Why Do We Have Environmental Regulations

1. Why do we have Environmental Regulations in the united states?

2. Environmental Regulations • Environmental Regulationsare laws that encompass a wide range of subjects such as air and water quality, hazardous wastes and biodiversity. The purpose of these environmental laws is to prevent, minimize, remedy and punish actions that threaten or damage the environment and those that live in it. • A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the management of specific natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries.

3. 1948: Air inversion resulted in Historic Smog “You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face” Donora, PA at noon local time October 29, 1948 20 people died due to respiratory related illness over 3 days, and another 7,000 fell ill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moLys7UhGxY

4. Can rivers catch fire? Cuyahoga River Fire (1969): video

5. Public mindset of the time • “Water pollution was viewed as a necessary consequence of the industry that had brought prosperity to the city of Cleveland”

6. Why did these events occur? • The smog event and river catching on fire happened in 1948 and 1969, respectively, what do you think were the next steps to prevent this from happening in the future?

7. Why did the killer smog event happen? • Donora was a town of 14,000 people on the Monongahela River in a valley surrounded by hills. The town was home to steel mills and a zinc smelting plant that had released excessive amounts of sulphuric acid, carbon monoxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere for years prior to the disaster. During the 1920s, the owner of the zinc plant, Zinc Works, paid off local residents for damages caused by the pollution. Still, there was little or no regulation of the air pollution caused by the industries of Donora. • Beginning sometime on October 26, weather conditions in the valley brought a heavy fog into Donora. This fog appears to have trapped the airborne pollutants emitted from the zinc smelting plant and steel mills close to the ground, where they were inhaled by the local residents. Soon, a wave of calls came in to area hospitals and physicians. Dr. William Rongaus, the head of the local Board of Health, suggested that all residents with pre-existing respiratory problems leave town immediately. However, 11 people, all elderly and with heart problems or asthma, were already dead.

8. Most residents then attempted to evacuate, but the heavy smog and increased traffic made leaving difficult. Thousands flooded the hospitals when they experienced difficulty breathing. It was not until October 31 that Zinc Works shut down operations. Later that day, rain fell on Donora and dispersed the pollutants. By that time, another nine people had already perished. • The Donora smog disaster received national attention when it was reported by Walter Winchell on his radio show. In the aftermath, air pollution finally became a matter of public concern; the incident led to the passage of 1955 Clean Air Act. The Donora Zinc Works shuttered operations in 1957. Although the types of heavy visible pollutants responsible for the deaths in Donora have now been mostly outlawed and eliminated, invisible pollutants such as ozone remain a threat to people with chronic respiratory ailments. • Years later, a local high-school student’s research and activism led the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to place a commemorative plaque in Donora honoring the victims of the killer smog.

9. Why did the Cuyahoga river fire happen? • Cleveland, OH was once known as a major industrial center within the United States.  As the 1960s came to an end, so did the country's reliance on industrialized manufacturing.  However, Cleveland continued production which when paired with a lack in sewer and waste disposal regulation maintained the littering of the Cuyahoga River.  • On June 22, 1969, around 12pm, floating pieces of oil slicked debris were ignited on the river by sparks caused by a passing train.  Specifically, following an investigation, the cause was determined to be the oily debris trapped beneath two wooden trestles, rigid support frames, located around the Campbell Rd. hill in Southeast Cleveland.  The fire was determined to have reached heights of over five stories and lasted between twenty and thirty minutes.  There was reported to be around $50,000 of damages including: $45,000 from the destruction of the bridge owned by Norfolk & Western Railway Co. and $5,000 from the Newburgh & South Shore Railway trestle. 

10. The Cuyahoga River was once one of the most polluted rivers in the United States as represented by the multitude of times it has caught fire, a recorded number of thirteen starting in 1868.  The most potent blaze occurred in 1952 which caused over $1.3 million in damages however, the most fatal fire happened in 1912 with a documented five deaths.  The 1969 fire, which did not incur maximum damages or fatally wound any citizen, was the most covered incident occuring on the river.  This was in part because of the developing precedence that sanitation held over industrial actions; the United States was becoming more eco-aware.  Also, due to the shift from industry to technology, waste dumping to recycling Time Magazine produced an article about the incident.  This brought mass amount of attention to the Cleveland area and added pressure for hygienic regulation. • Inspired by the 1969 river fire, Congress was determined to resolve the issue of land pollution, not just in Cleveland, but throughout the United States.  The legislature passed the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) which was signed into law on January 1, 1970.  This act helped establish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which would be given the duties to manage environmental risks and regulate various sanitary-specific policies.  One of the first legislations that the EPA put-forth was the Clean Water Act (1972), which mandated that all rivers throughout the United States be hygienic enough to safely allow mass amounts of swimmers and fish within the water by 1983.  Since the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has invested over $3.5 billion towards the purification of the river and the development of new sewer systems.  There is a projection that over the next thirty years the city of Cleveland will further endow over $5 billion to the upkeep of the wastewater system.  The river is now home to about sixty different species of fish, there has not been another river fire since 1969, and yearly new waste management programs develop to ensure the sanitation of Cleveland's waterways.  

