Cities and Water Pollution: An Historical and Geographic Perspective

Cities have been a prominent source of water pollution over the years. Historians have argued an instrumental conception of water-use that developed in New-England-sanctioned environmental abuses in the interest of economic development. This interpretation assumes both a geographic and temporal consistency in policy responses to water-quality degradation. Several historical assessments of state laws, a review of court cases responding to complaints to pollution, and conference proceedings of federal intervention in interstate pollution disputes provide a means to re-examine the instrumental interpretation. Both early nuisance law suits and early federal enforcement bypassed the country's urban-industrial core. Yet outside the region with the greatest concentration of urban population and industrial discharges, the instrumental perspective was less pronounced exposing geographic and temporal variation in the development of both state and federal pollution policy.