1969: A Banner Year for River Fires

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was so clogged with floating logs, oil, old tires, paints, sewage, and flammable chemicals that the city declared it a fire hazard. Indeed, it did catch on fire in March of 1969, sparking so much public indignation that a legal framework for protecting water, the Clean Water Act, was passed three years later.

But not as many people know that the Buffalo River caught on fire a couple months earlier in January of 1969. (It's not a Buffalo first to be proud of, I know, but we take what we can get.)

David Beach, a blogger in Cleveland, argues that the fire in 1969 was a "great turning point in collective consciousness." By 2019, he says, the 50th anniversary of the river fire in Cleveland, we should push for environmental transformation in the Great Lakes.

Buffalo will share this anniversary in 2019. We missed the Clean Water Act deadline of fishable and swimmable waters by 1983. Let's at least make this deadline.