Cold Open

It’s the afternoon of November 1st, 1952, on a tugboat moored to the bank of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio.

A crew of eight workmen toil under the afternoon sun.

Sighing wearily, one of them sets his tools down and walks to the boat’s edge. Disgust overcomes him though, as he gazes at the murky waterway below, its surface covered in a thick layer of oil.

Cuyahoga River snakes through the heart of Cleveland, dividing the city in two. With factories lining its banks, the river has become a polluted, slow-moving sewer, tainted by the waste of steel plants, oil refineries, and chemical works. Earlier this year, the situation grew worse after a leak at one of the area’s biggest refineries spilled a tremendous amount of oil into the Cuyahoga.

Now, the workman stares at the thick slick it left behind, turning the river an inky black.

As he eyes the water, his attention is grabbed by a muffled sputtering nearby. He spots bubbles gathering at the river’s surface. The disturbance is the result of trapped gasses, struggling to escape beneath the oil. The workman shakes his head at the sad sight. But he doesn’t think too much of it… until screams of alarm suddenly pierce the air. The workers glance up to see people on the opposite shore frantically gesturing down the river.

He turns to witness a horrifying sight. The oil on the water’s surface has ignited. An inferno of flames now consumes Cuyahoga.

The workman springs to action, racing to the nearest telephone. With trembling fingers, he dials the emergency number of the fire department. As he impatiently waits for a response, his eyes flick back to the river, but menacing flames continue to engulf the Cuyahoga, sending thick plumes of gray smoke into the afternoon sky.

By the time firefighters succeed in extinguishing the raging fire, its flames will have caused over a million dollars of damage to nearby ships and buildings. The devastation will ignite a wave of concern among locals about the river’s rising levels of pollution and toxins. But industrialists will disregard the public’s outcry and continue carelessly dumping waste into the water. It will take nearly twenty years before another fire on the Cuyahoga will bring about change, triggering a sweeping movement to clean the nation’s waterways on June 22nd, 1969.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is June 22nd, 1969: The Cuyahoga River Fire Fuels America’s Environmental Movement.

Act One

It’s around noon on June 22nd, 1969, on the Cuyahoga River; nearly two decades after a fire devastated the area.

Perched atop a towering machine near the river's edge, Tim Donovan cautiously leans over, peering down at the grim scene below him. The murky water is still a toxic mess of debris, rotting wood, and oil. And the young man shudders to imagine his fate if he fell into the toxic depths.

Tim is a high-school graduate, working a summer job at Cleveland’s steel mills to earn money for his college tuition. He has been assigned the task of unloading ore from industrial carriers on the river. But today, while waiting for his next cargo, his thoughts dwell on the troubled state of the Cuyahoga.

Ever since Cleveland evolved into a bustling industrial hub, the once pristine river has become severely polluted. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the waterway, like many others in America, became a dumping station for factory waste, degrading its water quality and killing off its plant and animal life.

Since the 1860s, the Cuyahoga has caught fire over a dozen times. The worst of them occurred 17 years ago. After the 1952 Cuyahoga fire, Cleveland’s residents voiced their concerns about the river’s hazards. But while this blaze was enough to arouse local concern, it did not lead to any meaningful legislative change. To ease the public’s worries, the fire department authorized patrol boats to conduct regular inspections of the water, using high-pressure water hoses to disperse any coagulated oil. But nothing was done to actually stop factories from continuing to dump their waste into the water.

In the early 1960s, a few journalists tried to raise awareness about the river’s rising pollution levels. Their efforts gained momentum when a recent federal report named the Cuyahoga one of the most heavily polluted rivers in America. And since his recent election, Cleveland’s mayor has also taken up the cause, advocating for change and focusing on local actions to improve water quality. In a step in the right direction, voters in Cleveland recently approved a hundred-million-dollar initiative for better sewage and water treatment facilities. But many, including the mayor, fear it won’t be enough; these remedial efforts may do too little, too late.

Tim tries to push these concerns from his mind as he twists away from the thick, murky water, scanning the horizon for any ships. As he looks out, his attention is drawn to a peculiar object bobbing in the water. Squinting, Tim leans over the railing to get a closer look, and draws back in disgust, as he realizes that the object is the bloated body of a dead rat, poisoned by the river’s toxic water.

Tim averts his eyes. But a cry of alarm from the riverbank snaps his gaze back to the water. As he searches the river for signs of trouble, he spots a slick of flaming oily debris in the distance. As the burning waste floats under one of the many railroad bridges constructed over the Cuyahoga, it ignites the wood structure and unleashes a blaze upon the river's surface.

Fearful, Tim steps back as the flames grow, reaching heights of nearly five stories. While he coughs in smoke-filled air, he’s relieved to hear the blaring sirens of approaching fire trucks.

In under thirty minutes, firefighters are able to swiftly extinguish the fire. The damage to the railroad bridge is minimal, costing only fifty thousand dollars. Given the severity of Cuyahoga’s past fires, local media then dismiss the blaze as an unremarkable incident in the river’s trouble history. But Cleveland’s mayor takes the fire more seriously.

Last year, Mayor Carl Stokes made history for becoming the first African-American mayor of a major US city. Using his national renown and savvy with the media, Mayor Stokes will manage to bring new eyes to the Cuyahoga and the impact of industrial pollution. The very next day after the blaze, the mayor will hold a press conference on the river banks, demanding that the federal and state governments pay attention to the waterway’s contamination. At Mayor Stokes' urging, within months, what was a modest fire on the Cuyahoga will spark a national conversation, transforming from a local story about minimal property damage to a watershed moment inspiring environmental conservation efforts across America.