11. Environmental protection agency (EPA) Role: Protect human health and the environment How? • Develop and enforce regulations • Give grants/study environmental issues • Educate the public EPA has different acts and regulations:

12. Clean Air Act • Clean Air Act - a federal law meant to control air pollution in the United States. The law authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set air quality standards to protect public health and to regulate emissions from sources such as power plants and vehicles. • The Clean Air Act originally was passed in 1963, however, a much stronger Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, and it is this act to which most people refer when they discuss the Clean Air Act. The 1970 Clean Air Act was amended in 1977 and 1990. The 1970 act created the EPA, which was intended to coordinate research and use data to set national standards for environmental protection. • The main goals of the Clean Air Act and its amendments are to reduce pollutants that cause acid rain, smog, haze, and health problems. Pollutants come from emissions produced by vehicles and power plants that burn fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. The EPA has developed programs to cut major pollutants and to reduce ozone at the ground level, in many cases with success. The law requires vehicle manufacturers to meet certain emissions standards; emissions from cars in 2010 were considerably cleaner than those from cars in the 1970s.

13. The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act created a nationwide approach to acid rain by addressing power plants that produced most of the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that were causing the problem. Industry can apply for permits to release pollutants, which allows the EPA to regulate their emissions. • The EPA has the power to enforce the Clean Air Act by issuing penalties or bringing lawsuits. Citizens also have the power to bring some lawsuits against polluters. Many states have passed their own versions of air pollution laws. The EPA and states all monitor air quality to check on how clean the air is. The EPA reports that in many cases, major emission control projects have resulted in quick improvements to air quality in the affected regions.

14. Clean Water Act Clean Water Act - In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to reduce water pollution. Today the U.S. has relatively clean, safe drinking water. However, water pollution is still a problem. In 2006, the Environmental News Service (ENS) reported that more than 62 percent of factories dumped pollution into U.S. waterways. The ENS also said that over 40 percent of American waterways were not safe for swimming and fishing.  • Under the CWA, EPA has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. EPA has also developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters. • The CWA made it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained: • EPA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls discharges. • Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches. • Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need a NPDES permit; • Industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters.

15. A red-necked grebe is covered in oil from the Exxon Valdez spill. The bird was taken by photographers to the cleanup center in Valdez, Alaska. Photo from AP. [click to enlarge] • Man-made environmental disasters are also a threat to the environment. The Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker. In 1989, it accidentally spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sea off Alaska. The disaster instantly killed hundreds of thousands of birds, fish and other wildlife. It harmed the environment for many years after.

16. U.S. Ban on DDT 1940-1972 • Pesticide widely used in the 1940’s to successfully fight insect borne diseases including malaria and typhus • DDT was embraced as a cheap, effective, broad-spectrum chemical pesticide used worldwide to protect agricultural crops and prevent the spread of insect borne disease https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/b8f76570-e8d5-454f-b10f-63ec52e33ccf?hasLocalHost=false

17. DDT DDT is not easily broken down in the body and builds up over time where it accumulates in the fatty tissue of fish, birds and animals It is transferred in increasingly concentrated amounts from prey to predator at each step up the food chain DDT has also been shown to have adverse effects on wildlife reproduction including thinning eggshells and declining populations of a variety of bird species DDT was banned in the United States in 1972 and restricted to vector control internationally by the 2004 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

18. Endangered Species Act • Endangered Species Act - The Endangered Species Act (ESA) provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. The lead federal agencies for implementing ESA are • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) • The FWS maintains a worldwide list of endangered species. Species include birds, insects, fish, reptiles, mammals, crustaceans, flowers, grasses, and trees. • U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service. • The law requires federal agencies, in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the NOAA Fisheries Service, to ensure that actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat of such species. The law also prohibits any action that causes a "taking" of any listed species of endangered fish or wildlife. Likewise, import, export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species are all generally prohibited.

