The History of Pollution in New York City Essay

New York City residents use on average 60-70 gallons of water per day per person according to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). In 2016, NYC used 1,002 million gallons per day, that is roughly 12 million gallons a year. It goes without saying that New Yorkers use their water without worry and mindfulness. Very few of us know where we obtain our water source from. If more people were aware of how we obtain our water, we would be more open to conserving it instead of misusing it.

Air pollution such as black smoke caused health issues such as respiratory disease. Extreme example of air pollution like Pittsburgh had “people’s hands and faces were constantly grimy, clean collars quickly acquired a thin layer of soot”. Besides black smoke, animal waste was another essential result for air pollution. According to statistics, “the 15,000 horses in Rochester, New York, left enough waste in a year to cover an acre of land with a layer of 175 feet high”. These horrify numbers happened due to the blindly industrialization during the Gilded Age, and people allowed all of those waste and destruction to develop for their own benefits. Household sewage and industrial pollutants polluted the water people used for showering and drinking. While we were destroying the environment, the nature was taking its greatest revenge to all human

Smog and air pollution have been impacting the lives of Americans since the industrial age during the nineteenth century, when necessity to use coal was critical for manufacturing in city factories. The United States government had little to no progress in enacting laws to developing better ways to target the air pollution. Smog in urban cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati exceeded levels that proved to damage health of millions of people. For approximately sixty seven years local governments took it upon themselves to execute various laws to establish healthier living standards. From 1881 to 1947, five major cities in the United States proposed ideas to incentivize leaders to promote clean air to be a non negotiable aspect of everyday living.

The pollution is leaving our footprint rate out of control! Knowing that they have gotten rid of all the coal generators is a big reduction of the ecological footprint. Without the generators burning off the coal, the pollution will stay at a lower rate causing the footprint to decrease. It is more sustainable now than before because our city doesn't have to worry about trying to maintain the pollution levels as much as we used to and we can focus on more of the major projects.

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) (P.L. 80-845, 62 Stat. 1155) of 1948 was the first major law enacted by Congress to address the problems of water pollution in the United States (n.d). Legislators created over 100 bills in an attempt to pass legislation over the previous half century, but were not successful. Industrial and urban growth caused by World War II in 1948, led to obvious, notorious pollution of the country's rivers, streams, and lakes, urging Congress to finally address the issue. Unfortunately, the act was not designed well enough to achieve the goals set out to address the issue. It did not ban pollution, only gave limited power to the federal government, and provided an extremely awkward enforcement mechanism. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was not successful in preventing and reducing water pollution. Pollution continued to increase because of the federal government's inability to require any direct reduction in discharges. As a result, the quality of the nation's waters had no improvement. On the other hand, the act established a popular and political support for pollution control efforts. Congress rewrote the act in 1972 to provide more acceptable protection for the nation's waters. It also established the basic agenda for water pollution control, which was amended by Congress afterwards. Congress made changes to the act six times before rewriting it in 1972.

What might be a reason why the city of San Francisco and its metropolitan area is not on the list of smoggiest cities for 2012? Maybe because they reduce somehow their pollution during that period.

According to Malia Griggs from the Huffington Post, “Everything [in New York City] smells like pee. And Garbage” (Griggs). New York City is considered this beautiful place, when in reality New York City is extremely filthy. There are 8 million residents and millions of businesses and organizations in NYC according to Steve Cohen from Observer. From those residents and companies, about 36,200 tons of garbage is generated a day. And from that garbage generated in one day, only about 13,000 tons of garbage is taken care and disposed of by the Department of Sanitation. That still leaves about 23,200 tons of garbage left throughout the city everyday. As someone who grew up in New York City, let alone Harlem, I can vouch for everyone when I say that New York is the dirtiest city around. For example, there’s this huge dumpster by my building that reeks so bad, you’d think there’s dead bodies in there, but I doubt it (although you never know with the previous information I gave to you… just kidding!). Also, New York streets are just as filthy as the smells coming out of garbage cans and dumpsters. On every sidewalk there’s garbage that’s been flattened due to how many times it’s been ran over by cars, bikes, trucks, motorcycles, and even

