The only conspiracy… is ignorance of the obvious things we choose to ignore
Discussion:
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A Brief History of Environmental ProtectionDepartment of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW)
HEW’s National Air Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA) and Interior’s Water Quality Administration (FWQA)–represented the core of the federal government’s This HEW program became the core of the EPA after a wide range of alarming problems: the suffocating blanket of smog covering greater Los Angeles; the 1948 atmospheric The Birth of EPA December 2, 1970 Environmental Quality Council as well as a Citizens’ Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. His critics charged that these were largely ceremonial bodies, with almost no real power. In August 1970, they wrote: “Historians may one day call 1970 the year of the environment–a turning point, a year when the quality of life [became] more than a It was in this atmosphere of intense concern for environmental issues that President Nixon delivered his 1970 State of the Union Address. Speaking to both houses of The Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970 Congress authorizes EPA to set national air quality, auto emission, and anti-pollution standards. The standards led to the production of the catalytic converter in 1973 by New Jersey’s Engelhard Corporation. In its first 20 years, the Clean Air Act prevented more than 200,000 premature deaths by significantly reducing the presence of lead, sulfur dioxide and other harmful pollutants in the air. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement April 15, 1972 Clean Water Act October 18, 1972 First Wastewater Permits Issued March 2, 1973 Safe Drinking Water Act December 16, 1974 Congress Creates the Superfund Program December 10, 1980 Environmental Justice Movement Begins September 15, 1982 ‘Right to Know’ Laws for Chemical Safety October 17, 1986
Fun and Facts about Water!Mess with adults!! Have them visit: Dihydrogen monoxide (also known as hydric acid) is responsible for injury, death, and property damage all over the world. Visit the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division online at www.dhmo.org, Dihydrogen Monoxide (Water)Is a colorless and orderless chemical substance that is a inorganic solvent Only 2.5% of this water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice Over one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. Water plays an important role in the world economy. Coal and nuclear plants, for example, may draw 20 to 60 gallons of water for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they produce, depending on how they are cooled. [2] Largely because of older power plants using this approach, electric power generation is responsible for more than 40 percent of freshwater withdrawals in the United States — on the order of 100 billion gallons per day in 2008 The economic depression of the 1930s was longer and harder than any other in American history because it was followed by one of the longest and hardest droughts on record. Great Lakes – Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron (or Michigan–Huron), Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 21% of the world’s surface fresh water by volume… one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water (only the polar ice caps and Lake Baikal in Siberia contain more); 95 percent of the U.S. supply; Ten Civilizations that Collapsed From Lack of WaterCollapse #1. The Akkadian Empire in Syria, 2334 BC – 2193 BC.
Water PollutionThe first U.S. Clean Water Act, passed by a Congressional override after being vetoed by US President Richard Nixon in 1972, was a key piece of legislation, along with the bi-national Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement signed by Canada and the U.S. A variety of steps taken to process industrial and municipal pollution discharges into the system greatly improved water quality by the 1980s, and Lake Erie in particular is significantly cleaner. Discharge of toxic substances has been sharply reduced. Until 1970, mercury was not listed as a harmful chemical, according to the United States Federal Water Quality Administration…. Mercury has been known for health related problems such as birth defects in humans and animals, and the near extinction of eagles in the Great Lakes region. The amount of raw sewage dumped into the waters was the primary focus of both the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and federal laws passed in both countries during the 1970s. Implementation of secondary treatment of municipal sewage by major cities greatly reduced the routine discharge of untreated sewage during the 1970s and 1980s. The International Joint Commission in 2009 summarized the change: “Since the early 1970s, the level of treatment to reduce pollution from waste water discharges to the Great Lakes has improved considerably. This is a result of significant expenditures to date on both infrastructure and technology, and robust regulatory systems that have proven to be, on the whole, quite effective.” The commission reported that all urban sewage treatment systems on the U.S. side of the lakes had implemented secondary treatment, as had all on the Canadian side except for five small systems. However, those treatment system upgrades have not, contrary to federal laws in both countries, yet eliminated Combined sewer Overflow events. This describes when older sewerage systems, which combine storm water with sewage into single sewers heading to the treatment plant, are temporarily overwhelmed by heavy rainstorms. Local sewage treatment authorities then must release untreated effluent, a mix of rainwater and sewage, into local water bodies. While enormous public investments such as the Deep Tunnel projects in Chicago and Milwaukee have greatly reduced the frequency and volume of these events, they have not been eliminated. The number of such overflow events in Ontario, for example, is flat according to the International Joint Commission. Reports about this issue on the U.S. side highlight five large municipal systems (those of Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Gary) as being the largest current periodic sources of untreated discharges into the Great Lakes. Phosphate detergents were historically a major source of nutrient to the Great Lakes algae blooms in particular in the warmer and shallower portions of the system such as Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, Green Bay, and the southernmost portion of Lake Michigan. By the mid-1980s, most jurisdictions bordering the Great Lakes had controlled phosphate detergents, resulting in sharp reductions in the frequency and extent of the blooms. In 2013, news of a garbage patch of plastic pollution in the lakes was released. |
Water and what we are doing to protect it:
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How you can protect you and everyone you knowWhere can you get more information about protecting people and our planet?
You never have to worry about your safety or health in WisconsinOnsite Safety & Health Consultation in Wisconsin
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Research
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Thank you for having me at your school and
helping make this world a better place!
Christopher Haase @ehsdirector
Director of Environmental, Health and Safety
www.linkedin.com/in/christopherhaase
Environmentally Sensitive Solutions (ESS) Inc.
ESS, Cleaning the world “One Solution at a Time”.
Toll-Free (877) 638-8725
Volunteer by night – Editor & Founder of
References:
http://www.great-lakes.net/lakes/ref/lakefact.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Compact
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