It wasnt until the 1970's that people in the U.S really became aware of how fragile our environment trully is.
Before 1970 resources were thought of as unlimited and even worse people polluted without thought. Even companies that polluted werent held responsilbe. They basically got away with it, leaveing the public to deal with it.
It was then during the early 1970s that the Enviromental Protection Agency was established. (EPA for short)
http://www.epa.gov/Here are some other important dates in our U.S history:
1972: The Clean Water Act is established. Permits are required for dumping and limits are set for discharges.
http://www.epa.gov/r5water/cwa.htm1976: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Records are required for safe handling of hazardous material.
http://epa.gov/region5/defs/html/rcra.htm1980: Superfund Legislation - Imposed liability for hazardous waste on the polluter. This is imposted on owners past and presenst. Meaing that if hazardous material is found on a site where a company no longer functions the company that was once there will be responsible for clean up as well as any money that must be used to clean it up.
http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/rcra/03.htm1990: Clean Air Act. Kinda sad that it took us so long to realize that our air was becoming more of smog then it was of oxygen.
http://www.epa.gov/air/oaqps/peg_caa/pegcaain.htmlThe last one I have is that in the late 1990's a new series of standards requiring compaines to comply with environamentally friendly practices in all aspects of busniess.
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpageIf you have more history that I didnt ad please by all means post it here and I will add it to this list. ^_^
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