E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Jim Pickerell / AP
In this January 1973 photo released by the U.S. National Archives, trash and old tires litter the shore at the middle branch of the Patapsco River in the harbor of Baltimore, Md.
Patrick Semansky / AP
And now...
WASHINGTON -- A polluted drainage ditch that once flowed with industrial waste from Lake Charles, La., petrochemical plants teems with overgrown, wild plants today.
A light-rail line zips past the spot where a now-defunct Portland, Ore., gasoline station advertised in 1972 that it had run out of gas.
A smoking Jersey City, N.J., dump piled with twisted, rusty metal has disappeared, along with the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan that were its backdrop.
Photographers revisit sites of EPA's Documerica project to see how things have changed over 40 years
Forty years after the Environmental Protection Agency sent an army of nearly 100 photographers across the country to capture images at the dawn of environmental regulation, The Associated Press went back for Earth Day this year to see how things have changed. It is something the agency never got to do because the Documerica program, as it was called, died in 1978, the victim of budget cuts.
AP photographers returned to more than a dozen of those locations in recent weeks, from Portland to Cleveland and Corpus Christi, Texas. Of the 20,000 photos in the archive, the AP selected those that focused on environmental issues, rather than the more general shots of everyday life in the 1970s.
Gone are the many obvious signs of pollution — clouds of smoke billowing from industrial chimneys, raw sewage flowing into rivers, garbage strewn over beaches and roadsides — that heightened environmental awareness in the 1970s, and led to the first Earth Day and the EPA's creation in 1970. Such environmental consciousness caused Congress to pass almost unanimously some of the country's bedrock environmental laws in the years that followed.
Today's pollution problems aren't as easy to see or to photograph. Some in industry and politics question whether environmental regulation has gone too far and whether the risks are worth addressing, given their costs.
Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has called for the firing of EPA chief Lisa Jackson, while GOP rival Newt Gingrich has said the EPA should be replaced altogether. Jackson has faced tough questioning on Capitol Hill so often the in past two years that a top Republican quipped that she needs her own parking spot.
"To a certain extent, we are a victim of our own success," said William Ruckelshaus, who headed the EPA when it came into existence under Republican President Richard Nixon and was in charge during the Documerica project. "Right now, EPA is under sharp criticism partially because it is not as obvious to people that pollution problems exist and that we need to deal with them."
Environmental laws that passed Congress so easily in Ruckelshaus' day are now at the center of a partisan dispute between Republicans and Democrats. Dozens of bills have been introduced to limit environmental protections that critics say will lead to job losses and economic harm, and there are those who question what the vast majority of scientists accept — that the burning of fossil fuels is causing global warming.
In the 1970s, the first environmental regulations were just starting to take effect, with widespread support. Now, according to some officials in the oil and gas and electric utility industries, which are responsible for the bulk of emissions and would bear the greatest costs, the EPA has gone overboard with rules.
For instance, Documerica photographers captured a wave of coal-fired power plants under construction. Republicans and the industry now say environmental regulations are partly to blame for shuttering some of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants.
Jim DiPeso of ConservAmerica, a group that recently changed its name from Republicans for Environmental Protection, says the EPA is caught in the center of a perfect storm. "This time of greater cynicism about government, more economic anxiety and the fact that the problems are not immediately apparent, has created this political problem for EPA," he said.
In an interview, Jackson said she believes that people in the United States still want to protect the environment. "There's a large gulf between the rhetoric inside the Beltway to do everything from cut back on EPA to get rid of the whole place, and what the American people would actually stand for," she said. "It's very easy to make rash statements without thinking about what that means to the health of everyday Americans."
A 2010 Pew Research Center survey showed that 57 percent of those questioned held a favorable view of the EPA, compared with a 1997 poll that showed 69 percent with a positive view of the agency. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll taken last year found that 71 percent of people surveyed said that the government should continue provide money to the EPA to enforce regulations to address global warming and other environmental issues.
"We are not done. We still have challenges we have to face," Jackson said.
The agency last year began a volunteer photography project called State of the Environment. More than 620 people have participated and submitted 1,800 photographs, but only a few are at the same sites at the 1970s project.
Images always have spurred environmental consciousness. A 1980s satellite picture of the ozone hole helped lead to a ban on the chemicals in aerosol cans and refrigerants that were responsible. Underwater video of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 opened the public's eyes to the gravity of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
But a second Documerica project, with professional photographers, would be impossible today, given budget cuts facing the agency and the wariness of industry barring access by photographers.
Lyntha Scott Eiler, 65, shot photographs for Documerica around her then-home in northern Arizona, as well as one of the early emissions testing sites for automobile exhaust in Hamilton County, Ohio. At the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona, Eiler got right down in a strip mine "where the shovels were."
"They weren't afraid of the EPA, so it was, 'What else you do you want to get a photograph of?,'" Eiler said. "You probably would have a hard time doing that today."
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
I made no claims. I only asked you to site your sources as you have asked the same of others. I will, however, find irrevocable evidence that Earth Day is gay. I guess that is a claim. It may take a while as determining such is a somewhat nebulous science.
Blamo:
You are making this way too easy......................................:-) Like we are all back in middle school.
Now you have them so either put up or shut up. I'm fed up with the hollow arguments of the deniers and the lack of named sources to the erroneous claims made by them. And speaking of deniers, where have you gone 'uninformed'? In hiding, perhaps?
Earth Day, the day to get my "68" muscle car out and drive around town. Get the smokey grill going and char a couple of steaks, maybe some burgers as well. Turn on the lights and stay up late. The EPA, while at one time was a decent organization has become a tyrant. It needs to be cut down to size and allow business and people to compete inthe world.
