Earth Day marks it's 40th year; working together for a cleaner, healthier environment for America, the world Published April 22, 2010 By 349th AMW Public Affairs TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The First Earth Day in April 1970. It may be hard to imagine that before 1970, a factory could spew black clouds of toxic into the air or dump tons of toxic waste into a nearby stream, and that was perfectly legal. They could not be taken to court to stop it. How was that possible? Because there was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, no Clean Water Act. There were no legal or regulatory mechanisms to protect our environment. In spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to "force this issue onto the national agenda." 20 million Americans demonstrated in different U.S. cities, and it worked! In December 1970, Congress authorized the creation of a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 1970, President Richard Nixon and Congress established the U.S. EPA in response to the growing public demand for cleaner water, air and land. The EPA was tasked with the challenging goal of repairing the damage already done to the environment and to establish guidelines to help Americans in making a cleaner--and safer--environment a reality. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. For more information on Earth Day and how you can make a difference visit: www.epa.gov/earthday/. (Editor's note: information on Earth Day was compiled from http://www.epa.gov/earthday/.)