NYC Before The EPA.....

Before Trump and his new EPA get rid of all the rules he should take a history lesson.  

We know what happens when there are no rules.  

It isn't good.

Once upon a time, you could touch the air in New York. It was that filthy. No sensible person would put a toe in most of the waterways.

Many power plants in the city were fueled with coal and heavy grades of oil, which led to noxious emissions.

the fastest-growing cause of death in New York during the 1960s was pulmonary emphysema. Deaths from chronic bronchitis also soared.

Waterways around the city were, if anything, worse than the air. “Huge quantities of untreated sewage are pumped into New York Harbor continually,” The New York Times reported in 1970.

Companies along the Hudson River, particularly General Electric and General Motors, drained and leaked chemicals into the river.

the Hudson, in all its majesty, was little more than an extension of millions of toilets; 170 million gallons of raw sewage were discharged into it every day

The river from Troy to the south of Albany is one great septic tank that has been rendered nearly useless for water supply, for swimming, or to support the rich fish life that once abounded there.”

Today, federal regulatory efforts have largely alleviated acid rain in New York

Most of the sewage contamination of the Hudson is long gone under the federal Clean Water Act, New York and local governments received grants or loans from the federal government to build sewage treatment plants.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/nyregion/new-york-city-smog.html?_r=0