Love Canal - A City Built On A Toxic Dump

An area in Niagara Falls, New York was turned into a chemical and municipal disposal site by Hooker Chemical in 1920. Thirty-three years later the disposal site was full. The business used relatively modern means to cover it. They sealed the dump with a thick coating of water-resistant red clay, hoping that it would preclude any chemicals from leaking from their landfill.

Shortly thereafter a colse to city wanted to buy the dumpsite in order to expand. Hooker cautioned against it but ultimately sold the site for one dollar. The business said it couldn't sell it for more because they didn't want to make a profit form a scheme that they belief was so unwise.

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When the city began digging to build a sewage principles they damaged the red clay that sealed the dumpsite. Nonetheless, a school and several blocks of housing were built. They called the neighborhood Love Canal.

Except for the smell, all about Love Canal seemed pretty normal. But the smell was terrible. Strange odors ordinarily permeated the air. These odors probably emanated from the unusual seepage that a lot of the homeowners found in their yards and basements.

Then children in the area started to get ill and the families that lived there experienced birth defects and miscarriages.

An activist, Lois Gibbs, began to document the high occurrence of birth defects and illnesses in the area. In 1978, the existence of the chemical waste dump was revealed by the newspapers. Gibbs soon began to appeal that the school should be closed.

After a neighborhood child became a victim of chemical poisoning the school was ordered ended by the Nys condition department in August of that year.

Subsequent study established that in excess of 130 pounds of Tcdd - a highly toxic carcinogen, which is a type of dioxin - was found.

The 20,000 tons of waste in the landfill consisted mostly of refuse from chemical weapons study and residues from pesticides. The waste contained almost 250 distinct kinds of chemicals.

These chemicals had already found their way into the yards, homes, creeks and sewers of Love Canal. Gibbs decided that the time had come to move the more than 900 families who lived in the area away from Love Canal.

Ultimately President Carder provided the money to move the families. The parent business of Hooker Chemical was sued. They located for million.

Then, about twenty years later, some of the Love Canal houses started to show up in the housing market. Most of the homes are now for sale. But even though the neighborhood was renamed, the homes have such a bad prestige that the banks are refusing to offer mortgages on them.

What may be even sadder is the fact that not one of the chemicals has been removed from the dump. Instead, the site has been resealed. An added 0 million was paid by Hooker's mom business to finance the "cleanup" and they are now responsible for managing the dumpsite.

The area colse to the site has since been declared safe.

Love Canal - A City Built On A Toxic Dump

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