New York City produces twice as much trash as any other mega-city on Earth, according to a recent study. The Environmental Protection Agency has described Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal as “one of the nation’s most extensively contaminated water bodies.” And air pollution, coming largely from transportation and construction, remains a threat to residents.
But before the EPA formed in 1970, pollution in NYC was even worse.
Soon after the EPA’s founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture America’s environmental problems in a photo project called Documerica. It shows what the US, from California to Ohio to New York, looked like from 1971 to 1977. Of the 81,000 images the photographers took, more than 20,000 photos were archived, and at least 15,000 have been digitized by the National Archives.
Many of the photos were taken before the US regulated things like water and air pollution.
The Trump administration has already rolled back a number of environmental regulations and moved toward delaying the Clean Water Rule, which clarified the Clean Water Act to prevent industries from dumping pollutants into waterways and wetlands. And last fall, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said the Trump administration plans to eliminate the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's biggest initiative to fight climate change by curbing emissions.
Many reports suggest that Pruitt aims to kill environmental protections and dismantle much of the regulatory agency. If he succeeds, parts of the US could return to the state they were in before EPA regulations.
On Earth Day, let's take a look at a selection of New York City Documerica photos that were taken between 1973 and 1974.
Many Documerica photos show scenes of general life in New York City in the 1970s, but several also document environmental issues.
In the first six months of 1973, more than 300 oil spills occurred in the New York City area. An oil slick creeps up on the Statue of Liberty in this 1973 photo.
More than 800 oil spills happened in the mid-Atlantic region during the same time period, according to a 1973 Coast Guard survey.
Source: The New York Times
Air pollution was also a huge issue in the city. As seen in this 1973 photo, smog obscures the George Washington Bridge.
A historic smog event in 1966 — when a mass of warm air trapped pollutants from vehicles, factories, and chimneys — prompted New York City to update its local air quality laws in the late 1960s. Here is a 1973 photo of the Twin Towers:
Source: The New York Times
EPA's national Clean Air Act, which controls industrial pollution, was passed in 1970.
In 1973, an abandoned car sat in Jamaica Bay ...
... and another was buried in sand on the Breezy Point Beach. Today, the EPA regulates landfills and auto salvage yards, but illegal disposal still happens.
The 1973 photo below shows broken glass on the same beach.
Over the years, the EPA has spearheaded mass trash removals that focus on toxic chemicals. According to the agency, some New York City residents worried about pollution and ecological damage from the Jamaica Bay landfill in the early 1970s.
Source: The US National Archives
You can see the Twin Towers behind the trash pile in this 1973 photo of an illegal dumping area off the New Jersey turnpike.
In Brooklyn, a Gravesend Bay landfill and incineration plant served as a playground for the boys pictured below. Another landfill in Staten Island, called Fresh Kills, was the largest in the world. By 2036, it will be reclaimed as a park.
The Gravesend Bay landfill still exists today. In 2013, The New York Daily News reported that a New York City Sanitation Department study found high concentrations of two toxins banned by the EPA.
Source: Curbed
Garbage was dumped in the marshes of Spring Creek on Jamaica Bay, as seen in the 1973 image below.
Source: The New York Times
The city didn't stop discarding sewage into the ocean until 1992, due to an EPA mandate.
Building construction has long contributed to air pollution in NYC, though the EPA now regulates emissions from construction equipment. This 1973 photo shows waste from a construction site on Manhattan's lower west side:
Source: The City of New York
Rusty oil cans piled up near a home in a Jamaica Bay neighborhood. Today, the EPA sets standards on waste produced by oil and gas industries, with the goal of limiting public health hazards.
Source: EPA
In 2010, the EPA estimated that the Clean Air Act prevented over 160,000 early deaths, 130,000 heart attacks, and millions of cases of respiratory illness.
Source: EPA
Without strict EPA regulation, New York City's past could become its future.