You betcha. BP needs to be given some slack, right?
It is a fine line to walk, authority - to know how much and what to regulate, and what to leave up to the people. Wisdom is not easily attained, neither is making the correct choices when the ego is not in balance with the soul.
Regulations such as these are great for the United States in being on the progressive end of the environmental front. However even with the best of intentions the EPA's timing and implementation of such rules couldn't come at a worse time. Regulations such as these can often be overbearing and quite costly (). Because of this either regulatory policies or our economic recovery can't really advance. The thought is good, but the execution of regulations needs better work if we’re going to succeed.
The problem with the EPA is that it is made up of bureaucrats who don't know when to declare victory. In the first two decades of its existence it got rid of the gross pollution we suffered. The next couple of decades it was playing the diminishing returns game as more and more onerous regulations were chasing lower and lower levels of pollution. Today, pollution detection requires special instruments that didn't even exist 3 decades ago just to detect any pollutant at all. We're spending billions just to put another zero after the decimal point. Parts per billion, parts per billion. That's the insanity the EPA chases with regulations which cost our economy billions of dollars.
And yet, the rate of cancer continues to skyrocket in this country, due to the pollutants spread about by unrestricted manufacturers or other industry. 50 years ago, if you wanted to find a child with Cancer you really had to search for one, they were few and far between. Today, there are whole hospitals and non profits dedicated to trying to heal the thousands of children with cancer.
The fact is the insidious chemicals polluting our air and water are often cumulative and take a long, long time to show a measurable effect on our human bodies. Not to mention, even testing for harm restricts such testing to isolated individual compounds, not the collective soup of crap we are exposed to every day.
An excellent book on this subject is 'Living Downstream' check out a copy and you may change that sanctimonious tune. In my opinion, industry should be held to a stricterstandard. How about they prove 'no harm' before adding new compounds into the environment? Instead of waiting for whole generations to get sick before the finaly, reluctantly are forced to agree, that their product is a poison or a pollutant? Think DDT, Asbestos, PVC manufacturing hazards, as a few examples.
Now, the Natural Gas drillers have a loophole, knows as the Cheney loophole. They don't even have to disclose whatever chemicals they use in drilling (fracking) operations that inhabit the same land and water that is used by humans and animals. Not to mention being pushed into the ground water.
Wake up, dude.
The EPA has changed the quality of life for many Americans over the last 40 years- as well as clean up the horrible toxic mess shown in the before and after photos provided.
The problems today with the climate are far worse however. And we have the 'freedom' party and pro growth party clamoring to end the EPA and call global warming a 'hoax' It remains to be seen, at least in my opinion what the republican party is worth today? Nothing.
I think there may be a mental disorder going around called "conspiracy brain" in which the victims have a paranoid delusion that there is a conscious and organized effort to destroy what they perceive is our sacred way of life.
The victim loses all ability for rational and individual thought. It seems to be especially prevalent among those who like to identify themselves as "conservative".
I would have hoped that the last 30 years or so would have paved the way for industries to be developed ONLY in a green fashion.Look at all the high tech waste,and more and more wrapping,packaging on everything
Thank you Richard Nixon for signing the EPA into law.
Look at the bright side of widespread industrial pollution; in the early 70's you could almost fill your gas tank from the riverside. Rivers like the Cuyahoga in Cleveland caught fire on a regular basis (yes the entire river burned). Why drill baby drill when you can fill baby fill?
And yet, everyday cities dump raw sewerage into lakes and rivers, willingly paying the EPA fines - which are WAY too low, rather than pay to update facilities to handle the load.
Smog was a daily occurance in L.A. and the pictures that the EPA pictures of pollution "... aren't as easy to see or to photograph..." because it is better.
Now, the EPA has to nit-pic to find stuff that only runs up our costs in order for it to justify it's existence. EPA, just do your job and don't fix what isn't broken.
How do you know things aren't broken? Do you have some insight to share?
The EPA is just another blotted government agency with way too much power and short sighted goals. Case in point. The EPA instituted tier 3 and tier 4 emission standards. These emission standards have done nothing but decrease fuel effiency in heavy trucks and equipment. Now we have ultra low sulfur diesel fuel that has 23% moisture content so in winter, we have to put in more fuel conditioners so it won't freeze. We are injecting urea into the exhaust under tier 4 and all the while we have to "REGEN" the exhaust system every so often to "Burn" the built up soot in the exhaust system . This means we inject fuel straight into the exhaust to heat and burn the built up soot. And where does all this extra fuel, conditioner and urea go, out the exhaust pipe. EPA SHOULD have gone after better fuel economy standards vs this goat screw that has added significant cost to all diesel operating equipment
Republicans slash EPA: before picture
Democrats pro EPA: after picture
Which party would be your choice for stewards of the Earth?
Well, of course today's pollution isn't as easy to find and photograph! It's because they've gotten better at hiding it! These photographers should go out into the desert near Phoenix, Arizona--people dump all kinds of sh*t out there.
Will see all these morons complaining about the EPA screaming bring it back when they or a loved one gets sick or dies from something not being protected against companies out there unrestricted pollute their lives..
Look at the first picture and ask yourself is this what we want to go back to?? If republicans have their way we won't have an EPA and big corporations will be able to dump toxic waste in your back yard.
The creation of the EPA was a political battle back in 1972. Richard Nixon vetoed the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 which created the EPA but Congress overrode the veto. Let's leave the EPA alone. They have done much more good than bad over the years.
EPA needs to be replaced. Political hacks run the dang thing.