CLEVELAND — Environmental leaders from across the country gathered in Cleveland Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Clean Water Act in 1972.
President Biden marking the occasion with a proclamation.
It stated, “Fifty years ago, the Congress passed the Clean Water Act of 1972, revolutionizing America's responsibility to protect and restore the vital waterways that sustain our communities, our economy, and our ecosystems."
“Before this landmark legislation, America's waters were in crisis, often flooded and even on fire with toxic pollution and cancer-causing contaminants.”
The latter a reference to the Cuyahoga River fires that were a regular occurrence in the 1950s and 60s. The last occurred on a Sunday in June of 1969 without much note. A story though less than six weeks later in TIME magazine showed the river ablaze, images that would shock a nation into action. Truth be told, the massive flames they showed with tug boats on fire was not the 1969 fire but rather one 17 years earlier in 1952.
Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes and his newly elected Congressman brother Louis would go before Congress demanding action helping to get passed the Clean Water Act of 1972 that was celebrated this day.
"All federal legislation doesn't always work, the Clean Water Act worked,” said Assistant Secretary of the Army Michael Connor who overseas vital dredging work. He was one of the many environmental leaders gathered from Washington on the river whose fire led to the very creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
"You know, it's overwhelming,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan on marking the occasion in Cleveland. "When you come back and talk to community members and stand and have a river as a backdrop that would spontaneously catch fire because it was so polluted it really brings the work to a level of reality that encourages all of us to fight just as hard over the next 50 years."
The Cuyahoga River has undergone tens of millions of dollars of cleanup over the last several decades and while it remains listed as one of the EPA's Areas of Concern it is inching closer to getting off that list. The gathering taking place at Merwin's Wharf, across the river from Irishtown Bend which is slated to undergo a $45 million transformation. Another point environmental leaders like to make that every dollar invested in cleanup generates $3 in economic development. All coming because people over 50 years ago said, "enough."
"The solutions don't come from the top down, they come from the bottom up,” Regan said.
