Hannah cuyahoga river by Hannah Conrad

What happened?

120138_10 — 2024-01-22 16:28:36 UTC

"To the surprise of no one who worked on the Cuyahoga, an oil slick on the river caught fire the morning of Sunday, June 22nd, 1969."- Smithsonian magazine. The fire lasted 30 minutes, it was put out by land battalions and one of the city's fireboats. It caused $50,000 in damages to railroad bridges on the river.

Why is it important?

120138_10 — 2024-01-22 16:38:54 UTC

"The Cuyahoga River Fire (22 June 1969) dramatized the extent of the river's pollution and the ineffectiveness of the city's lagging pollution abatement program. The fire, which witnesses reported reached as high as 5 stories, began at 12 P.M. and lasted about 20 minutes before it was brought under control." (CWRU)

Impacts..

120138_10 — 2024-01-22 16:41:41 UTC

The 1969 Cuyahoga River fire induced water pollution control activities, resulting in the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and passage of the Clean Water Act, and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

120138_10 — 2024-01-22 16:43:58 UTC

Where:

120138_10 — 2024-01-22 16:47:10 UTC

Before and after:

120138_10 — 2024-01-22 17:00:00 UTC

Ironically, another oil slick burned on the Cuyahoga River in 1952 causing an estimated $1.5 million damage without attracting national attention.

What good things came out of it?

120138_10 — 2024-02-07 02:42:44 UTC

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio becomes so polluted that it catches on fire. The fire helped spur an avalanche of water pollution control activities such as the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. By bringing national attention to water pollution issues, the Cuyahoga River fire was one of the events that led to the creation of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

About...

120138_10 — 2024-02-07 03:10:26 UTC

Mouths: Cleveland and lake Erie.

length: 84.9 mi

first date: June 22nd, 1969

basin size: 809 square miles

cities: Cleveland, Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Kent.

The name “Cuyahoga” is a blend of several native peoples’ names for the River. This combination of names is usually translated to mean “crooked river.”
-Around 1790, Captain Samuel Brady jumped 22 feet across the Cuyahoga at Kent escaping Indians. Brady Lake in Kent bears his name.
-The first bridge across the Cuyahoga was built in 1803 at Brady’s Leap.

51 Years Later, the Cuyahoga River Burns Again

120138_10 — 2024-02-07 04:26:35 UTC

The Ohio waterway that so famously caught on fire in 1969, inspiring the Clean Water Act, caught fire again this week

On March 20, 2019, fish caught in Ohio’s Cuyahoga River were declared safe to eat by federal environmental regulators. It was a major milestone in the river’s recovery—once one of the most polluted waterways in the country

120138_10 — 2024-02-07 04:28:23 UTC

That lack of photos from the 1969 fire is particularly relevant. Just two years prior, Cleveland became the first major American city to elect a Black mayor: Carl Stokes. And one of Stokes’s signature issues was water pollution; at the time of the fire, he’d just convinced voters to pass a $100 million taxpayer-backed initiative to begin improving the quality of the city’s waterways.

How?

120138_10 — 2024-02-07 04:36:04 UTC

The fire probably came from a discharge of highly flammable petroleum derivatives with an extremely high flash point to be ignited by a chance occurrence at the site of the railroad bridges.

120138_10 — 2024-02-07 04:47:11 UTC

This makes me feel mad and annoyed because I think it could have been prevented. This killed wildlife and ruined lots of plants and agriculture. It also costed $1.5 million dollars in damages.