Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Protection Agency — page 3

Environmental Protection Agency — page 4 — CHAPTER ONE A Dirty World Notions of environmental responsibility existed centuries before the EPA was created As early as 1652 when the U S was still a collection of colonies the city of Boston established a public water supply to provide clean water to its citi zens Other large cities then followed its exam ple Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries as more people settled in the U S the negative ef fects of having large populations occupy relative ly small areas became more apparent Sewage often lined city streets and floated into rivers and the ocean and drinking water was often mixed with sediment and other contaminants The rapid industrialization that occurred in the late 19th century only added to the environmental pollution Factory smokestacks blew chemical heavy soot into the air Industrial waste and oil floated in waterways By the 1860s some people had become concerned about the harm being done to the environment A new conservation movement was born In 1872 geologist Ferdinand Hayden convinced Congress to make Yellowstone a national park The found ing of Yellowstone began a worldwide national Conservationists became worried that wild places such as the Grand Canyon would be ruined by human

Environmental Protection Agency — page 5 — A DIRTY WORLD park movement Leading the way was naturalist during a period of severe drought and fierce and photographer John Muir whose work in dust storms Dry conditions and years of poor Yosemite helped Congress preserve that area as farming methods on the prairie caused loose a national park in 1890 Other activists included soil to blow away in sky blackening clouds 26th U S president Theodore Roosevelt who People developed respiratory or breathing set aside 5 wilderness areas to be designated as problems from being exposed to so many fine national parks in the early 1900s particles of dust In 1933 president Franklin No amount of land conservation could pro Roosevelt's New Deal created programs to tect the world against the poisons introduced assist farmers and conserve the nation's nat during World War I 1914 18 though Chem ural resources among other things The Soil icals such as chlorine phosgene and mustard Conservation Service founded in 1935 later gas were inhaled by soldiers and coated their applied scientific practices and taught farmers lungs sometimes leading to blindness and new plowing techniques to reduce soil erosion death Other new chemicals such as pesticides In 1937 the Pittman Robertson Act was signed and nitrates were used to fertilize crops And establishing a permanent fund for states fish substances such as benzene in automobile gaso and wildlife programs The fund was based upon line and asbestos in many building materials money gained from federal taxes on hunting and were used in manufacturing Few laws existed to fishing equipment and ammunition protect the environment and people from toxins American involvement in World War II in Through the years such chemicals accumulated the 1940s brought about the development and and drained into the groundwater lakes rivers use of nuclear weapons With the bombing of and oceans and even evaporated into the air the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki In the 1930s a large portion of the Great in August 1945 a new type of destructive power Plains region became known as the Dust Bowl was unleashed Apart from the thousands of Few laws existed to protect the environment and people from

Environmental Protection Agency — page 6 — During the eight year drought in the Dust Bowl dirt covered everything and could swallow up buildings and

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