Love Canal disaster
The Love Canal disaster refers to a significant environmental and public health crisis that emerged in Niagara Falls, New York, from 1976 to 1980. This tragedy unfolded when it was discovered that toxic chemical wastes, buried in the area by Hooker Electrochemical Corporation between 1942 and 1952, severely contaminated the neighborhood. The site, originally intended for a power canal, became a dumping ground for over 21,800 tons of hazardous chemicals, including known carcinogens like dioxin. As residents began to experience alarming health issues, including respiratory problems and high rates of birth defects, community member Lois Gibbs played a crucial role in advocating for action and awareness regarding the contamination.
In response to growing health concerns, the New York state health commissioner closed the local school in 1978 and initiated evacuations. Eventually, the federal government ordered a complete evacuation of affected families by 1980. The Love Canal incident became a catalyst for environmental reform, leading to the establishment of the Superfund program in 1980, which aimed to address and remediate hazardous waste sites across the United States. Although cleanup efforts were completed in the late 1990s, the area remained under ongoing monitoring due to its classification as a hazardous site. The legacy of Love Canal continues to serve as a pivotal example of the consequences of improper waste disposal and the power of community activism in confronting environmental injustices.
Love Canal disaster
THE EVENT: Devastation of a community in Niagara Falls, New York, as the result of the burial of toxic chemical wastes in the area some years before.
DATES: 1976–80
The events that took place at Love Canal demonstrate the environmental damage and dangers to human health posed by the improper disposal of toxic wastes. The Love Canal case also shows how informed and active citizens can influence legislators and policy makers to address environmental problems.
The discovery and identification of dangerous chemical wastes in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, in 1976 transformed a where the residents’ livelihoods depended on the chemical companies long established in the area. Houses were boarded up and abandoned, a school was left empty and falling down, warning signs were posted, and the entire area was fenced off. The completeness of the human and ecological devastation at Love Canal made it the standard against which all subsequent chemical disasters have been compared. The toxic terror generated by Love Canal was caused by chemical waste buried at a time when the term “pollution” was not yet part of the American vocabulary.
In 1892, entrepreneur William Love arrived in Niagara Falls with plans to construct a navigable power canal between the upper and lower portions of the Niagara River and use the 90-meter (300-foot) drop in water level to generate electric energy. Digging began in May 1894, but the depressed state of the economy at the time resulted in a withdrawal of investment capital, which ended the project with the canal less than one-half finished. Love Canal became the property of the Niagara Power and Development Company, which gave the Hooker Electrochemical Corporation permission in 1942 to wastes in the canal. The site was considered to be ideal for disposal of chemical wastes as the walls were lined with clay, which has a low level of permeability. Hooker purchased the property in 1947.
Between 1942 and 1952, Hooker disposed of 21,800 tons of chemicals at the site, burying them at depths of 6 to 8 meters (20 to 25 feet). The majority of the chemicals were contained in metal and fiber barrels, although some waste was reputedly dumped directly into the canal. The customary method for disposal of chemical wastes throughout the United States in the 1950s was to dump them directly into unlined pits, lagoons, rivers, lakes, or surface impoundments; wastes were also sometimes burned. Apart from disposal into bodies of water, these methods were legal up until 1980.
In 1953, Hooker filled the canal and topped it with a 0.5-meter (2-foot) clay cap. Beneath lay 43.6 million pounds of eighty-two different chemical residues. Included were benzene, a chemical known to cause anemia and leukemia; lindane, to which results in convulsions and excess production of white blood cells; chloroform, a that attacks respiratory, nervous, and gastrointestinal systems; trichloroethylene, a carcinogen that attacks genes, livers, and nervous systems; and methylene chloride, which can cause recurring respiratory distress and death. However, the most dangerous chemical in the waste was dioxin, a component of the 200 tons of trichlorophenol dumped in the canal. Dioxin has been described as one of the most powerful known carcinogens.
