Industrial Revolution Dbq

​Around the time of 1830, the industrial revolution had reached the United States, changing the economy and the lives of individuals forever. The industrial revolution marked the shift from agriculture and hand made items to industry and mass production. This allowed for increased productivity and a more opotunistic life for the common man. Despite the immediate benefits, the industrial revolution was the start to major pollution and water contamination. The enviornemtal effects started with the depletion of natural resources. From there the enviornemntal effects only increased. The pollution that came from factories resulted in airborne emmisoins and water pollution. Factories used water source as a plave for disposal and dumping. However,

it was not until after World War II that the industrialization of America had prominent effects on the enviornent.
After the second World War, America had seen a huge boost in industry, which directly correlated with an increase in pollution and water contamination.

This industrial boom led to increased waste in water, either through waste removal by companies or through runoff from dumping zones. As a result, the dumping of by-products caused the endangerment of animals, and increased defects for humans. Part of this is called the chemical revolution, which synthetic organic chemicals were used as products for economic prosperity in there usage. The negative effects of the Chemical Revolution was pointed out by the National Cancer Insitute in 1960, in which they reported that due to this industrialization, “the danger of cancer hazards from consumption of contaminated drinking water will grow considerably within the foreseeable futre.” Then in 1962, Rachel Carson wrote Scilent Spring bring up national regonition of the contamination of drinking water. In that same year the US Public Health Service passed the Drinking Water Standards, testing and limiting the chloroform extractables in water. Then, in 1972, noticing the increased contamination of water sources, the EPA passed the Clean Water Act through Congress, revolutionizing water contamination prevention. In this, wastewater standards were passed, water quality standards for all contaminats were set and finally it was made unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into waters. To this day, the Clean Water Act is still the national standard and protection tool for American

Waters.
Nowadays on Long Island the water quality is progressively worse. This is due to the fact that Long Island does not sit on bedrock rather it sits on a bed of sand. On top of that, there is no reservoir system. As a result, all the water that we use every is in Long Islands runoff and ground water. This is especially at the fault of the increased use of fertilizers and farming pesticides. In the case of individual contamination, this is also a result of the use of the increased use and inproper disposal of household cleaners and pharmeceuticals.