The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, redesignated existing wild areas, canoe areas, and wilderness areas as wilderness.
The Endangered Species Preservation Act created the National Wildlife Refuge System, and barred killing endangered species in the refuges. The secretary of the interior was required to list the country’s endangered domestic fish and wildlife species, and the Fish and Wildlife Service was authorized to spend up to $15 million per year to acquire critical land. Federal land agencies are directed to preserve endangered species on their lands “insofar as is practicable and consistent with their primary purpose.”
The passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was the first time the federal government took responsibility for curbing environmental destruction. It starts with a Declaration of National Environmental Policy that “requires the federal government to use all practicable means to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony.” NEPA tries to balance the needs of nature and industry. It requires federal agencies to consider the environmental effects of their projects and conduct public hearings and include comments before a project is approved.
The Clean Air Act was an expansion of an existing law to include cars and much more stringent restrictions on air emissions from stationary sources like power plants, smelters, and factories.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consolidated many environmental responsibilities of the federal government under one agency to “protect human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.”
The Clean Water Act (CWA) was written to restore and maintain the waterways of the United States. Pollutants dumped into rivers and lakes were regulated and permitted, and the EPA set industrial discharge standards. In addition, cities no longer flushed their toilets directly into the waterways; instead, the federal government funded the construction of wastewater treatment plants. Water-quality standards were finally established for the surface waters of the United States, with useful classifications like fishable and swimmable.
DDT was banned by the EPA a decade after the official count of brown pelican chicks hatched in Louisiana fell to zero. In her book Silent Spring (1962), Rachel Carson asked, “Who has decided—who has the right to decide—for the countless legions of people who were not consulted that the supreme value is a world without insects, even though it be also a sterile world ungraced by the curving wing of a bird in flight? The decision is that of the authoritarian temporarily entrusted with power.” William Ruckelshaus, the first head of the EPA, issued a cancellation order for DDT based on adverse environmental effects and potential human health risks.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act set aside all marine mammals as untouchable. Whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, sea otters, and polar bears were all banned from harassment or harvest of any kind.
The Endangered Species Act (the revised 1966 law) now protected habitat in addition to individual animals. This far-reaching legislation allows listing of threatened and endangered species, authorizes funds, and makes it illegal to harass or harm a listed species. If an endangered species is found on private land, the landowner must stop doing anything that would bother the protected animals.