Love Canal

Love Canal, a small community near Niagara Falls, New York, entered into our national memory starting with a front-page story in the New York Times on August 1, 1978. In that story, it was noted that Hooker Chemical Company had dumped toxic wastes into the ground up until 1953. The article addressed the incidence of birth defects in children in the area. Lois Gibbs, a resident, became a national spokesperson for all those who lived in Love Canal.

Love Canal was named after a Mr. William Love, who attempted to build a canal connecting two levels of Niagara Falls in 1890. His plan ultimately failed, and the only actual accomplishment was the building of a canal about 1 mile long, 15 feet wide, and 10 feet deep. The City of Niagara Falls began using it to dump chemical wastes as early as 1920, and the U.S. Army used the site to bury wastes from chemical warfare experiments. In 1942, Hooker Chemical Company (an arm of Occidental Petroleum) expanded the use of the site and, in 1947, bought the land for its own use. By 1952, the site was filled to capacity with approximately 21,800 tons of toxic wastes.

The local school board was seeking out new land for school buildings as a consequence of population growth. The school board pressed Hooker for the property and the firm refused on several occasions. The community threatened to take over the land by eminent domain and the firm finally agreed to sell the property for $1. The company warned the community of the dangers of the site, of the risks involved with the toxic wastes, and included a 17-line explanation in the agreement outlining the dangers and transferring all liability for the site to the City of Niagara Falls. This transfer of liability has often been ignored in public comment and debate. In the building of the school, the cap directly on top of the waste site was broken through (several drill bits were broken in the process). This breaking of the cap allowed water to seep into the site and toxic chemicals to leach out into the surrounding area.

Starting in 1978, Lois Gibbs, the then president of the Love Canal Homeowners' Association, led the community effort to obtain information about health concerns and to get redress for the situation. The association was opposed by Occidental and by government at all levels. Eventually, in 1980, as a result of extraordinary publicity, President Jimmy Carter declared it a federal emergency and had the residents evacuated from Love Canal. More than 800 families were eventually relocated and reimbursed for their residences. Occidental Petroleum spent more than $200 million on the cleanup.

This incident was used to further national public interest in hazardous waste sites and led to the passage of federal legislation, commonly referred to as the Superfund, to clean up toxic and hazardous waste sites nationwide.