Thanks but we seem to be going around and around on this. I'm not going to change your mind and you're not going to change mine.
At the end of the day, this world will be destroyed.
It's not really a matter of debate or opinion. What I've stated is simply a fact. Do you know what RCRA is?
Consider, the Potomac River for example. If you live near Maryland, you might be familiar with it:
In 2020, ICPRB celebrated 80 years since it’s creation. Find an interactive timeline of highlights from 1940-2020 in the Deep Dive into Potomac River History StoryMap. This broader timeline represents the history of water quality in the Potomac basin. 1600s: In 1608, Captain John Smith describes...
www.potomacriver.org
1800s:
1810 – First sewer system in Washington constructed to convey wastes to nearest stream.
1830s – It was “not uncommon to pull 4,000
shad or 300,000 herring in one seine haul. One haul of 450 rockfish with as average weight of sixty pounds was documented. Hundreds of sturgeon were captured on a single night near the US Arsenal in Washington” (Niles Weekly Register).
1852 – Washington Aqueduct, a division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was established by an Act of Congress. It is the water supplier for the District of Columbia.
1870 – Washington area population reaches 75,000.
1894 – The US Public Health Service, or USPHS, reported “… at certain times of the year the river is so loaded with sediments as to be unfit for bathing as well as for drinking and cooking purposes. It contains fecal bacilli at all times …”
1898 – First biological survey of Potomac was conducted.
1905 – The US Geological Survey, or USGS, reports turbidity in the Potomac: “3000 ppm during floods, 15-20 during low flow, >1000 ppm 18 days/year, 300-1000 ppm 43 days/year, 50-300 ppm 123 days/year, <50 ppm 181 days/year.” (ppm refers to parts per million)
1911 – Fishery surveys of upper Potomac and tributaries from 1898-1911 find 84 species of fish.
1914 – District of Columbia (DC) sewer system carries wastes from 340,000 people to the Potomac. USPHS study of pollution in the Potomac finds river in “generally good condition” with “ample oxygen.”
1916 – Potomac Estuary survey notes that submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) covers the Potomac, except for the central channel, along both banks. Various reports indicate that extensive beds of SAV were the “natural” condition of the Potomac in the nineteenth century.
1930 – Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties) connects its sewer system to DC’s.
1932 – Untreated wastes from metropolitan area population of 575,000 are flowing into the Potomac. Bacterial contamination forces closing river for swimming from Three Sisters Island to Fort Washington. Low dissolved oxygen levels between Geisboro Point and Fort Foote endanger fishery.
1938 – Blue Plains waste water treatment plant (WWTP) is completed, with a capacity of 130 million gallons per day (mgd) – primary treatment.
1940s:
1940 – Congress gives its consent to the states of Maryland and West Virginia, the commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the District of Columbia to enter into a Compact providing for the creation of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB) and the Potomac Valley Conservancy District.
1943 – The Commission publishes its first report on the condition of basin waters.
1945 – ICPRB adopts a pollution abatement program, and publishes the first edition of its News Letter. • Pennsylvania passes the nation’s first law that puts limits on acid mine drainage pollution to streams.
1946 – ICPRB defines a set of “Minimum Water Quality Criteria” by which means Potomac streams and waterways may be judged suitable or unsuitable for several principal water uses. • Virginia creates a State Water Control Board. • The Pennsylvania State Chamber of Commerce forms a Stream Pollution Abatement Committee, and the state begins the planning phase of sewerage construction. • ICPRB completes an intensive survey of industrial pollution.
1947 – Maryland’s Water Pollution Control Commission is created.
1948 – The Congress enacts the first Federal Water Pollution Control Act. • ICPRB initiates a continuous water-quality sampling program in the basin. • Industrial wastes have made the Shenandoah River below Front Royal a “biological desert.”
1949 – Conditions on the Shenandoah have “radically” improved since a year ago; credit is given ICPRB for its coordination with local authorities. The WV Board of Health is created with responsibilities for sewage disposal.
This is just one example. But historically, people used to take all chemical waste, and used to simply dump it on the ground or in rivers. Wildlife has in many areas, largely been wiped out. But only in this past century have we begun repairing our damages. Though this is a long process.
CO2 emissions are one form of waste that we have yet to get under control.
States uses to sue each other because of how much contamination originated upstream. People in southern states would get sick from fecal coliform upstream. Rivers would catch on fire due to high concentrations of flammable liquids in them. Cases of cryptosporidium and giardia historically were sky high, and associated deaths.
