The Silent Spring that Started Everything
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published in 1962, was a landmark in the development of the modern environmental movement. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during World War II. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense galvanized radical sentiment in the early days of the Revolution; Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe roused the North’s antipathy to slavery in the decade leading up to the Civil War; and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which in 1962 exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT, eloquently questioned humanity’s faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement. In the first three months, it sold more than 100,000 hardcover copies, and in two years, more than one million.
The book was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, but it swayed public opinion and led to a reversal in US pesticide policy, a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and an environmental movement that led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency. For the first time, the need to regulate industry in order to protect the environment became widely accepted, and environmentalism was born.
The River That Caught Fire
As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so much so that it caught fire at least 14 times. When it did so on June 22, 1969, news coverage of the event helped to spur the American environmental movement. On this day, June 22, in 1969, the Cuyahoga River burst into flames in Cleveland when sparks from a passing train set fire to oil-soaked debris floating on the water’s surface. The blaze only lasted about 30 minutes, extinguished by land-based battalions and one of the city’s fireboats. It caused about $50,000 in damage to railroad bridges spanning the river and earned a small amount of attention in the local press.
Time magazine published an article on the fire—with an accompanying photo from an incident in 1952. The article described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows” and in which a person “does not drown but decays” and listed other badly-polluted rivers across the nation.
The Birth of Environmental Activism
The American conversation about protecting the environment began in the 1960s. Rachel Carson had published her attack on the indiscriminate use of pesticides, Silent Spring, in 1962. An offshore oil rig in California fouled beaches with millions of gallons of spilled oil. Near Cleveland, Ohio, the Cuyahoga River, choking with chemical contaminants, had spontaneously burst into flames. The public was aware of the growing concern about pollution, and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring had a dramatic impact when it landed on shelves in 1962. The tide of public opinion about pollution changed in 1970. This led to the first Earth Day in April and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in December.
Although committed groups had aimed to protect nature and wildlife throughout the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, the environmental movement focused activism on alerting the public to environmental dangers and, primarily, creating policies that actively protected the environment.
NEPA: The Environmental Magna Carta
Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 and President Nixon signed it into law on January 1, 1970. NEPA was the first major environmental law in the United States and is often called the “Magna Carta” of Federal environmental laws. NEPA requires Federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of proposed major Federal actions prior to making decisions.
Section 101 of NEPA sets forth a national policy “to use all practicable means and measures, including financial and technical assistance, in a manner calculated to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans.” Countries and non-governmental organizations all over the globe have created their own environmental impact assessment programs, modeled upon NEPA, making NEPA an international catalyst in the field of environmental protection.
The EPA’s Revolutionary Formation
In early 1970, as a result of heightened public concerns about deteriorating city air, natural areas littered with debris, and urban water supplies contaminated with dangerous impurities, President Richard Nixon presented the House and Senate a groundbreaking 37-point message on the environment. Following the council’s recommendations, the president sent to Congress a plan to consolidate many environmental responsibilities of the federal government under one agency, a new Environmental Protection Agency. The agency’s first Administrator, William Ruckelshaus, took the oath of office on December 4, 1970.
Though it initially caught the attention of few Cleveland residents, the Cuyahoga River Fire stoked the rest of the nation’s awareness of the environmental and health threats of river pollution—and fueled a growing movement that culminated in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1969 the Cuyahoga River fire, along with the Santa Barbara oil spill earlier that year, helped spur an avalanche of water pollution control activities, resulting in amendments extending the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA).
The Clean Air Act Revolution
The Clean Air Act became law in 1963. Major rewrite of CAA, setting National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) Hazardous Air Pollutant standards, and auto emissions tailpipe standards. Similarly, the Clean Air Act had originated in 1963, but due to the surge in environmental awareness and activism after the publication of Silent Spring, it too was amended in 1977 and again in 1990.
Set new automobile emissions standards, low-sulfur gas, required Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for toxins, reduction in CFCs. Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District created; first air pollution agency in the US.
Water Protection Laws Emerge
In 1972, Congress passed additional environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and the Ocean Dumping Act. The Act followed some strict goals: eliminating discharge of all pollutants into navigable waters by 1985, making all water safe for fishing and swimming by 1983, and prohibiting all discharge of toxic amounts of toxic pollutants. Established to protect the quality of drinking water in the US. This law focuses on all waters actually or potentially designed for drinking use, whether from above ground or underground sources.
