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National Coast Anti Pollution League
With the Roaring Twenties came the new predicament of pollution and environmental recklessness. Large amounts of oil spilled out of the city sewers and caused harbor fires in New Orleans, Baltimore, and Mobile. Industrial waste, oil waste, and sewage did not have a standard policy for disposal.
In the summer of 1922, harbor stations were asked to report on the state of water pollution there. The port in New Orleans was devastated by a fire the year before, which was believed to have been started by the extensive oil pollution. Over a year later, the station reported that "no beach can be considered suitable for recreation." Baltimore detailed a considerable negative impact on the marine life and birds because of pollution in the port. Charleston as well stated, "local fisherman complain of injury to fishing and say fish have been driven away from harbor inlets." In Glouster, the effects were social as well as environmental since "a thick scum has caused serious damage to fish and sea life. It has also caused much discontent and complaint from tourists." A decrease in tourism alarmed the communities, inspiring politicians to make a change in order to gain back that source of revenue.
Congressman T. Frank Appleby of New Jersey started writing letters in the summer of 1922 to gain support for a conference to stop oil pollution. While his reasoning was not altogether altruistic, he reasoned that "not only is oil dumping ruining the bathing beaches, but the depreciation in value of millions of dollars of seashore property from this cause is most alarming." Officials saw the problem of pollution as a serious economic concern, so they held a national conference to inspire change.
The first conference was held in Atlantic City on August 10-11, 1922. Representatives from different cities, trade organizations, and chambers of commerce all the way from Maine to Florida met to discuss a plan. They named themselves The National Coast Anti-Pollution League on the first day and elected Teddy Roosevelt's Forest Service chief, Gifford Pinchot, as the president of the committee. The aims of the conference were two-fold: first, to clean up the beaches to increase property values and beach recreation; second, to clean up the oceans to protect wildlife. Birds all along the coastline were found drifting ashore dead. The oil in the ports soaked into their feathers, causing irritation to the skin and a loss of feathers so that the birds died of pneumonia. News publications widely supported the conference and predicted great changes in the state of the ports. However, despite these great hopes, the legislation was postponed for a year. The next year a second meeting in Atlantic City showed more results. In it, the Oil Pollution Act was passed, which prohibited intentional dumping from ships in the U.S. coastal waters, but it did not mention anything about the land-based oil pollution sites. Although it was not as strict as some would have liked, the new law allowed the Corps to investigate and correct problems. Garbage dumping was taken offshore so it did not endanger the beaches, and refineries improved their production processes over time to make the surrounding areas safer.
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