Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution in the Steel City 1945 50 Key In the 1940s NO ONE escaped the pollution from the steel plants though it was certainly experienced variably according to race class and particular pollutant You should know the lakeshore environment that was remade in the process of producing Gary and the social and ecological reasons it was a good place for steel production Gary s Natural Ecology 1900 Only thirty miles from Chicago swamps and dunes still dominated the landscape S and mounds hugged the lakeshore giving way to a series of shorter sand ridges further inland Marshes lagoons and swamps filled the intervening depressions A diverse animal population that included wolves ducks and bald eagles T he Grand Calumet and the Little Calumet meandered through the region sustaining a varied fish population A few scattered farming villages marked the only human imprint on this section of northwest Indiana 16 Gary s Social Ecological Location Was ideal for plant construction and the transportation of both raw materials and finished products Abundant land allowed sufficient room for steel mills and subsidiary manufacturing plants If the company required additional space it could extend the shoreline by filling the lake Steelmaking demanded vast amounts of water for cooling Lake Michigan furnished an endless supply Moreover the lake provided a water route to the rich Mesabi ore fields in Minnesota while existing railway lines connected the site with eastern coalfields and midwestern steel markets 17 Gary and its sprawl In 1906 the corporation supervised the building of a city to house its workers But as Gary s population swelled from 10 000 in 1908 to over 110 000 by the outbreak of World War II urban development shifted toward Gary s outskirts filling in areas that had once been woodlands swamps and dunes New Industrial Landscape Altered Shoreline Built a boat harbor cut a ship canal filled in land extending the coastline 700 feet further into the lake The flood prone Grand Calumet River was moved one quarter of a mile to the south and confined it to a straight channel The duneland terrain was leveled by removing 12 million cubic yards of sand and draining swamps on proposed factory sites U S Steel had replaced thousands of acres of dunes and marshes with concrete foundations steel buildings heavy machinery and fiery furnaces Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution II Gary Works coke plant Gary Sheet and Tin American Bridge Cement Plant Smaller steel products manufacturers all companies recycled when it made economic sense and polluted when it didn t matter Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution II What is slag Generated at 1 million tons per year Used to fill the lake to extend industrial production Still huge quantities of slag had to be disposed of elsewhere So the company took advantage of the plentiful swampland along the lakefront by using it as a repository for much of this refuse Slag and other wastes were discarded in vacant pits and lagoons scattered throughout the property 16 17 Finishing mill scales were mixed with lubricants to get them into natural now waste lagoons Cleaning acids as they lost effective strength were washed into pits rivers and the lake Cement dust and particulates in remarkable quantities KEY However s mokestacks and pipes carried most of the wastes beyond the company s borders into the community s air and water 17 From East to West Coke Ovens coal coke Plus Sintering Plant iron ore metallurgical dust Into Blast Furnaces Then into Open Hearth Furnaces Then into Ingot Molds Then into Ingot Strippers Then into Soaking Pits Then into Primary Mills Then into Finishing Mills Broken Link to The Picture Slide Show Well the link didn t seem to work If you want to review the pictures of Gary during the early years go back to the syllabus and click on the link PicturesofGary ppt Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution IV All steps generated chemical particulate and heat pollution Pollution impaired health damaged property and forced adjustments in daily behavior Although few escaped the deleterious effects of industry s environmental tampering individuals experiences with the industrial environmental varied considerably Yet social background did not always predict exposure levels to pollution 22 In a 43 point rating system on the job exposure to acids fumes and dirt was worth less than one point Skill and training on the other hand counted for much more and largely determined an individual s wage 23 Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution V Within the mills a distinct pattern emerged linking environmental exploitation with income ethnicity and race Whites with northern European backgrounds working in management and skilled craft positions attained the greatest insulation from hazardous wastes and received the highest wages More recent European immigrants occupied a middling position benefiting from upward mobility they concentrated in semi skilled production jobs that paid moderately and involved some exposure to noxious waste emissions Blacks and Mexicans fared the worst earning the least and laboring under the harshest conditions 25 Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution VI Except for Jews and African Americans rigid barriers did not segregate the social lives of Gary s various ethnic groups and classes Yet income and cultural preferences did in effect separate the population into discrete cells of social activity 25 Unlike water and air land was privately owned and stationary Once industry purchased a site others rarely made competing claims on the property 36 Once residency patterns were set exposure to pollution was set as well Pollution and Residency Airborne wastes caused long term health problems as well Coke ovens released carcinogenic gases while lead cadmium manganese nickel beryllium and chromium discharges caused ailments ranging from hypertension to lung cancer Thus north side residents particularly those clustered around the downtown area encountered the greatest health risks associated with air pollution often facing more danger than steelworkers inside the mills who tended to be younger and healthier 27 Ch 2 The Perils of Pollution VII While neighborhoods were segregated by ethnicity class and marital status there was a fairly even distribution of kinds of neighborhoods within the city during the first 30 years of so fo the city s history Thus in contrast to the situation at the workplace where race and class largely determined exposure to pollutants the burdens of industrial resource