Environmental Progress - Winter 2005

Many Accomplishments Since First "Earth Day" 35 Years Ago

This year's Earth Day on April 22 marked the 35th anniversary of the first Earth Day that raised the consciousness of America about the threats to our environment from pollution. Here in Illinois, our leaders also responded in 1970 by creating the first state environmental protection agency in the nation, and included a safe and healthy environment as a fundamental right in the new state constitution.

To quote Abraham Lincoln, "it is altogether fitting and proper," to reflect on how far we have come in those 35 years toward a healthier environment, even as we set new goals and face new challenges.

For example, in 1972, an assessment of Illinois streams found only 11 percent were characterized as in "good" condition — now it is more than 62 percent. Outdoor air quality improvement has been even more dramatic. In 1976, for example, the federal one-hour health standard for ozone (smog) was exceeded 208 times just at a single location in Madison County and 181 times at an air monitoring station in Lake County and thousands of times statewide that summer. In comparison, last summer (2004) there were no violations of that standard anywhere in the state.

That progress has come not only as a result of government regulations and improved technology but the willingness of business and industry, local government, and citizens to take responsibility for protecting the environment. They include the hundreds of volunteer lake monitors across the state that have partnered with us for 25 years, the thousands of participants in Green Pays on Green Days who took actions to reduce air pollution in the summer in the Chicago metro area, and the nearly half million Illinoisans who have participated in our household hazardous waste disposal events.

Since Governor Rod Blagojevich took office in January 2003, he has strongly supported these partnerships and exciting new initiatives to continue to make Illinois a national leader in protecting our environment.

In the past few years, we are breathing easier, as air pollution from factories and power plants has continued to decline. We have encouraged the expanded use of cleaner burning fuels and helped school districts reduce hazardous soot from diesel buses. The Governor and Illinois EPA have advocated more protective federal air pollution regulations, and the Governor has taken the leadership in pursuing a common-sense regional approach by Midwestern states to further reduce emissions from older power plants. Through the Governor's leadership, all but four Illinois hospitals have gone to better alternatives for medical waste disposal than operating their own incinerators.

Our rivers and lakes are getting cleaner through partnerships with citizens and local officials to reduce sources of contamination and through better planning for growth that takes into account potential urban and agricultural runoff into watersheds. The Governor has kept a commitment to seek a reduction in phosphorus discharges from larger sewage treatment plants and launched new initiatives to protect drinking water supplies and other resources for communities relying on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.

The cleanups of contaminated sites have also accelerated in Illinois the past two years, with thousands of acres at more than 400 sites cleaned up for redevelopment or natural habitat usage, making these "brownfields" into "fields of dreams" once again, and, in his budget address in February, the Governor proposed a major funding initiative for cleanup and restoration in the Lake Calumet area in Chicago.

The power of citizens and volunteers has been mobilized by a record number of household hazardous waste collections and waste tire collection events, mercury collections, and assistance to volunteer groups cleaning up litter along riverbanks or protecting watersheds. Governor Blagojevich this year has also proposed comprehensive new legislation called I-RID (Illinois Removes Illegal Dumping) that will provide the largest state funding in history to clean up orphan open dump sites, and give Illinois EPA expanded authority and staff to make sure landfills, including those accepting construction and demolition debris, are properly operated.

In keeping with his priority commitments to education and public safety and health, the Governor's "Safe and Healthy Schools Initiative" has provided unprecedented multi-faceted partnerships with our schools across the state. The Governor's Clean School Bus program has provided grants and educational materials to reduce harmful soot from diesel buses through cleaner fuels, emission controls and discouraging idling. Hundreds of schools are becoming more "green" through small grants, workshops and school hazardous waste pickups.

Finally, reflecting the commitment of Gov. Blagojevich and IEPA to make state government more responsive to citizens, Illinois EPA has made a vast library of readily accessible information and interactive databases available on the Internet to Illinois citizens to help them deal with potential environmental threats and help the environment themselves.

While this progress is important, we must all work together to insure that increased growth and demand for resources will be managed to protect the gains we have made since that first Earth Day and the launching of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency back in 1970.