The Clark Avenue Bridge was Cleveland’s longest bridge for 70 years. It rose into the orange skies above the steel mills. In July 1973 — 50 years ago — it became an illustration of air pollution in the USA. Cars and factories were killing us, the media told us. Only the federal Environmental Protection Agency could save us!
I took an internal combustion engines class in pursuit of my mech engineer degree in 1996 and cars were emitting almost zero nitrogen oxides(NOx's) back then.
The difference in the rivers and streams in WV from their condition in the 70s is remarkable. Healthy trout streams dominate the higher elevations and Musky can be caught in almost every river in the middle and lower elevations. The Coal and Guyandotte Rivers went from muddy dumps to popular recreational rivers. (The biggest change came from building sewage treatment plants instead of just dumping it) We know we can protect the environment without destroying the economy, because we have done it for so long. Trying to impoverish people in the name of going after CO2 will only lead to more environmental destruction than preservation. Those windmills on the mountaintops will be looked at with scorn in 50 years.
"He wasn’t trying to save the world. He was trying to make a buck. No one really wants to save the world. Those who say they do just want to grab power."
If the global warming fanatics had any sense, they would say that their doom and gloom predictions have not come true due to improvements made due to their activism. Instead, they make new doom and gloom predictions that won’t come true. But they are big government whores like the EPA. They need the issue, not the cure.
The EPA was involved or has been involved in some of the worse 'accidents' that did more to pollute areas than anything anyone else did. They were trying to 'save' everyone from the mine pollutants and blew it up. It caused untold damage to the Colorado. So now they are like the FBI, they have to create work (crime in the FBIs case) so that they can still have a job.
Good column, Mr. Surber. Whenever I read someone recommending the termination of a government program, I am reminded of president Reagan's observation that a government program is the closest thing on earth to eternal life.
So if we accept these two realities -- that the EPA and a number of other agencies are no longer needed, and that we can't just do away with them -- we are left with the only option: move them. Can't kill the EPA? Transfer headquarters to Minot, ND. Department of Education too important to kill? Transfer headquarters to Anchorage. And so on. Oh, and impose a hiring freeze on all government agencies at the same time, so they can't replace employees who decide not to make the move.
Very insightful post man from Poca! You make a very strong case for for the elimination of the EPA. Too bad the Department of Education cannot claim victories. Only evil and precipitous declines in learning and purely evil actions driving cultural rot. Nuke the DOE!
Nobody in government wants any problem solved ever. Solving a problem equals the loss of a cushy, little-work, high-pension, tons-of-days-off, soul-destroying job. It's true throughout government. The environment is never protected. We just change the standards from one part per quadrillion to one part per quintillion. Wars are never won. They are fought in perpetuity, whether that be WWII, Korea, the Persian Gulf, and the new and latest iteration of perpetual war, Ukraine. Medicine is not about curing anything but making you stay on a drug regimen for life. Why do so many people who think they're so smart continue to listen to these greedy, control-freak whores?
Don, a lot of what you say about USEPA is true. After fighting their over reach and sometimes stupidity for 40 years, believe me, I know.
But I respectfully disagree on some of your points. We need a national enforcement agency for air and water pollution; everybody is downwind and downstream from somebody else. And yes, Rockefeller made a by product useful and stopped just dumping it. But that is not even close to a universal possibility. I was born in 1953 in the NC mountains. Growing up our families wouldn't allow us to even swim in many of the mountain rivers. That was because towns and private residences used them to get rid of raw sewage. The Toe River which ran through the town near us ran a dirty mud color that was too thick to drink and too thin to plow due to the waste products from the many feldspar mines and processing operations. The dumped the waste from the flotation mills directly into the river. It was a slurry of hydrofluoric acid and the impurities from the crushed feldspar. The high purity silica sand which they sold to glass companies was a very small fraction of the raw feldspar, so the volume of waste was huge.
After 1974 when EPA started regulating discharges into the river the mines and plants they had to build treatment plants to separate the nasty stuff in the waste stream, dry the solids and landfill them, and remove the HF acid from the liquid and purify it for reuse. The purification process was goddam expensive, and they had to double to price of the silica sand, but because it is an essential raw material for glass and solar cells, and everybody had to abide by the regs, the buyers just had to eat the cost.
Today you can drive through downtown Spruce Pine and from the only bridge over the river for miles you can look down 70 ft to the water and see rainbow trout, brown trout, and brook trout swimming along the bottom. The water is clear as a bell, and fly fishing and whitewater rafting have become great tourist attractions.
There is no way the mines and processing plants would have cleaned up their act w/o regulation from EPA. The problem today is not the existence of the agency. The problem is it is staffed with rat bastard commie enviro-whacko activists who don't really care about the the environment, but are ANTI ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MALTHUSIANS. They see people as a blight on the planet (except for themselves) and would cheerfully execute about half of the population. That's why they are so fond of abortion and mercy killing. There is a saying in the wastewater treatment community. Cleaning up 99.9% of wastewater is easy, it's that last tenth of a percent that is ungodly expensive. The enviro-whackos always want to make us tackle that last tenth.