Improved air quality wasn’t a subject of national concern until the mid 1900s. After decades of coal burning, unregulated gas emissions from cars and the excessive burning of fossil fuels, people started noticing bad air quality as a hazard to their lives. Over several decades, after seeing the costly effects air pollution was having on the environment and people’s health, interest groups like the Friends of The Earth club and the influences of Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring finally came together to persuade the government to enforce legislation that would reduce air pollution. Because of these efforts, the policies of the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Act of 1965, that aimed to control air pollution and raise air quality standards, helped create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 2, 1970. Since then, the EPA has passed more air quality improvement acts, and amendments to previous acts passed, to increase restrictions on air pollutants, with their main policy concern being the Clean Air Act. Improved air quality acts imposed by the EPA have been successful in cleaning the United States’ air quality by reducing ground-level ozone pollution and reducing emissions, allowing for a decrease in pollution related deaths/illnesses and a better standard of living. The EPA, through regulations and the Clean Air Act, has delivered it’s promise to improve air quality in the United States.

It was not until the Clean Act of 1970 that enforcement at the federal level being in more a serious way. To quote the EPA website directly “The enactment of the Clean Air Act of 1970 (1970 CAA) resulted in a major shift in the federal government's role in air pollution control. This legislation authorized the development of comprehensive federal and state regulations to limit emissions from both stationary (industrial) sources and mobile sources. Four major regulatory programs affecting stationary sources were initiated: the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS, pronounced "knacks"), State Implementation Plans (SIPs), New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs). Furthermore,

New Bedford Harbor, the world’s famous whaling seaport and current number one fishing port in America, continues to be plagued by toxic pollution, which has caused it to become one of the largest EPA Superfund cleanup sites. The harbor, an urban estuary, contains sediment that is highly contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The PCB-containing industrial waste was introduced into the harbor by two manufacturing facilities from the 1940’s to the 1970’s when the EPA banned the production of PCBs. The result was contamination of six miles of the harbor bottom from the Acushnet River into Buzzards Bay; over 100,000 people currently reside within 3 miles of the contaminated area. PCBs do not break down easily in the environment and therefore pose a serious risk to human health and the environment. Thus, in 1982, the harbor was put onto the EPA’s National Priorities

the established air quality standards to create a permit program regulating new or modified major

Every time I hear this song it makes me long to leave all of my responsibilities and head off to the city of dreams. A trip to New York has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I have always wanted to visit the place of tall buildings, history, and where culture is intertwined with its people. I have wanted to live the fast pace life of a New Yorker, where I could stand outside and see, smell, and taste all of the experiences that this city has to offer. I have been building and building this ideal image in my mind for so long. If I ever get to New York, will I be disappointed by the city that never sleeps? The city that is a part of almost every movie I watch. Can New York live up to the expectations I have

Air and water pollution is one of the biggest problems the environment faces today. It is one of the highest leading cause of death. Air and water pollution has been affecting the environment for many years causing many diseases among people especially children. I will study and examine the early childhood growth between two countries which are Australia and Tanzania. I will discuss how clean and polluted their air and water is for each country. Their access to clean water. I will also explain the effects that can occur when water is contaminated. How children are affected when they don 't have access to primary essentials and how each country and their environment and living condition might threatened a child 's life.

Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment. It is a major problem in America and as well as the world. Pollution not only damages the environment, but damages us also. It has cause many problems ranging from lung cancer to the greenhouse effect. It is all among us but we continue to live in our own filth. What is the reason behind this flawed logic? In this paper I will examine the problems and solutions for this issue.

Pollution has become a major issue over the years because it contaminates the Earth’s environment and affects human health. While some environmental pollution is a result of natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, most is caused by human activities. The increase of various types of pollution has made cancer pollutant more prevalent among the people, raising the risk of getting cancer. After being exposed to theses pollutants, the effects may be immediate or delayed. Some of the delayed effects, due to the exposure, can go unnoticed for many years. Another major issue that pollution creates is the tremendous cost for preventing and cleaning it up. However, we can not regulate the pollutants to the extent where there are no more possible