10-18-2022
By John Phillips, Director of Integrated Watershed Management
Today, October 18, 2022, marks the 50th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act.
The 1960s were marked by some truly horrific revelations regarding water pollution. A 1968 survey revealed that pollution in the Chesapeake Bay resulted in millions of dollars of lost revenue for the fishing industry, while a 1969 study found that bacteria
levels in the Hudson River to be at 170 times the legal limit. The same year, pollution from local food processing plants killed 26 million fish in one lake in Florida, the largest fish kill on record, and an oil slick resulted in an infamous fire
on the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland.
President Nixon’s Impact on Environmental Policy
During his first State of the Union address, delivered in 1970, Presiden... (more)