a quietly shocking tale about the ef fects of pesticides on man and nature. It caused furor and controversy and helped galvanize the nation into action. Another highly visible phenomenon was the defoliation of the jungles of Indochina during the Vietnam War and the subsequent consequences of Agent Orange. Yet another sign of the times was an uncap tioned cartoon that appeared in 1969 shortly after the successful moonwalk. It showed a space rocket being launched from a garbage heap. Highly visible envi ronmental problems in the U.S. included the “Burning Cuyahoga” river in Cleveland, Houston Ship Channel, Love Canal, the dying Great Lakes, the smog-choked basin of greater Los Angeles, and the Chesapeake Bay overflowing with untreated sewage. Such events and cross-currents did not go un noticed by the politicians. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson sensed the groundswell and added environ mental matters to their speeches and legislative pro grams. President Nixon was somewhat ambivalent; he vetoed the second Clean Water Act, but he also ap proved and directed a succession of sweeping meas ures which vastly expanded federal protection of the environment. In late 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) whose intent was to “create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony” and “to assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, esthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings”. As a sign of the times the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970- an event that has been repeated annually to this day with ever greater partici pation and awareness. Public awareness and interest in environmental issues led President Nixon to conclude in 1969 that “a strong, independent agency” be estab lished and so the EPA was bom. Its mandate would be to establish and enforce environmental protection standards, conduct environmental research, and pro vide assistance to others combating environmental pol lution. The agency would also assist the Council on Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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