To protect the environment and conserve natural resources, environmental policy in the United States involves governmental actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was one of the first laws to protect our environment. Included in NEPA are which address air pollution, chemical and oil spills, smog, drinking water quality, land conservation and management, as well as wildlife preservation.
Some of the first occurrences in which policies targeted environmental protection were sewers, first constructed in Mohenjo-daro and ancient Rome – civilizations that date back more than 4,000 years. In another example of early environmental practice, ancient Greece had laws that governed forest harvesting, and European societies established hunting preserves. Paris also advanced Europe’s first large-scale sewer system during the 17th century.
Environmental legislation only became an explicit focus of governments in the 1950s-60s, as awareness of the use of chemicals and the harmful effects of emissions became more widespread, with diseases spreading resulting from mercury discharges. One pivotal moment came as Rachel Carson, an American biologist, published an environmental science book highlighting the dangers of pollution. Silent Spring received critical acclaim, ultimately leading to a greater spread of knowledge regarding environmental issues. This also led to many systems of regulations in industrialized countries. In the U.S., these included the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act, all of which were intended to reduce pollution.
The Clean Air Act is a law signed by the federal government in 1970 to control and reduce air pollution from automobiles and industrial facilities. The first federal legislation relating to air pollution that predated the CAA was the Air Pollution Control Act, passed in 1955. However, the CAA, enacted in 1970, gave much more power to federal authorities to control carbon emissions and air quality. The CAA was created to decrease air pollution and improve the health of American citizens. Consequently, in the first twenty years after the Act was passed, 200,000 lives were saved from premature death, and close to 700,000 cases of chronic respiratory illnesses were prevented. Another necessary amendment of the CAA was enacted in 1990, further diminishing emissions of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere, curbing acid rain, and causing dramatic improvement in air quality well into our own century.
In 1972, another critical environment law was passed, the Clean Water Act. Similar to the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act was not the first federal law put in place to control water pollution. In 1948, the federal government passed the Water Pollution Act to address the increasing water contamination. However, in 1972, significant changes to that law led to the creation of the Clean Water Act. The CWA established standards that control the disposal of contaminators into the nation’s waters. Furthermore, the Act created a permit system for households and facilities requiring wastewater treatments before discharging liquids into the environment. For the past 50 years, the Clean Water Act prevented the disposal of 700 billion pounds of contaminants and pollutants into the waters yearly. It significantly improved the quality of drinking water, benefiting the health of millions of Americans.
A third law to control pollution was passed by the federal government in 1976, the Toxic Substance Control Act, authorizing the government with the right to regulate the production and import of chemical substances into the U.S. Some of the chemicals, such as food, drugs, cosmetics, and pesticides are exempt from the TSCA, but many toxic substances and their disposal are under the control of the TSCA to protect the health of Americans.
It is vital to abide by and understand the utility of environmental legislation as it is the basis of the system that protects the environment and preserves human health for generations to come. For 50 years, the U.S. has come a long way in reducing and controlling pollution. However, there is a lot more to be done for us to safely continue to our universal home, planet Earth.
