--- Jerry Spector <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The percentage of streams usable for fishing and > swimming: in 1972, 36 percent; in 1994, 86 percent. > From �It�s Getting Better All the Time: 100 > Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years,� reported > in Bill Buckley�s column today.
It's really wonderful that such great improvements have taken place in the last thirty years. I was born and raised in anthracite country in Pennsylvania, where trashing the land was pretty common... strip mining and such. That too has improved but it took lots of political fighting over a long time to achieve. It was in 1972 that the Clean Water Act passed through Congress. That was about when you could literally set the Cuyahoga River on fire. Then Nixon vetoed the Act. Congress successfully voted an override of Nixon's veto, putting the Act into effect. Without the override, we'd probably be down around 5% by now. Nowadays, the present administration is working to weaken provisions of the Act. Make sure to check out what the Sierra Club and TU's Coldwater Conservation Fund have to say about the current direction of the EPA. Also, Ted Williams conservation column in Fly Rod & Reel is well researched and often disturbing. It would be surprising if arch-conservative Bill Buckley was cheering the veto override in '72. Mark __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
