Read the Script:
Today we think of Lake Erie, our north coast as a treasured natural resource that really belongs to all of us. Our great lake is an important place that provides a trade route for ships, drinking water for 11 million people and a fun place for swimmers, boaters, and fishermen. But just a few decades ago, Lake Erie was declared dead. That meant that the lake was extremely polluted mainly from industries along the shore and Cleveland's ineffective sewer system.
Cleveland was once a much larger city and an industrial powerhouse with factories producing everything from steel and plastic to paint and fabric. And for generations, these factories dumped their byproducts into the lake with very little regulation. In even worse shape was the river than winds through Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga River.
By the 1960s, this river didn't actually look like water. Some say the river flowed different colors depending on what the color the paint factory was producing that day but mostly it just looked like a dark mix of oil and grease. Of course there was no swimming in it and workers along the river were instructed to go directly to the emergency room if they fell in.
But this notorious image changed everything. On June 22nd, 1969, oil slipped debris on the river caught fire for about 30 minutes and the so called burning river brought national attention. Time Magazine picked up the story and this photo of an intense fire on the Cuyahoga River was published alongside the article in 1969. But it's actually a photo from a much worse fire in 1952.
In fact, what many people outside of Cleveland did not know is that the river had actually caught fire over a dozen times by that point. Regardless, this image burned into the country's consciousness and Cleveland mayor, Carl Stokes, became a national spokesman for environmental regulation, often speaking before Congress.
In 1970, just a year after the fire, Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency which protects the environment by writing and enforcing regulations. And just a couple years after that, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to stop factories from dumping harmful pollutants into waterways around the country.
It really inspired environmental action but the infamous burning river photo did not exactly help Cleveland's image. Cleveland's unofficial nickname has been the mistake on the lake and our burning river and dead lake are still the butt of jokes, even decades later. As we start to come out from under that shadow, it's important to remember how bad things became so we never let it happen again.