I’m not an engineer or economist. Just an old man of eighty years and counting. No where have I seen any one make an economic or any other case for the elimination of the internal combustion engine gasoline powered cars.
I like the way you think, said Sam Kinnison. I too was born in Cleveland, yet raised in the outkirts of the "burgh". I too have seen the pollution up close and personal. Not real sure where you gained all of your percentages for the various pollutants from, either the EPA or pulled them out of your ass? Whatever one is just as accurate as the other or perhaps that where the EPA gets there numbers. I would bet that whatever pollutants have been saved from the planet in all these years were re released on the small town in East Palestine, Ohio. flowing over to West By God Virginia, and the land of taxes western Pennsylvania! No one seems to give a damn about that, now do they. The Democrats always seem to have some scheme to fix the very problems that they've created, see how that shit works. Now it's all fine and dandy to start with the EPA but It's just my opinion, you know what they say about opinions, they are just like assholes everybody has one, but those with a colostomy have two, the rest of DC needs to be burned down, kinda like the Cuyahoga River, don't forget everyone leave a big ass carbon footprint, the trees need it!
Time to make the rounds. My beautiful Queen Mary, whom I married at 62 in 2010 has advanced Alzheimer's, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Type 2 diabetes, needs constant care. Stay tuned. #maddogandqueenmary find me.
Great commentary! Don we’re close to the same age so I’ve lived through similar events although from a NYC point of view. I grew up on Long Island NY. During the ‘60s every summer news day featured stories of SMOG! When I got my first drivers license almost every trip west toward NYC provided a clear view of the yellow smog hanging over Manhattan. On a windy day I’d get a rare view of the beautiful Manhattan skyline. Because of the EPA, most of the smog had been noticiably reduced by ‘74 when I finally escaped NY. The same was said to be true of L.A. smog. I can’t recall the last time I saw a “news” report featuring SMOG!
So, for the last half century it’s seemed the EPA regs and cost mandates have been a very expensive ado about nothing. Now they want to take away our gas stoves, and hot water heaters and make most home other appliances conveniences for only the wealthy and elite. I’d bet if every EPA regulation enacted since 1975 were repealed, no one would notice!
I took an internal combustion engines class in pursuit of my mech engineer degree in 1996 and cars were emitting almost zero nitrogen oxides(NOx's) back then.
Dump the EPA, Dept of Ed, et al.
I'm with you on this 100%.
I was a teenager in the suburbs of Cleveland at the time.
Lake Erie was a dead sea with turds floating in it.
It's been restored.
The EPA keeps looking for ways to raise the bar so they can all stay employed.
The difference in the rivers and streams in WV from their condition in the 70s is remarkable. Healthy trout streams dominate the higher elevations and Musky can be caught in almost every river in the middle and lower elevations. The Coal and Guyandotte Rivers went from muddy dumps to popular recreational rivers. (The biggest change came from building sewage treatment plants instead of just dumping it) We know we can protect the environment without destroying the economy, because we have done it for so long. Trying to impoverish people in the name of going after CO2 will only lead to more environmental destruction than preservation. Those windmills on the mountaintops will be looked at with scorn in 50 years.
"He wasn’t trying to save the world. He was trying to make a buck. No one really wants to save the world. Those who say they do just want to grab power."
Very well put, Don Surber!
If the global warming fanatics had any sense, they would say that their doom and gloom predictions have not come true due to improvements made due to their activism. Instead, they make new doom and gloom predictions that won’t come true. But they are big government whores like the EPA. They need the issue, not the cure.
The EPA was involved or has been involved in some of the worse 'accidents' that did more to pollute areas than anything anyone else did. They were trying to 'save' everyone from the mine pollutants and blew it up. It caused untold damage to the Colorado. So now they are like the FBI, they have to create work (crime in the FBIs case) so that they can still have a job.
Oh and no lost their job or got fired. AND the EPA didnt pay for it. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gold-king-mine-spill-colorado-rivers-epa-claims/
Good column, Mr. Surber. Whenever I read someone recommending the termination of a government program, I am reminded of president Reagan's observation that a government program is the closest thing on earth to eternal life.
So if we accept these two realities -- that the EPA and a number of other agencies are no longer needed, and that we can't just do away with them -- we are left with the only option: move them. Can't kill the EPA? Transfer headquarters to Minot, ND. Department of Education too important to kill? Transfer headquarters to Anchorage. And so on. Oh, and impose a hiring freeze on all government agencies at the same time, so they can't replace employees who decide not to make the move.
All any bureaucracy is, is a voting machine for people who would otherwise be unemployed.
Very insightful post man from Poca! You make a very strong case for for the elimination of the EPA. Too bad the Department of Education cannot claim victories. Only evil and precipitous declines in learning and purely evil actions driving cultural rot. Nuke the DOE!
