A great Lake Tahoe scene ruined by pollution. Photograph by Belinda Rain for DOCUMERICA, May 1972.
Beer cans littering the shore area of Lake Tahoe. Wait! We know a better use for those beer cans! Call Michael Reynolds. He can use them for one of his Taos, NM, beer can houses.
Photograph 1 by Belinda Rain for DOCUMERICA, May 1972
Photograph 2 by David Hiser for DOCUMERICA, June 1974
Now let’s turn to water pollution photos by Marc St. Gil. St. Gil did his DOCUMERICA assignments in South-central Texas. Remember the hippies from my past feature. St. Gil took many of those in Leakey, Texas. But it appears St. Gil also worked in the Lake Charles, Louisiana, area in June 1972.
If there were no people in these photographs, it would be a whole different story I think. The context of people swimming, actually immersing themselves in water so close to pollution producing industry is just unthinkable. Yet the swimmers in these photos don’t seem to be worried at all, and seem to be enjoying their time in the water.
Original caption: Olin Mathieson Chemical Plant on Far Side of Lake 07/1972. Photo by Marc St. Gil.
Can you image that people still might be visiting the shores of Lake Charles for recreation? Well, here’s your answer: http://on.msnbc.com/JdMMJb
