America the polluted

In the 1970s, the newly formed EPA ambitiously documented the contaminated state of the environment

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Smoke stacks, early 1970s.
The George Washington Bridge in heavy smog, May 1973.
(Image credit: (Documeria/Chester Higgins, The U.S. National Archives via Flickr)While the regularity of such catastrophes numbed many Americans into acceptance, several significant events in the 1960s bega)

Opposition to land stripping in southeastern Ohio, 1973.
(Image credit: (The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr)Grassroots environmental groups, with the help of Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis.), organized the first Earth Day — a national, and now global, demonstrati)

Children play in a yard in Ruston, Washington, in August 1972, as the Tacoma Smelter Stack showers the area with arsenic and lead residue. In the early 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency designated the Tacoma Asarco company pro
(Image credit: (Documerica/Gene Daniels, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Trash and old tires litter the shore of the Baltimore Harbor, January 1973.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Jim Pickerell, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Mary Workman holds a jar of undrinkable well water, reportedly contaminated by nearby Hanna Coal Company, in Cleveland, Ohio.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Erik Calonius, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Cleveland, Ohio, July, 1973.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Frank J. Aleksandrowicz, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Illegal dumping area off of the New Jersey Turnpike, March 1973.
(Image credit: (Gary Miller/Documerica, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Oil derrick in a cemetery in Kilgore, Texas, June 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Marc St. Gil, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Burning discarded automobile batteries in Houston, June 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Marc St. Gil, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Swimming in polluted Lake Charles — Olin-Mathieson plant in the background — June 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Marc St. Gil, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

A coal tipple, Ohio, October 1973.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Erik Calonius, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

A log boom in Monument Valley, Utah, that was the site of a massive oil spill in the San Juan River, October 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/David Hiser, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Neighborhood kids play around a municipal incineration and landfill dump in Gravesend Bay, New York, May 1973.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Arthur Tress, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Steam from a chemical plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, obscures the shoreline, November 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Marc St. Gil, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Peabody coal company in northeastern Arizona, May 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Lyntha Scott Eiler, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

A sign warning against the health hazards of the Potomac River in Virginia, August 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Erik Calonius, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Farmers fertilize a field in Blythe, California, May 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Charles O'Rear, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Sunbathers at Huntington Beach, California, have a view of an offshore oil platform, May 1975.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Charles O'Rear, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

The Atlas Chemical Company belches smoke across a pasture in Marshall, Texas, June 1972.
(Image credit: (Documerica/Marc St. Gil, The U.S. National Archives, via Flickr))

Lauren Hansen
Lauren Hansen

Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.