The Clean Air Act as implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency has been one of our nation’s most successful laws—a jewel in the crown of American Democracy. Before EPA there were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our air or our water—and filthy industry practices treated our skies and water as cesspools.
The photos below, taken from the 1950s through the mid-1970s, remind us vividly why EPA serves a crucial purpose. The idea that we would dismantle clean air and water protections is scandalous—and one need only look back to see what a future without environmental protections would look like.

The George Washington Bridge in heavy smog. View toward the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. May, 1973.

A worker in California wears a face mask to filter ash and soot-filled air so he can breathe. September, 1973.

Children play in the yard of their Washington home, while Tacoma Smelter stack showers the area with arsenic and lead residue. August, 1972.