The Stokes brothers’ advocacy played a part in the passage of the federal Clean Water Act of 1972. This led to the revival of the Clean Water Act, enacted in 1948 and amended in 1972 to protect the nation’s waters from pollution.
Wildlife and Species Protection
In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was passed. Provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. Migratory Bird Treaty Act creates protections for migratory birds.
Passed in 1900, the Lacey Act made it a federal offense to knowingly engage in interstate trade or transportation of wildlife taken in violation of State regulations. And, in 1979, the Environment and Natural Resources Division recognized the need for specialized attorneys who emphasized wildlife protection. The Wildlife Section practiced both civil and criminal law toward this end.
The Rise of Environmental Criminal Law
While the regulatory systems of the environmental statutes varied, one consistent factor was that each of them included misdemeanor criminal enforcement provisions. First, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Amendments of 1980 introduced felonies into the nation’s primary hazardous waste regulation statute. The effect of adding felonies to environmental statutes was to focus more attention and more resources – including those of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – on enforcement.
First, felonies were added to the Clean Water Act, the statute under which most federal environmental crimes were brought. Second, the United States Sentencing Guidelines came into effect, and the mandatory guideline sentences associated with environmental violations helped establish the seriousness of those crimes across the country. Third, the Environmental Crimes Section became a fully independent Section within the Environmental and Natural Resources Division.
Historical Roots in Common Law
The history of environmental law in the United States can be traced back to early roots in common law doctrines, for example, the law of nuisance and the public trust doctrine. The first statutory environmental law was the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, which has been largely superseded by the Clean Water Act. At first, the only effective tool available to federal officials for dealing with pollution of any kind was the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. This statute was enacted to protect the navigability of federal waters, and it held violators to a strict liability standard for certain kinds of dumping.
The precursor of the modern environmental movement in the United States was the early 20th century conservation movement, associated with President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. National Park Service Organic Act created the National Park Service.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Created the Superfund program. Commonly referred to as RCRA, our nation’s primary law governing the disposal of solid and hazardous waste. Also known as the Ocean Dumping Act, prohibits dumping into the ocean material that would unreasonably degrade or endanger human health or the marine environment.
Second, in 1982 the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice established units that were dedicated to investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes. Thus, criminal enforcement as part of environmental enforcement generally was better able to compete with other programs for resources.
Modern Environmental Challenges
Most current major environmental statutes were passed in a timeframe from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. However, most current major environmental statutes, such as the federal statutes listed above, were passed during the modern environmental movement spanning the late 1960s through the early 1980s. The collective goal of US environmental policy is to protect the environment for future generations while interfering as little as possible with the efficiency of commerce or the liberty of the people and to limit inequity related to environmental costs (also known as environmental justice).
Ninety-nine percent of scientists agree that climate change is happening and that humans are at least exacerbating the issue, if not causing it. Researchers have specifically connected our releasing of greenhouse gases — including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — to rising temperatures and an increase in environmental health problems. Over the last 50 years, the U.S. legislators have passed dozens of laws that the EPA must oversee.
Environmental Justice and Federal Oversight
Focuses federal attention on the environmental and human health effects of federal actions on minority and low-income populations with the goal of achieving environmental protection for all communities. The EPA is among the most highly decentralized agencies in the US federal government, operating through 10 regional offices and several support offices such as the Office of Water and the Office of Research and Development. While the EPA is the most comprehensive US environmental agency, virtually all of the Executive Branch’s departments (the US analog to parliamentary ministries) have some area of environmental authority and responsibility.
Speaking on that original Earth Day, he stated, “I am fearful that the priorities on air and water pollution may be at the expense of what the priorities of the country ought to be: proper housing, adequate food, and clothing.” Environmental justice is still being debated today, particularly as it relates to climate change. Laws written by Congress provide the authority for EPA and the other Federal agencies to write regulations. Regulations explain the technical, operational, and legal details necessary to implement Public Laws.
These environmental protection laws didn’t just emerge from nowhere – they were forged in the crucible of public outrage over burning rivers and poisoned springs. What started with a single book about pesticides became a complete reimagining of how Americans viewed their relationship with nature. The fact that we can now eat fish from the Cuyahoga River proves these laws actually work, even if they came at the cost of decades of environmental damage.
