Love Canal
Photo 11
Love Canal, located near Niagara Falls, New York was a 16-acre abandoned canal. Between 1942 and 1952, Hooker Chemical and Plastics used the land to bury more than 21,000 tons of harmful chemicals in metal barrels on the site. The city of Niagara falls covered this land and began building a school and homes on it in 1953. During the 1970s, strange odors plagued the city and children sometimes came home with burned hands or faces. An unusually high number of pregnant women miscarried and those who had babies saw an increase in birth defects. Many residents had a high white blood cell count that showed a greater risk for leukemia. On a rainy day in 1977 the canal's chemicals rose to the surface and spilled into the Niagara River. Corroded barrels even broke through the ground, appearing in backyards, swimming pools, and basements.
President Carter ordered emergency aid to Love Canal and helped the residents relocate. This incident led to the Superfund Act of 1980. This law protects people from abandoned toxic waste sites and holds polluters accountable for their actions (Richards 42-43).
Lois Gibbs is credited with exposing the health dangers at love Canal. She wrote, "In 1978, I was living there with my husband and two children when I began to wonder whether the kids' recurring illnesses were connected to the chemical waste. Research conducted by myself and several of my neighbors, coupled with our complaints, eventually led the New York State health commissioner to declare a state of emergency" (Planet Green). |