Act Two

It’s the morning of June 23rd, 1969, on a scorched railroad bridge over the Cuyahoga River, just one day after Tim Donovan witnessed the waterway burst into flames.

Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes stands on the rail tracks, observing the growing crowd of reporters in front of him. As he takes a step toward the microphones arrayed before him, group falls into a hush. Pointing to the charred timber columns supporting the bridge, Carl declares that the purpose of today’s press conference is to address the alarming condition of the Cuyahoga River.

The waterway’s rising pollution levels are a deeply personal issue for Carl, and one of the main factors that led to his election last year. Since his tenure began, Carl has tried to call attention to the Cuyahoga’s poor conditions and has encouraged voters to pass local initiatives to address pollution. But much of the river’s contamination remains outside the mayor’s control.

The Cuyahoga flows through many places before reaching Cleveland’s city limits. All stakeholders along the river must take decisive steps to rehabilitate it, and bring about lasting change. So, Carl has decided to use the latest fire to command the state and federal government’s attention.

He passionately informs the reporters that industries outside the city's jurisdiction have been dumping toxic waste into the river, which eventually finds its way to Cleveland. Carl sees this issue as a failure by the federal government who he claims is incapable of regulating interstate commerce on the Cuyahoga. As he gestures toward the river’s greasy, shimmering surface, Carl emphasizes that it poses a clear fire hazard to the city. And determined to take action, he announces his plan to file a formal complaint with the state of Ohio to ensure the cleanup of the river.

Carl hopes that his words will finally spur the government into meaningful action. But, unfortunately, only a handful of reporters attend Carl's heartfelt press conference, and it fails to capture significant media attention. But, Carl's luck will soon change.

Just a few months later, Time Magazine publishes a scathing article about the Cuyahoga. It vividly portrays the river as a polluted disaster, describing it as a stream that "oozes rather than flows" and one in which a person would not drown, but decay. It highlights its toxicity, noting that even the leeches and sludge worms, which usually thrive on waste, cannot survive in the chemical waters of the Cuyahoga. Decrying Cleveland’s old drainage systems, it reveals that a ruptured pipe has been leaking an astonishing twenty-five million gallons of untreated sewage into the river every single day for the last month. It then cites the recent blaze on the river as proof that it's a fire hazard too. And along with the article, Time Magazine publishes a dramatic picture of the river on fire, mistakenly taken from the more severe 1952 blaze.

The photo and the article’s shocking details grab the attention of readers across the country and strike a chord with those involved in the growing environmental movement. With the Cuyahoga River thrust into the spotlight, cleaning it becomes a national priority.

In 1970, a year after the article's publication, Mayor Carl Stokes testifies before the Senate, urging for federal funding to combat water pollution:

"CARL: We have the kind of air and water pollution problems in these cities that are every bit as dangerous to the health and safety of our citizens as any intercontinental ballistic missiles that's so dramatically poised five thousand miles from our country.”

That same year, the fire on the Cuyahoga River helps inspire twenty million Americans to participate in demonstrations raising awareness about environmental issues on the nation’s first “Earth Day.”

And soon after, in response to mounting public pressure, President Richard Nixon proposes the creation of an independent federal body with broad jurisdiction over environmental matters. In December 1970, his vision is realized, and the Environmental Protection Agency is established. Over the following years, Congress also revamps water pollution regulations by passing the Clean Water Act, aiming to make all waterways in America fishable and swimmable by 1985.

Cleaning the Cuyahoga River itself will be a challenging journey, requiring years of concerted effort from various stakeholders. But, the rewards will be promising, and the river will eventually transform into a recreational haven. But five decades on, from the fire that spawned a national reckoning on water pollution, the Cuyahoga River will burst into flames once again.

Act Three

It’s the morning of August 25th, 2020 in Akron, Ohio; fifty-one years after the Cuyahoga River’s last fire.

A crowd of reporters stands on the banks of the river, taking videos of the angry red flames that once again rage across the Cuyahoga's surface.

This is the first time in five decades that the river has caught fire. Following the enactment of the Clean Water Act, local and state environmental groups collaborated to clean up the Cuyahoga. Heavy penalties were imposed on non-compliant industries, leading to a significant reduction in pollution. In 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency recognized the Cuyahoga as one of the fourteen American Heritage Rivers, acknowledging its role in shaping the nation's environmental future. With the visible signs of pollution diminishing, activists shift their focus to restoring a healthy habitat for plants and animals in the river. And just last year, the river’s marine life was finally declared safe to eat. But now, an unfortunate accident has jeopardized the river’s progress.

Gesturing toward the fumes of thick smoke, live broadcasters recount how a nearby highway collision spilled fuel into the river, which then lit aflame.

Activists will seize the incident as an opportunity to highlight that even though the Cuyahoga River has come a long way, the storm drains, which still allow city and highway runoff to flow into the water, remain a major source of pollution. The incident will serve as a poignant reminder of the ongoing importance of protecting America's waterways. And that the Cuyahoga is not out of the woods yet, and efforts to clean it, should continue. Today, the water once choked with deadly chemicals has transformed into a river full of life, a testament to five decades of progress and the impact of the fire that helped sparked a movement on June 22nd, 1969.

Outro

Next on History Daily: June 23rd, 2016. The United Kingdom votes to withdraw from the European Union, sending shockwaves through Europe and transforming British politics.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Rhea Purohit.

Produced by Alexandra Currie-Buckner.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.