In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, celebrate the amazing ongoing recovery of the infamous Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio in the United States. 

 

On June 22, 1969 an oil slick fire on the river in Cleveland captured national and international attention. This event helped spur an avalanche of pollution control efforts leading to the US Clean Water Act, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.  A short film clip, Cuyahoga River Pollution 1967, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jxV6BbREfY  shows the condition of the river in the late 1960s. 

 

The Cuyahoga River was used for waste disposal, and was choked with debris, oils, sludge, industrial wastes and sewage. These pollutants were considered a major source of impact to Lake Erie, which was considered dead at the time. I grew up in Akron, Ohio on the Cuyahoga River in the 1960s and recall the foaming soap suds (before phosphates were removed from detergents), smell and the pollution.  The 1969 fire was not the first. Fires plagued the Cuyahoga River beginning in 1936 when a spark from a blow torch ignited floating debris and oils.

 

The 1969 fire has been the subject of several songs, including Randy Newman's 1972 song "Burn On", R.E.M.'s 1986 song "Cuyahoga", and Adam Again's 1992 song "River on Fire".  Over the past 40 years, the river has made a remarkable recovery.

 

The 2008 film, The Return of the Cuyahoga, is a one-hour documentary about the death and rebirth of one of America's most emblematic waterways. The film can be obtained from Bullfrog Films at http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/... .  For more information on the Cuyahoga River, its pollution and recovery, go to the website of the Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization at http://www.cuyahogariverrap.org/ .   

 

The clip, Cuyahoga River Pollution 1967, is one of more than 500 film clips from historical films posted to the YouTube channel Workplace and Environmental Health and Safety Films http://www.youtube.com/user/markdcatlin .