STORY OF LOVE CANAL

ANOTHER CATASTROPHE MAP HALL OF FAME STORY!

An early example of grass roots activism that paid off to some extent, this story is both inspiring and depressing. The depressing part is how little the regard for human life on the part of coporate america and their government atavars has changed.

In 1978, the Niagra Falls subdivision/neigh-borhood known as Love Canal was condemned and the residents relocated at government expense. Another way to phrase "government expense" is "at your expense". But you didn't cause the problem at Love Canal. It was caused by a toxic soup of chemicals and nuclear waste seldom equaled on this planet. And the people who did it and then covered it up never paid.

Most disaster areas are the result of sudden acts of nature, such as hurricanes and floods. This one, however is man made and was preceded by literally decades of criminal coverups on the part of chemical companies and the government.

Urban renewal at Love Canal

HISTORY:
Love Canal was the ill-fated brain child of a dreamer named William T. Love, who attempted to generate cheap electric power by digging a canal between the Upper and Lower falls of Niagra Falls in 1890. For a number of reasons that didn't work out. Between 1942 through 1953 the Hooker Chemical Company (a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum,) dumped 21,800 tons of hazardous waste into the canal. In 1953, Hooker covered the canal with earth and sold it to the city of Niagra Falls for one dollar. The city built an elementary school on top of it. The architect who was hired to build the school questioned the safety of building on the land after finding a pit of chemicals but since he did not know what type of chemicals they were, he noted only that they could weaken the foundation of the building and did not mention that they could kill kids. The Board of Education ignored this and continued to build.

The school was soon followed by a blue collar subdivision. Residents of the contaminated site, particularly children, had suffered from a variety of sicknesses and birth defects for several years. Some had even died. Nobody knew exactly why, but in the mid seventies many residents and environmentalists suggested that the illnesses might be caused by that strange gunk that bubbled up in people's basements whenever there was flooding.

Following a record rainfall in 1978, the chemicals began leaching out the the Canal and into the yards of the houses and school built on it. Corroding waste-disposal drums could be seen breaking up through the grounds of backyards. Trees and gardens were turning black and dying. Puddles of contamination filled yards and basements. Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces. Bad sign, maybe we should move.

Hooker's first response was to stall and conceal evidence. However, a Niagara Gazette reporter finally took some sludge from a neighbor's sump pump and had it analyzed. The results showed that the sludge was definitely from what the Hooker Chemical Company had disposed of in the ground.

At that point, municipal and environmental authorities stepped in and took the situation in hand. NOT.

Read more about Love Canal