filed under Environment
Smoke On The Water
8:44AM ON
04/22/2009
BY
Beth Comery
In 1969 the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire… for the ninth time. The Providence River wasn’t much better, just less flammable. A professor from U.R.I. used to hold an annual fishing contest off the old Crawford Street Bridge downtown. Whoever caught the first living thing won. It often took days. No single event led to the first Earth Day in 1970, but the huge demonstrations even caught the attention of President Nixon who felt pressured to create the E.P.A. with William Ruckelshaus at its head. Ruckelshaus created standards and enforced them, going after big business, industrial polluters like a bulldog. Republicans used to get things right sometimes. I miss those guys.
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