Nobody in government wants any problem solved ever. Solving a problem equals the loss of a cushy, little-work, high-pension, tons-of-days-off, soul-destroying job. It's true throughout government. The environment is never protected. We just change the standards from one part per quadrillion to one part per quintillion. Wars are never won. They are fought in perpetuity, whether that be WWII, Korea, the Persian Gulf, and the new and latest iteration of perpetual war, Ukraine. Medicine is not about curing anything but making you stay on a drug regimen for life. Why do so many people who think they're so smart continue to listen to these greedy, control-freak whores?
Don, a lot of what you say about USEPA is true. After fighting their over reach and sometimes stupidity for 40 years, believe me, I know.
But I respectfully disagree on some of your points. We need a national enforcement agency for air and water pollution; everybody is downwind and downstream from somebody else. And yes, Rockefeller made a by product useful and stopped just dumping it. But that is not even close to a universal possibility. I was born in 1953 in the NC mountains. Growing up our families wouldn't allow us to even swim in many of the mountain rivers. That was because towns and private residences used them to get rid of raw sewage. The Toe River which ran through the town near us ran a dirty mud color that was too thick to drink and too thin to plow due to the waste products from the many feldspar mines and processing operations. The dumped the waste from the flotation mills directly into the river. It was a slurry of hydrofluoric acid and the impurities from the crushed feldspar. The high purity silica sand which they sold to glass companies was a very small fraction of the raw feldspar, so the volume of waste was huge.
After 1974 when EPA started regulating discharges into the river the mines and plants they had to build treatment plants to separate the nasty stuff in the waste stream, dry the solids and landfill them, and remove the HF acid from the liquid and purify it for reuse. The purification process was goddam expensive, and they had to double to price of the silica sand, but because it is an essential raw material for glass and solar cells, and everybody had to abide by the regs, the buyers just had to eat the cost.
Today you can drive through downtown Spruce Pine and from the only bridge over the river for miles you can look down 70 ft to the water and see rainbow trout, brown trout, and brook trout swimming along the bottom. The water is clear as a bell, and fly fishing and whitewater rafting have become great tourist attractions.
There is no way the mines and processing plants would have cleaned up their act w/o regulation from EPA. The problem today is not the existence of the agency. The problem is it is staffed with rat bastard commie enviro-whacko activists who don't really care about the the environment, but are ANTI ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MALTHUSIANS. They see people as a blight on the planet (except for themselves) and would cheerfully execute about half of the population. That's why they are so fond of abortion and mercy killing. There is a saying in the wastewater treatment community. Cleaning up 99.9% of wastewater is easy, it's that last tenth of a percent that is ungodly expensive. The enviro-whackos always want to make us tackle that last tenth.
Six folks in a Corvair? Impressive! LOL
I’m not an engineer or economist. Just an old man of eighty years and counting. No where have I seen any one make an economic or any other case for the elimination of the internal combustion engine gasoline powered cars.
I like the way you think, said Sam Kinnison. I too was born in Cleveland, yet raised in the outkirts of the "burgh". I too have seen the pollution up close and personal. Not real sure where you gained all of your percentages for the various pollutants from, either the EPA or pulled them out of your ass? Whatever one is just as accurate as the other or perhaps that where the EPA gets there numbers. I would bet that whatever pollutants have been saved from the planet in all these years were re released on the small town in East Palestine, Ohio. flowing over to West By God Virginia, and the land of taxes western Pennsylvania! No one seems to give a damn about that, now do they. The Democrats always seem to have some scheme to fix the very problems that they've created, see how that shit works. Now it's all fine and dandy to start with the EPA but It's just my opinion, you know what they say about opinions, they are just like assholes everybody has one, but those with a colostomy have two, the rest of DC needs to be burned down, kinda like the Cuyahoga River, don't forget everyone leave a big ass carbon footprint, the trees need it!
Time to make the rounds. My beautiful Queen Mary, whom I married at 62 in 2010 has advanced Alzheimer's, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Type 2 diabetes, needs constant care. Stay tuned. #maddogandqueenmary find me.
Great commentary! Don we’re close to the same age so I’ve lived through similar events although from a NYC point of view. I grew up on Long Island NY. During the ‘60s every summer news day featured stories of SMOG! When I got my first drivers license almost every trip west toward NYC provided a clear view of the yellow smog hanging over Manhattan. On a windy day I’d get a rare view of the beautiful Manhattan skyline. Because of the EPA, most of the smog had been noticiably reduced by ‘74 when I finally escaped NY. The same was said to be true of L.A. smog. I can’t recall the last time I saw a “news” report featuring SMOG!
So, for the last half century it’s seemed the EPA regs and cost mandates have been a very expensive ado about nothing. Now they want to take away our gas stoves, and hot water heaters and make most home other appliances conveniences for only the wealthy and elite. I’d bet if every EPA regulation enacted since 1975 were repealed, no one would notice!