20. Catalytic Converters • A catalytic converter is a device that removes pollution from automobile exhaust. Every automobile powered by gasoline produces several kinds of pollutants when it runs. A catalytic converter removes some of the three worst pollutants—carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and unburned fuel—and converts them into other, less toxic substances. • Automobiles are powered by internal combustion engines. Most automobiles burn gasoline to make them run. Burning gasoline creates heat but also several gases. These include carbon monoxide, unburned fuel (called hydrocarbons or volatile organic compounds), nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is poisonous to humans. Hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds, also called VOCs, pollute the air and form smog, a combination of smoke and fog. Nitrogen oxides contribute to smog and can convert to acids in the air, falling as acid rain. Carbon dioxide emissions increase global carbon dioxide levels and cause global climate change. Nitrogen and water vapor are normal components of the air, so they are not harmful pollutants. Catalytic converters remove most carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides from emissions. Most cars as of 2014 had three-way catalytic converters.

21. Catalytic converters work by performing oxidation and reduction reactions. In the first stage, the catalytic converter uses the elements platinum and rhodium to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, turning them into harmless molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. In the second stage, the catalytic converter reduces the unburned fuel and carbon monoxide by burning them over platinum and palladium. The molecules are then released as carbon dioxide. • Catalytic converters are mandatory in almost all vehicles in the United States. They were introduced in the 1970s, when air pollution by motor vehicles was a serious problem. Since that time, vehicle emissions of those three pollutants have been reduced substantially. On the other hand, catalytic converters do nothing to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, and they do not work when a vehicle is cold. A catalytic converter, like the one shown here, captures gases emitted from the engine and converts them into less dangerous products. For example, carbon monoxide is converted to carbon dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen are converted to oxygen gas and nitrogen gas.

22. Earth Day Video (only watch up to 5 minutes) https://aacps.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/3ab2662d-3b31-4b98-8e6d-532c1ca99f08?hasLocalHost=false

23. Ozone • Ozone is a molecule made up of oxygen (O3) and makes up a layer found in the stratosphere • This layer acts as the Earth’s sunscreen and protect living things from too much ultraviolet radiation • CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) found in refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam-blowing agents were being transported by wind to the ozone layer by wind and breaking down the ozone https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/0be53a81-afdf-4529-b981-1b38b8361589?hasLocalHost=false

24. Ozone hole • Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone around Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. • The ozone hole occurs during the Antarctic spring, from September to early December, as strong westerly winds start to circulate around the continent and create an atmospheric container. Within this polar vortex, over 50 percent of the lower stratospheric ozone is destroyed during the Antarctic spring. • The main cause of ozone depletion and the ozone hole is manufactured chemicals, especially manufactured halocarbonrefrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam- blowing agents (chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), HCFCs, halons), referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). These compounds are transported into the stratosphere by turbulent mixing after being emitted from the surface, mixing much faster than the molecules can settle.[2] Once in the stratosphere, they release atoms from the halogen group through photodissociation, which catalyze the breakdown of ozone (O3) into oxygen (O2).

25. CFC use in the U.S. was banned through an amendment to the Clean Air Act in 1978 by the EPA • In 1987, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed by 24 countries. • The Protocol called for the parties to phase down the use of CFCs, as well as other ozone depleting chemicals such as halons and other man-made halocarbons • Emissions of CFCs have fallen substantially, but each chlorine molecule remains in the atmosphere for 20-100 years, so damage to ozone can continue even with the ban

26. The Dobson Unit is the most common unit for measuring ozone concentration. One Dobson Unit is the number of molecules of ozone that would be required to create a layer of pure ozone 0.01 millimeters thick at a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 1 atmosphere (the air pressure at the surface of the Earth). Over the Earth’s surface, the ozone layer’s average thickness is about 300 Dobson Units or a layer that is 3 millimeters thick.

27. Nuclear Energy MisHap • A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, reactor core melt." • Anniversary of Three Mile Island https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/7766e434-5390-4db1-a90b-2889494390f7?hasLocalHost=false

28. Carbon Footprint • A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions. • The average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is 16 tons, one of the highest rates in the world. Globally, the average is closer to 4 tons. To have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop under 2 tons by 2050. • Lowering individual carbon footprints from 16 tons to 2 tons doesn’t happen overnight! By making small changes to our actions, like eating less meat, taking less connecting flights and line drying our clothes, we can start making a big difference. • https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/358590270/