Oil Pollution Control Act

Congressional initiatives in the early twentieth century were reactive rather than proactive, to the extent that comprehensive pollution prevention initiatives did not hold legislative interest and progress was fragmentary and episodic. In 1912, Congress authorized the U.S. Public Health Service to evaluate health effects of navigable water pollutants but not much else. The 1924 Oil Pollution Control Act was passed to control oil spills in America s coastal waters, with enforcement by the U.S. Secretary of War. How well enforcement worked or whether there were fewer oil spills is not evident. 

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