Perspective: How Silicon Valley provides the blueprint for cleaning up our drinking water
An inside look of the pilot propane biosparge system used to clean up an underground 1,4 dioxane plume on April 11 at the RACER Lansing Plant 2. By Jason A. Heppler Jason A. Heppler is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and working on his first book about environmental politics in Silicon Valley after World War II. April 26 In 2016 the Colorado health department announced the presence of cancer-causing chemicals in drinking water in Fountain, Colo.
Progressive-era reforms curbed some of the worst offenses of the time, but industrial growth in the decades that followed continued to pollute the environment. Concerns over that pollution culminated in the late 1960s and early 1970s with public awareness campaigns like Earth Day, new federal regulations on water and air pollution and, in December 1970, the founding of the EPA.
But this law didn’t end drinking water pollution, far from it. Nor was the pollution limited to the usual culprits that Congress intended to address with this legislation. Activists quickly learned that lawsuits and health studies were only one part of the solution. A study by the California health department concluded that the higher rates of birth defects in San Jose could not be decisively tied to the contamination of drinking water. But skeptical residents like Lorraine Ross continued to apply pressure, suing Fairchild Semiconductor, which eventually reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with 530 residents in South San Jose.
Local politics also influenced federal regulations. SVTC’s proposals for monitoring, storing and regulating hazardous chemicals influenced changes to the Superfund law in the mid-1980s. House Bill 5640, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Norman Mineta , helped redefine what was considered an “imminent hazard” and implemented stricter standards for containing possible leaks.
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