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25 Hous. L. Rev. 741 (1988)
Hazardous Waster and Environmental Liability: An Historical Perspective

handle is hein.journals/hulr25 and id is 755 raw text is: ARTICLES HAZARDOUS WASTE AND ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Martin V. Melosi* The problems associated with hazardous waste were virtually unknown a few years ago. In a remarkably short period of time, however, they have climbed to the top of the American public opinion polls as a source of concern to the American people.1 This remark by Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Jr. in 1982 is represen- tative of the public perception of environmental issues in the United States. Most Americans, if they think about it at all, as- sume that the environmental movement is a product of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some might associate modern environmen- tal concerns with the establishment of Yellowstone Park, the presi- dency of Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot's resource conserva- tion, or John Muir's naturalism; but they fail to connect recent quality of life issues with the more obscure antismoke campaign of the 1910s or the push for sanitary sewers in the 1850s. Similarly, this dwelling on the present causes one to see the hazardous waste problem as growing out of Love Canal (1978) and to date the legis- lative response to the advent of Superfund in 1980. Granted, those most expert in the field acknowledge the complex origins of toxic materials, but too little attention has been paid to the antecedents of the current hazardous waste problems in the United States.2 * Martin V. Melosi, Professor of History, University of Houston. 1. S. EPSTEIN, L BROWN, & C. PoPE. HAzARDous WAsTE IN AumCA ix (1982). 2. See generally C. COLTEN, INDUSTRIAL WASTES IN THE CALUMET AREA. 1869-1970. A HSTORImCAL GEOGRAPHY (Illinois Dept of Energy and Natural Resources (1985) [hereinafter COLTEN. CALUMr]; C. COLTE and G. BREEN. HIsTORICAL INDUSTMAL WASTm DisposAL PRAc- TICES IN WINNEBAGO COUNTY. ILL0s: 1870-1980 (Illinois Dept. of Energy and Natural Re- sources 1986); [hereinafter COLTEN, & BREEN, WINNEBAGO COUNTY]; Tarr, The Search for the

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