Shortly after the canal was filled, the Niagara Falls Board of Education purchased the canal property for the token sum of $1 on the condition that the board warn future owners of the buried chemicals, use the land only as a park with the school in close proximity, and build no houses on the property. However, shortly after taking possession, the school board removed 13,000 cubic meters (17,000 cubic yards) of topsoil from the canal for grading at the site of the 99th Street School and the surrounding area. City workers then installed a that punctured both the canal walls and the clay covering to facilitate adjacent housing tracts. Breaks in the clay cap and walls of the canal created openings through which the toxic chemicals eventually flowed.
During the winter of 1975-1976, heavy snowfall caused the level to rise in the Love Canal area, filling the uncovered canal. Portions of the landfill subsided, and waste storage drums surfaced in a number of locations. Surface water, heavily contaminated with chemicals, was found in the backyards of houses bordering the canal. Residents complained of discomfort and illness caused by unpleasant chemical odors coming from the canal.
Lois Gibbs, president of the Love Canal Homeowners Association, united the community and became an effective and persuasive advocate for families seeking government aid. Gibbs involved herself in December 1977, when her son, Michael, began to experience asthma and seizures just four months after he entered kindergarten at the 99th Street School. She went door-to-door and questioned other residents about their health in an attempt to discover the full extent of contamination. In 1979, Gibbs traveled to Washington, DC, where she testified before Congress on behalf of the Love Canal homeowners.
In 1977, studies conducted by Niagara Falls city and New York state health officials showed extensive affecting 57 percent of the homes at the southern end of the canal and a “moderate excess of spontaneous abortions and low birth weight infants occurring in households on 99th Street bordering the landfill.” In August 1978, the New York state health commissioner closed the 99th Street School and evacuated 240 families living within two blocks of the canal. In October 1980, after the of the alarming results of a health study conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), President Jimmy Carter ordered a total evacuation of the community.
The chemical disaster at Love Canal left behind a legacy of lawsuits and bitterness. In October 1983, a tentative settlement of the billions of dollars in lawsuits was reached by lawyers of the Hooker Electrochemical Corporation, the city of Niagara Falls, the Niagara Falls Board of Education, Niagara County, and former residents of the Love Canal area. Claims against Hooker and the public agencies totaled $16 billion. On February 19, 1984, former residents of Love Canal received payments ranging from $2,000 to $400,000.
In November 1980, Congress passed legislation to deal with the cleanup of toxic wastes. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly referred to as Superfund, established a $1.6 billion fund for the cleanup of hazardous substances to be administered by the EPA. The money was to be used when “no responsible party could be identified or when the responsible party refuses to or is unable to pay for such a cleanup.”
Ongoing Concerns
Although cleanup was completed in the late 1990s, Love Canal remained on the Superfund list until 2004. Some areas were designated off-limits for residential use, but plots east of the canal were designated acceptable for commercial and industrial use. However, in 2023 the New York Times reported that some of the homes in that area were sold in the early 2020s. In interviews, people living within the vicinity of the canal had mixed opinions about the area's safety in terms of health.
Love Canal remained a Class 4 site. This means it has been closed but requires ongoing site management and monitoring.
Bibliography
Blum, Elizabeth D. Love Canal Revisited: Race, Class, and Gender in Environmental Activism. UP of Kansas, 2008.
Gibbs, Lois. Love Canal: My Story. State University of New York P, 1982.
Gibbs, Lois. Love Canal: The Story Continues . . .. New Society, 1998.
Gibbs, Lois. “What Happened at Love Canal.” 1982. So Glorious a Landscape: Nature and the Environment in American History and Culture, edited by Chris J. Magoc. WScholarly Resources, 2002.
Layzer, Judith A. “Love Canal: Hazardous Waste and the Politics of Fear.” In The Environmental Case: Translating Values into Policy. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2002.
Levine, Adelaine Gordon. Love Canal: Science, Politics, and People. Lexington Books, 1982.
McKinley, Jesse. "His Home Sits Alongside America's First Superfund Site. No One Told Him." The New York Times, 14 June 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/nyregion/love-canal-toxic-homes.html. Accessed 19 July 2024.
"Superfund Site: Love Canal Niagara Falls, NY." US Environmental Protection Agency, cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0201290. Accessed 19 July 2024.