Module 1.2 - A Turning Point Event for Environmental Science: Cuyahoga River Burning
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The tragic event on June 22nd, 1969 horrified the residents of Cleveland as an oil slick on Cuyahoga River caught on fire that Sunday morning. When watching, "Celebrating the Comeback of the Burning River, 1969-2019" video it incorporated tragic narrations from citizens and responders to the scene and how it not only affected them personally but also as a community. The orientation of the video provides many income and environmental issues the residents of Cleveland had gone through in the late 1960's-1970's. Also the improvement through the decades that the society developed and made a positive outcome.
2. (Purpose)
The purpose, goal, and objective of this video was for viewers to see that growth was developed when Cleveland was going through an environmental degradation as well as an economical income crisis in the year 1969. Overcoming an obstacle involving environmental issues and having to develop new infrastructure was fascinating to accomplish and overall successful. It allows us as viewers to understand that with many challenges come steps to achieve or overcome those obstacles.
3. (Questions at Issue)
By reviewing this video multiple times, there were a couple problems that became an issue due to the outcome of the burning Cuyahoga River. The first issue was mainly dealing with border disputes and how a commision was set up between the United States and Canada to deal with those situations. But once this tragic incident occurred, there was more to focus on which is leading me into my second issue regarding the water quality. The water pollution caused factories to close down and even set back operations. Cleveland became known as a symbol of environmental degradation, and the citizens had changed the whole dynamic and kept their responsibility to keep the river clean.
4. (Information)
Before the 1969 fire, the residents of Cleveland passed a $100 million bond initiative to fund Cuyahogas clean up. After the tragic fire, plenty of things were attributed towards this event, one of them was an abundance of investment by the Sewer District which totaled the contribution to five billion in income. As well as investments by other communities and by the city of Akron. The total estimate of damages that the Cuyahoga River Fire in 1969 made was about $100,000.
5. (Interpretation and Inference)
The citizens took upon themselves as a responsibility to tackle issues to try and clean up the river creating a Clean Water Act, EPA was formed, Northeast higher regional Sewer District, and the Cleveland Regional Sewer. The technology wasn't as advanced as it was back then, so they were able to create an educational system with trained technicians that developed a new infrastructure to clean up the river. Fast forward to now and how the river has gained more utilization amongst citizens and residents of Cleveland than it ever had.
6. (Concepts)
One concept that I was intrigued on knowing through the knowledge of the river clean up was how they developed a new infrastructure. I wanted to go more in depth with the definition of infrastructure and how it was dependent on this project. Infrastructure meaning a set of fundamental facilities and organizational structures needed for an operation of an enterprise or society. That explains all the structural processes society went through to develop a solution. Another concept I chose was environmental degradation and I wanted to base the definition towards the event of the Cuyahoga River. Environmental degradation is the causes in which modern urbanization, industrialization, and deforestation etc affect the general health of the environment. Which also explains why the Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969 and how it not only affected the environmental process but the industrial income issues.
7. (Assumptions)
A presupposition that was taken for granted when trying to overcome the Cuyahoga River Fire in 1969 was doubting whether the community can get through this devastation. Many things needed to get fixed, new opportunities were developed, and growth was occurring when the event became too overbearing. The community was able to overcome those obstacles without even understanding or realizing the environmental impact they made was seen to be an accomplishment. Overcoming many of the obstacles that were faced when the fire occurred was a lesson learned and a turning point for the entire community.
8. (Consequences):
The end result after the Cuyahoga River incident felt like a lack of progress when it was hit with the devastation of the fire. By coming a long way, the Cuyahoga River now developed a better and new environmental community with much improvement. Metro Parks take control of certain areas on the river, plenty of restaurants on the river, kayaking on the river, and also it has become a practice institution for recreational teams. The progression of the utilization of the river and how it became a positive outcome for the years to come shows growth made by the community.
Work Cited:
EPA, Ohio. “Celebrating the Comeback of the Burning River ... - Youtube.” YouTube, Ohio EPA, 2 Nov. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18JpT61rX6A.
Michael Rotman, “Cuyahoga River Fire,” Cleveland Historical, accessed February 1, 2022, https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/63.
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