Vintage EPA photos reveal what New York City looked like before the US regulated poll

[signalmankenneth]

That piece of shit Pruitt was trying to take us back to dirty air and polluted water days?!!


New York circa 1973

New York City produces twice as much trash as any other mega-city on Earth, according to a recent study. The Environmental Protection Agency has described Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal as "one of the nation's most extensively contaminated water bodies." And air pollution, coming largely from transportation and construction, remains a threat to residents.

But before the EPA formed in 1970, pollution in NYC was even worse.

Soon after the EPA's founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture America's environmental issues in a photo project called Documerica. It shows what the US, from California to Ohio to New York, looked like from 1971 to 1977. Of the 81,000 images the photographers took, more than 20,000 photos were archived, and at least 15,000 have been digitized by the National Archives.

Many of the photos were taken before the US regulated things like water and air pollution.
The Trump administration has already rolled back a number of environmental regulations. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt was also moving toward repealing the Clean Water Rule - which prevents industries from dumping pollutants into waterways and wetlands - and eliminating the Clean Power Plan - the Obama administration's biggest initiative to fight climate change by curbing emissions.

Progressives around the country now worry whether Anthony Kennedy's retirement from the Supreme Court will seal the fate of these environmental protections. The 81-year-old justice has been a crucial swing vote on many environmental issues for the past three decades.

Many reports suggest that if Pruitt and his replacement succeeds, parts of the US could return to the state they were in before EPA regulations.

Take a look at a few New York City Documerica photos that were taken between 1973 and 1974.

By Leanna Garfield

[Bigdog]

Did you know ... Nixon was forced, because of an obstructionist democrat congress that refused to act, ... to create his EPA using an E.O.?

[Cypress]

@ post 1
In my opinion, the 60s, early 70s were a unique period of time in Congress' legislative history.

Not only was there widespread bipartisan support for landmark environmental legislation, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, NEPA, CERCLA, et al. -- but this legislation can arguably be said to have truly been enacted in the public interest and in the interest of our natural environmental trust. Most legislation, when you think about it, is promulgated for far more parochial - even nefarious - reasons. Propping up the military industrial complex, cutting taxes for the rich and for wall street from the nefarious perspective....infrastructure and raising the minimum wage from parochial perspective.

I particularly hold the Endangered Species Act in high regard. A remarkable achievement for a legislative body most often associated with corruption, parochial interests, and fealty to our corporate overlords.

The landmark environmental legislation of that era has never been repeated since, and in some respects it represented legislative intent that was profoundly tied to the protection and enhancement of the public trust in ways we rarely ever see.

[Nordberg]

Trump and Pruitt wanted us to go back to those times. Here is Pittsburg at noon. https://www.citylab.com/design/2012/...-problem/2185/ The good old days if you are a Republican.

[domer76]

Did you know ... Nixon was forced, because of an obstructionist democrat congress that refused to act, ... to create his EPA using an E.O.?

Another RW lie.

[MAGA MAN]

Trump and Pruitt wanted us to go back to those times.

Citation needed.

[Getin the ring]

Trump and Pruitt wanted us to go back to those times. Here is Pittsburg at noon. https://www.citylab.com/design/2012/...-problem/2185/ The good old days if you are a Republican.

yea, we want pollution, the nastier the better. Just like we like babies being ripped out of their mothers arms,
like you like killing unborn children, right?

Do you nut-bags ever listen to yourselves?
seriously

[PostmodernProphet]

[B]That piece of shit Pruitt was trying to take us back to dirty air and polluted water days?!!

I'm curious......are you stupid enough to believe that or are you just lying for the hell of it?......

[PostmodernProphet]

I am to be pitied

I know, right?.....

[Tranquillus in Exile]

What was Pruitt's plan, PMP?

[PostmodernProphet]

What was Pruitt's plan, PMP?

reduce Obama era regulations...not Nixon era regulations.....

[Cancel 2018.1]

reduce Obama era regulations...not Nixon era regulations.....

And his regulations had nothing to do with real pollution. I honestly don't think he cared about real pollution.

The secret, dirty cost of Obama’s green power push
https://www.nbcnews.com/businessmain...ush-2D11577495

Which is why he had his EPA label CO2 as a pollutant, which it is emphatically not.
Labeling CO2 as a pollutant was a ploy to regulate, tax and stifle industry.

[Sailor]

Did you know ... Nixon was forced, because of an obstructionist democrat congress that refused to act, ... to create his EPA using an E.O.?

That is going to leave a mark! In case there are any questions: "The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent agency of the United States federal government for environmental protection.[2] President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA and it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...tection_Agency