Old Air/New Air

• Author: Michael Curley
• Pages: 75-80

75

Chapter 9—Old Air/New Air

As you have read severa l times already in this book, when the United

States got serious about water pollution, we passed the CWA, a major

part of which was the “construction grant program.” Over the next

15 years, this program pumped over $70 billion into sewage treatment plants

POTWs as they are called. With the state match, there was over $100 billion

spent, and that was followed by the CWSRF with a nother $125+ billion for

water pollution.

No such thing happened in the air sector. Congress did not appropriate a

penny of nancial assistance to reduce air pollution.

Fortunately, the United States never suered a “Great Smog” event like

London did back in 1952. But we had our own problems. Our major cities

like Chicago, Los A ngeles, a nd New York were choked by emissions from

coal-burning furnaces and vehicles. In those days, many private homes were

heated by coal-burning furnaces. Smog from cars a nd trucks was the con-

stant subject of television news stories that featured the drastic reductions in

visibility that smog was causing on freeways and other major arteries.

In addition to domestic coa l f urnaces and vehicle emis sions, there

were indust rial furnaces too. T hese are the s ource s of pollut ion that the

CA A addres sed.

Whereas the CWA attacked water pollution with money and grants, the

CAA attacked air pollution with regulations. e rea son for these two dis-

parate strategies stems from the respective sources of pollution. People—

men, women, and children—a re the sources of t he human waste that made

up the urban se wage polluting the nation’s waterways. On the other hand,

organizations—both public and private—were the sources of air emissions.

You can’t regulate human waste; but the government can cer tainly regulate

organizations. ey can reg ulate businesses and they can regulate entities

like schools, hospitals, and other public institutions including their own gov-

ernment oces.

ese laws were very successful. e nation’s major water bodies are

much cleaner. e $225 billion we spent produced excellent results. Our air

is clea ner too. Vehicular em issions have ceased to be a major air pollution

problem except on the West Coast where the eect of vehicular emissions is