Timeline of major U.S environmental and occupational health regulation (1945-2015)
1947-1965
- 1947- Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District-- In the fall of 1947, Louis C. McCabe, director of the newly formed Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District, appealed to Southland citrus growers to eliminate smoke from more than 4 million orchard heaters.
- 1948- Federal Water Pollution Control Act--the policy of Congress to recognize, preserve, and protect the primary responsibilities and rights of the States in controlling water pollution, to support and aid technical research to devise and perfect methods of treatment of industrial wastes which are not susceptible to known effective methods of treatment, and to provide Federal technical services to State and interstate agencies and to industries, and financial aid to State and interstate agencies and to municipalities, in the formulation and execution of their stream pollution abatement programs.
- 1955- National Air Pollution Control Act--The Public Health Service was granted US$5 million annually for a five-year period. The act did little to prevent air pollution, but it made the government aware that this problem existed on the national level. It recognized the dangers facing public health and welfare, agriculture, livestock, and deterioration of property, and reserved for Congress the right to control this growing problem.
- 1959- California Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board-- CA enacted legislation requiring the state Department of Public Health establish air quality standards and necessary controls for motor vehicle emissions. The first statewide air quality standards were set by the Department of Public Health for total suspended particulates, photochemical oxidants, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
- 1963- Clean Air Act-- First Federal Clean Air Act of 1963 was enacted. Empowered the Secretary of the federal Health, Education, and Welfare to define air quality criteria based on scientific studies. Provided grants to state and local air pollution control districts.
- 1964- Wilderness Act -- was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres (36,000 km²) of federal land. The result of a long effort to protect federal wilderness and to create a formal mechanism for designating wilderness, the Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964 after over sixty drafts and eight years of work.
- 1965- National Emissions Standard Act-- The National Emissions Standards Act of 1965, originally known as Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Act is a federal framework within which automobile pollution has been regulated. The purpose of the act was to establish a national automobile pollution standard.
1965-1970
1973-1977
1978-1986
1986-1991
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1998-2005
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