Taken by the then-new EPA, this series over at the Atlantic documents some of the horrors the EPA cleaned up. Also: some cool old cars.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/11/documerica-images-of-america-in-crisis-in-the-1970s/100190/

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these are cooling towers and all coming off is harmless.....the black steel mill pictures in Cleveland is scary.

EPA have become the bane of this country, way too much power and nobody is game to cross them.

Ooooo... new career goal: balloon logger.

I'm pretty damn conservative but I'm not going to agree that the EPA is the bane of this country. I think somebody has to work to stop mountaintop removal mining and fracking and other significant threats to the environment by business left unchecked. Coal-fired plants are releasing far too much mercury, agribusiness is polluting our water. IMO, there is a lot more the EPA needs to get done.

I'm going to say the EPA needs to be more impartial and less the tool of environmentalists hellbent on wiping out Capitalism. A lot of those pictures were of disasters that needed help. Now, they need to be careful.

Yep, in their current state of answering to no one, stopping any and all business development and or increasing regulations on small business they are destroying more small businesses than Walmart.

IMHO

It's the EPA that made cars hard to work on, energy expensive, and nearly impossible to build anything industrial. Yes, they have done some good, but have run out of positive things to do and are now screwing things up for everyone. The series of photos are interesting, though some have nothing to do with the environment.

Photo number 14 with the burning batteries is creepy.

Joey

My issue with the EPA is not their stated purpose. My issue with them is the reality that they have no accountability.

They are self-governed and have no authority over them, including Congress.

That's a problem.

So, which law would you be ok with rolling back and then living next to the emitter?

That and a lot of people have jobs as a direct result of environmental laws. In industry.

SVreX wrote: My issue with the EPA is not their stated purpose. My issue with them is the reality that they have no accountability. They are self-governed and have no authority over them, including Congress. That's a problem.

Seriously? You actually believe that?

Where do you get your information???

The direction the EPA takes is fully wirten and controlled by congress- from the laws that need to be made, to the funding that allows them to write and administer the laws.

Nobody operates above the law.

Spreading that kind of false info is bad. Very bad.

The EPA is the government, and the government is us. Therefore, the EPA is us.

Gearheadotaku wrote: It's the EPA that made cars hard to work on, energy expensive, and nearly impossible to build anything industrial. Yes, they have done some good, but have run out of positive things to do and are now screwing things up for everyone. The series of photos are interesting, though some have nothing to do with the environment.

The cars are also emit about 0.01% of what they did before 1960, making driving a lot better, and run better.

Oh, and I'm not sure if you've ever noticed, but we actually refine steel and aluminum in the US. And that gets made into a lot of stuff here, including cars.

Not sure how they are to blame for expensive energy, yet. Still pretty darned cheap here. So coal plants can be lived near now, is that so bad?

aussiesmg wrote: Yep, in their current state of answering to no one, stopping any and all business development and or increasing regulations on small business they are destroying more small businesses than Walmart. IMHO

Seriously- who the heck is telling you this crap?

alfadriver wrote: Seriously- who the heck is telling you this crap?

Isn't there a saying that goes:

"Never ask a question you already know the answer to"

Sorry, troll mode .......... No one operates above the law,? pulluheadoutchaass. .No documentation, no typing skills to back it up, but seriously? to many ford smokes burnt ur brain? troll mode off.

alfadriver wrote:

SVreX wrote: My issue with the EPA is not their stated purpose. My issue with them is the reality that they have no accountability. They are self-governed and have no authority over them, including Congress. That's a problem.

Seriously? You actually believe that? Where do you get your information??? The direction the EPA takes is fully wirten and controlled by congress- from the laws that need to be made, to the funding that allows them to write and administer the laws. Nobody operates above the law. Spreading that kind of false info is bad. Very bad. The EPA is the government, and the government is us. Therefore, the EPA is us.

This is actually funny. The fact that someone things we are the government? WE are not government, big business is government. I don't know about you Alfa but I can't afford my own politician, and that's how gob'ment works.
You can't really believe you or I could get anything done in congress without greasing palms do you? The only time a citizen gets real results is when it's an election year and the law you or I want passed will help said liar get re-elected.
But I hope it helps you feel warm and fuzzy.

I would like to see pictures of the same sights now. The contrast would be interesting to me.

porksboy wrote: I would like to see pictures of the same sights now. The contrast would be interesting to me.

Hopefully...

Joey

DrBoost wrote:

alfadriver wrote:

SVreX wrote: My issue with the EPA is not their stated purpose. My issue with them is the reality that they have no accountability. They are self-governed and have no authority over them, including Congress. That's a problem.

Seriously? You actually believe that? Where do you get your information??? The direction the EPA takes is fully wirten and controlled by congress- from the laws that need to be made, to the funding that allows them to write and administer the laws. Nobody operates above the law. Spreading that kind of false info is bad. Very bad. The EPA is the government, and the government is us. Therefore, the EPA is us.

