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Cholera Epidemic in England
This outbreak killed over 600 people in about a month. England had been experiencing many cholera outbreaks since the 1830s but, it was not until this outbreak that they found the true cause. Dr.John Snow believed that cholera was caused by contaminated water. He was able to prove this by mapping where the most illlness had occured. These maps showed that the most illnesses occured downstream from the city, where the water was polluted by sewage. -
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American Industrial Revolution
The U.S.A. went through atonishing economic growth during the latter half of the 19th century. By around 1900 it had become one of the most powerful and rich countries on the planet. However, during this time there was not much consideration for the environment. -
Massachusetts State Board of Health orders first study of U.S. Water Pollution
Ellen Swallow Richards conducted the first ever official statewide study of water pollution in the United States of America. Ellen Richards had been working at Massachusetts Institue of Technology when the Massachusetts State Board of Health asked her to conduct the study. -
U.S.A. Builds its First Water Treatment Facility
Although, the first water treatment facilities built in the United States were not very complex, they did reduce turbidity and harmful microbes. The water treatment facilities used sand filters, coagulation, and sedimentation. -
Activated Sludge Process
Chemists in Birmingham, England try to purify sewage water by bubbling air through it. Their experiments worked and the activated sludge process is first put to work in Worchester, England. -
Water Quality Standards
The United States Public Health Service establishes the first water quality standards for the U.S.. These standards only applied to the bacteriological state of water and only regulated contaminants capable of causing infectious disease. -
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World’s First Large-Scale Activated Sludge Plant
The first large-scale activated sludge plant is built in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Before this plant was built Milwaukee's sewage and industrial waste was dumped straight into to the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic rivers, which converge in Milwaukee and flow together through a single outlet into Lake Michigan. -
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DDT Used
DDT is an insecticide that kills bugs by affecting their nervous system. However, DDT also has negative effects on animals and humans. The Bald Eagle came close to extinction because of DDT. Widespread use of DDT started during Word War ll, when it was used to control malaria, typhus, body lice, and the bubonic plague. Use of DDT in the U.S. did not stop until the EPA banned it in 1972. -
First Desalination Plant in U.S.
The United States's first desalination plant was built at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. The plant first used steam power, then they built three steam flash evaporators, much later they introduced reverse osmois technology to the plant. -
Smog in New York
Air pollution in New York City, New York beccame so bad that the death rate increased by twenty-four people between Novemeber 24, and November 30, 1966. However, New York was not alone in dealing with smog. Cities all over the eastern seaboard saw increased rates of air pollution during the 1950s and 1960s, probably due to lack of regulation concerning what chemicals factories could release into the air. -
The Cuyahoga River Catches Fire For 3rd Time
The Cuyahoga River catches fire a third time when sparks from a passing train set fire to chemical and oil soaked debris floating on the river. The fire was a turning point in the quality of the Cuyahoga River and the many fish species that had all but died off around the time of the fire are now thriving. -
EPA Established
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created as the American public was beginning to realize the effect they had on the environment. There were not enough regulations to keep factories from dumping chemical waste into the water or releasing them into the air. In order to fix this problem and ease public concern President Nixon created the EPA. The EPA joined together many different government agencies into one big environmentally focused agency. -
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act was a large set of revisions to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. Revisions included giving the EPA authority to implement pollution control programs and making all types of point-source pollution into navigable water ways illegal unless a permit is obtained. It also provided funding for the establishment of sewage water treatment plants. -
Cryptosporidium Kills 100 People
Cryptosporidium, a protozoan parasite that causes gastrointestinal illness and is transmitted by ingestion of contaminated human or animal wastes, kills about 100 people in Milwaukee and infects about 403,000 people, or 25% of the residents of Milwaukee. The outbreak cost $31.7 million in direct medical costs and $64.6 million in productivity losses. -
BP Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010 a BP drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing eleven people and triggering a huge oil spill. During the next eighty-seven days, before a solution was found to stop the spill, two hundred and ten million gallons of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico. There have been restoration projects, but the effects of this oil spill are still felt. -
47% Of World Living in High Water Stress
It is projected that by the year 2030 47% of the world population will be living in an area of high water stress. Water stress occurs when there is more demand for water than there is water available.
