The Second Half of the 20. Century: Environment John McCabe

Intro North America Environment Ocean Awareness Mariculture •U.S. Agencies •Chesapeake Bay •Willapa Bay Asia Europe •France Navigational option: Focus on France Focus on Chesapeake Bay Focus on Willapa Bay

Although rarely recognized in this day and age, there can be no doubt that the bounty and high quality of oysters (and shellfish in general) we so very much enjoy today, is in great part owed to the dedicated and sometimes courageous efforts of environmentally concerned citizens of the 60s and 70s.

Starting in the early 60s, many citizens wordwide became highly disturbed about the dangerous environmental dilemma rapidly unfolding around them. In the fall of 1962, a revealing environmental book titled "Silent Spring" (Rachel Carson) was published by the Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company. The book turned out to be extremely popular. By the end of 1962, Carson had already led to the introduction of over forty bills regulating pesticide uses in various states. In the course of decades prior, human, military and industrial waste had often been dumped not not only killing off plants and animals on land, in rivers, streams, lakes and the coastal environments, but were also increasingly poisoning humans, sometimes in most insidious and deadly ways.

Many environmentally conscious action groups started to form internationally and proceeded to challenge a virtual jungle of bureaucracy and the white washing of certain big industries. Most of these so called "environmentalists" were ordinary folks, volunteering their time and money to try to bring about desperately needed changes. It took a great deal of courage and commitment on their part to take on respected and powerful institutions and bluntly point out what often amounted to environmental crimes. Some of these environmental groups, the most famous being "Greenpeace", soon had just about everybody's attention worldwide. Environmental awareness soon became wide spread in the general populous.
Although folks then could not spell out the meaning of acronyms like "DDT" or "PCBs" any more than most of us can today, they soon associated these abbreviations with "something" that could be real bad for people and the environment. By 1969 a catchy song by Zager and Evans called "In the Year 2525" hit #1 on the music charts with ominous lyrics like "I'm kinda wonderin' if man is gonna be alive; He's taken everything this old earth can give; And he ain't put back nothing…"

In the late 70s, an example of the horrifying extent of past industrial waste and subsequent tragic human suffering rocked the United States with the community of "Love Canal". Countless Americans across the country started to wonder, if their families unknowingly were also being exposed to poisonous chemicals stemming from chemical wastes that had been dumped into their soils and rivers. The signs of staggering levels of pollution were everywhere. For instance, some people started to refer to the coastal waters around New York City as the "Chemical Coast". Most of the oysters there, which had miraculously managed to survive in these heavily polluted coastal waters clear into the 50s, were "deader than a doornail" by the early 70s. New York City was by no means unique in terms of poor marine water quality. Later, by the end of the 70s, once the respective state agencies up and down the U.S.-East Coast, West Coast and Gulf started to conduct frequent and intensive testing of the marine water quality, thousands of shellfish growing areas close to coastal cities and towns were classified as unsafe to a greater or lesser extent. Hundreds were closed. Many have remained closed for oystering and clamming to this day. By the end of the 70s, just about every adult American sensed that pollution was a major problem and great damage had already been done to the complex and far-reaching interplay of nature and the environment as a whole.

The rapidly deteriorating quality of the environment and ensuing public outcry led to sweeping governmental changes and powerful new legislation in a number of countries. Although important new American environmental legislation had already come to pass in the 1960s (passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968, and the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969), the biggest changes started to come about in the 1970s. While a number of already existing federal agencies in the United States expanded their existing programs, additional new agencies were created. Their primary purpose was to either directly and/or indirectly help restore and protect the integrity of the environment and further improve public health standards. Some states were already way ahead of the game, having long established environmentally sensitive agencies of one form or another. The remaining states soon followed suit to a greater or lesser extent.

In 1972, a mighty piece of legislation was passed: The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. This law is commonly known today as the Clean Water Act (CWA). It furnished the tools and necessary enforcement powers to monitor, restore, and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of American waters. The goal was (and is) to protect fish, shellfish and wildlife in and around water. Over the decades, the CWA was amended and strengthened. To this day, it is the centerpiece of (surface) water quality protection in the United States. The CWA was (and at times still is) a bitter pill for some states, municipalities and particularly for a number of industries. Cleaning up the mess and not adding to the environmental crisis was (and is) often extremely expensive and led to a great number of protests and law suits. The CWA, however, is also equipped with a considerable amount of, shall we say, "executive muscle". It gave a new agency called "EPA" (founded in 1970) the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. The CWA made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions. Although enforcement was (and still is) primarily handled by the states, the EPA, as do citizens, had (and have) the capacity to bring direct actions to enforce permits. Section 505 authorized any person to bring a civil suit against any discharger violating a permit limit. Federal and state agencies could initiate a wide variety of administrative, civil, and sometimes even criminal suits. The EPA also funded the construction of sewage treatment plants with construction grants.

It was recognized that pollution in watersheds, sometimes reaching hundreds of miles inland, directly impacted the natural integrity of their respective estuaries (the places where the rivers and streams ultimately meet and mix with the ocean). Estuaries are the preferred home of oysters and countless other types of shellfish and fish. For the oyster and the shellfish industry in general, the practical benefits of the CWA were noticeable in just a matter of couple of years. A number of oyster growers were reporting much improved harvests. And, to beat all, a few decades later, the oysters in the waters around New York City started to survive again. To this day, all oystermen continue to be most concened about pollution in the watersheds, as it can lead to grave consequences for their shellfish beds way downstream. In fact, oystermen have every reason to be concerned with any kind of changes anywhere near their oystering beds. A new dam, the digging of a canal, a new factory, a big new housing development or even a new live stock enterprise for example could potentially destroy their past cultivation efforts.

In the second half of the 20th century, the enormous environmental significance of wetlands was also recognized. Wetlands often provide a critical habitat for migratory waterfowl, many animal species, plants, check flooding, prevent excessive silting in our waters and act as environmental filters was recognized. It was also discovered that wetlands were (and still are to this day) dwindling at an alarming rate.