Sewergate

Anne Gorsuch Burford and the EPA. Apple meet tree.

The EPA is Born

A series of environmental disasters in the 1960s led to widespread public concern over the environment. The 1966 New York [Smog Disaster] sickened 10% of its population. The book Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson increased awareness and scrutiny over the indiscriminate use of pesticides. While corporations were dumping toxic chemicals, cities were discharging raw sewage into our waterways leading to the “near death“ of some of the Great Lakes, such as Lake Erie. In 1969, the Cuyahoga River, near Cleveland, filled with chemical contaminants, again [burst into flames]. That same year, a massive [oil spill] in California killed wildlife and fouled beaches, including Santa Barbara, home to wealthy Republicans.

President Richard Nixon [appointed William Ruckelshaus] as the first EPA Administrator in 1970. In 1973, he was tapped to serve as Acting FBI Director, and soon after as Deputy Attorney General when he defied Nixon’s order to fire Archibald Cox and resigned in protest. In 1983, following the “Sewergate” scandal and a lowpoint in the EPA’s history, Ruckelshaus returned to lead the agency and launched its Superfund program for the clean-up of thousands of contaminated sites across America. Source: [EPA]. In 2015, President Obama awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Richard Nixon, with his disapproval rating worsening and eager for a distraction from Vietnam, saw environmental protection as a winning issue. Despite opposition from members of his own party, Nixon signed the legislation establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 2, 1970.

President Nixon talking with workers cleaning up the oily beach at Santa Barbara in March 1969. Source: AP

“In addition to creating the EPA, Nixon signed the National Environmental…