NEWSBYLISA JACKSON

Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. As part Blog Action Day, she reflects on the importance of protecting America's clean water supply.

When EPA was formed 40 years ago, water pollution was generally something that could be seen, touched, and smelled.  We knew something was wrong when algae began to coat rivers, when the smell from untreated sewage reached our communities, or when massive fish kills appeared in lakes and streams.  Perhaps the most famous example is the Cuyahoga River, which was so covered with pollution and industrial waste that in 1969 it literally caught fire.

Four decades later, we’ve seen considerable progress.  The Clean Water and the Safe Drinking Water Acts have significantly reduced threats to our environment and our health.  The widespread expansion of water infrastructure has brought clean, safe water to millions of Americans.  And the Cuyahoga – along with a number of other water bodies – is cleaner than it has been in generations. 



Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Forty years after the passage of the Clean Air Act, it is extraordinary to look at the numbers.

Numbers like 200,000 -- which is the count of premature deaths the Clean Air Act prevented in its first 20 years. Over the same period, the Act prevented 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis and 21,000 cases of heart disease. It avoided 843,000 asthma attacks and 18 million child respiratory illnesses.

1.7 million is the number of tons of toxic emissions removed from our air every year since 1990. In the last two decades, emissions of six common pollutants dropped 41 percent. Lead in our air is down by 92 percent since 1980.

Here is another: 95 percent. Innovations spurred by the Clean Air Act make the cars we drive today up to 95 percent cleaner than past models.

And as air pollution has dropped over the last 40 years, our national GDP has risen by 207 percent.

The total benefits of the Clean Air Act amount to more than 40 times the costs of regulation. For every one dollar we have spent, we have received more than $40 of benefits in return, making the Clean Air Act one of the most cost-effective things the American people have done for themselves in the last half century.

Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Her mother lived in the Pontchartrain Park neighborhood, where Jackson grew up, at the time Hurricane Katrina hit five years ago. This post originally appeared on CNN.

Pontchartrain Park was -- and still is -- the American dream. The historic African-American neighborhood was born in the 1950s, emerging at the height of the Civil Rights era and Jim Crow segregation laws.

Homes were arranged around a golf course planned by Joseph Bartholomew, who had designed several golf courses in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, but as a black man, was forbidden to play on them.

The homeowners and families in Pontchartrain Park were among the first African-Americans to buy their own homes in the New Orleans suburbs. Despite the racial inequality of the time, they shared a belief that the nation's opportunity should be equal for everyone.

In 2010, Pontchartrain Park is being reborn, re-emerging after the destructive power of Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levee system left the neighborhood devastated. Today's vision is no less bold than it was in the 1950s.

Pontchartrain Park is re-emerging as model of new urbanism, a place where livability, environmental responsibility and economic opportunity come together. My dad, my aunt and uncle, my cousins and the many other Pontchartrain Park pioneers who are no longer with us would be proud.

That's because the first residents of Pontchartrain Park measured their success not by the sizes of their homes, but, like most Americans, by the range of new possibilities opened for the next generation. I was fortunate enough to be part of that "next generation."

The success of my parents and their neighbors became apparent as the kids I grew up with went on to become lawyers, teachers, doctors, artists and more. Some were the first in their families to go to college. The Park was home to Ernest M. Morial, the first African-American mayor of New Orleans. His son Marc Morial went on to be mayor as well.

Today my generation is working to open up new possibilities for our children. Led by our parents' example, some have even committed to moving back to the Park to restore the community that gave us so much.

Lisa P. Jackson is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Imagine if the air was so dirty that you could see the pollution you were breathing. How would you feel if you picked up the paper today and read that the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was so coated with oil slicks and industrial waste that it caught fire? What would you do if you could smell the sewage and pollution from your local lake?

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — one in every ten Americans at the time — stood up to demand a cleaner and healthier environment. This first Earth Day was one of the largest grassroots demonstrations in our history — and it worked. By the end of the year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had been created and Congress had passed the Clean Air Act. Two short years later, the Clean Water Act became law, followed by decades of new innovations that helped to more than double the size of our economy while actually cutting pollution.

Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Change.org asked Ms. Jackson to respond to questions to provide context for her work and the causes she supports.

Change.org: What cause or causes would you most like to promote as a Changemaker and why?

Broadening the way we think about environmentalism is critical. Environmentalism isn't a boutique issue that affects only a few. And environmentalists aren't professionals and specialists. Protecting our air, water and land is all of our jobs. I want to help people see the many ways that environmental issues affect their daily lives. Children's health is affected by chemicals in the products we buy and use in our home. Water and air pollution prevent businesses from investing and creating jobs in our communities. Environmental triggers send people to the hospital with asthma and other breathing problems. Environmentalism is about where we live, work, play and learn. Expanding that perception helps us address issues from climate change to environmental justice to long-standing concerns about air and water.

Change.org: If you could ask 1 million people to all do 1 thing to advance causes that matter to you, what would it be?

Last year, EPA's Energy Star program reached a milestone of one million Energy Star homes. One million American families now have a chance to save money on their energy bills and cut the pollution that threatens our health and causes climate change. These kinds of win-win ideas have a way of catching on and spreading. If I could ask one million people to make their homes more energy efficient or to put fuel efficiency first when buying their next car, we would have a very good start on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and saving money for all Americans.