This is actually funny. The fact that someone things we are the government? WE are not government, big business is government. I don't know about you Alfa but I can't afford my own politician, and that's how gob'ment works. You can't really believe you or I could get anything done in congress without greasing palms do you? The only time a citizen gets real results is when it's an election year and the law you or I want passed will help said liar get re-elected. But I hope it helps you feel warm and fuzzy.

As I have posted a few times before, we, as a population, let that happen.

Businesses do not vote for anyone, the population does.

What big busness does is advertise enough that enough of the population believes it, and then votes for the people being "bought" by businesses.

WE are the government. WE think that this influence by big business is ok. Sure, we are not very educated in knowing that is what is what is influencing our votes, but that IS what is happening.

The people you vote for may not be getting in, but as a population, they are the ones who let it happen.

So in review, people votes, businesses do not. The advertise, and are allowed to advertise with unlimeted budgets to infuence our votes. We are too stupid to see through it, so WE are at fault.

TRoglodyte wrote: Sorry, troll mode .......... No one operates above the law,? pulluheadoutchaass. .No documentation, no typing skills to back it up, but seriously? to many ford smokes burnt ur brain? troll mode off.

Since you imply that the EPA operates above the law- do you have proof? Other than rants by someone who wants to be listened to?

It's pretty easy to find the laws that congress passes that are enforced by the EPA, on the other hand.

And YES, my primary job is to meet emission rules. So I am one of the many that are employed due to the rules.

Not fired.

Alfa - Nobody wants dirty air / water. But to say that the EPA has not overstepped is to put blinders on. One of the best examples I've seen is Hoover Dam. The Dam itself was completed in 4 years at a cost of $744M in today's dollars. The Visitor Center that was completed in 1995 took 12 years to build at a cost of $646M in today's dollars. The Visitor Center took 3 times as long and cost nearly as much as the Dam itself. A large part of that was endless EIS bullE36 M3. THAT is the over-reaching that is being discussed. A bunch of activists, lawyers, and bureaucrats got rich on the backs of the people.

We could never do great projects like those done in our past, because litigious environmental BS inevitably gets in the way.

DILYSI Dave wrote: Alfa - Nobody wants dirty air / water. But to say that the EPA has not overstepped is to put blinders on. One of the best examples I've seen is Hoover Dam. The Dam itself was completed in 4 years at a cost of $744M in today's dollars. The Visitor Center that was completed in 1995 took 12 years to build at a cost of $646M in today's dollars. The Visitor Center took 3 times as long and cost nearly as much as the Dam itself. A large part of that was endless EIS bullE36 M3. THAT is the over-reaching that is being discussed. A bunch of activists, lawyers, and bureaucrats got rich on the backs of the people. We could never do great projects like those done in our past, because litigious environmental BS inevitably gets in the way.

Ever been a part of building a museum? I bet the time and cost had less to do with environmentalism than gathering artifacts, preparing the educational content and then building consensus upon it. Somewhere in there, a building is getting designed and reviewed a billion times by the public. The exhibit design work goes through similar levels of review. This is pretty standard with something of a historic nature. Something new can be done quickly because there is no sentimental value to it. Just my $.02 from working in exhibit design and fabrication.

As for the EPA, I think they are not given the resources to do what needs to be done. I was listening to a radio report a week or so ago on a town where carbon black is being made. The plant making it was circumventing pollution controls to save money, and poisoning the town. Whenever inspectors came by, everything was being run the way it was supposed to be run. However, the rest of the time, it was not. This finally got dealt with by citizens in the town doing their own air quality testing and years of fighting to get the government to help.

Blatantly and deliberately poisoning the air and water we all use is stupid, and I don't know why it's ok for big companies to be allowed to do this sort of thing in the name of pleasing shareholders.

Some random thoughts:

if the EPA is really so bad, visit a few foreign countries (heck, just go to Mexico) and drink the water. I visited Sicily, courtesy of Uncle Sam, twice in the '70s. The second time, just my luck, I got such a bad case of dysentery(sp?) a few days before I returned to the U.S. that I had diarhhia(sorry about my spelling) for nearly a week. Not that all our beaches are pristine, but many countries have beaches that you don't even want to walk near, much less swim in the water.

I've visited L.A. a few times starting in the '80s. I can't imagine how bad the smog would be there if the EPA hadn't started the ball rolling to clean up the air.

I grew up in a state that now allows fracking. What it is doing, in the name of cheap/supposedly clean energy is a crime against the environment. The "ingredients" in the fluid used in fracking can not, by law, EVER be disclosed. It's some kind of government sanctioned business secret. However, I doubt the EPA, if it had it's way, would allow anything to be injected into the ground with the possibility of water table contamination...if folks like VP Cheney hadn't gotten a regulation written that forbids the EPA from prosecuting oil/gas companies for doing that.

Finally, the EPA destroys more small businesses than Wal Mart? That's a good one, no at all factual, but a good "sound bite" type of ...jargon?

porksboy wrote: I would like to see pictures of the same sights now. The contrast would be interesting to me.

I'd like to find the part of North Birmingham that's in that one picture, but I'd likely be murdered while looking for it.