Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls named after a large ditch approximately 15 m wide, 3—12 m deep, and m long that was dug in the s for hydroelectric power. The ditch was abandoned before it actually generated any power and went mostly unused for decades, except for swimming by local residents. Army dumped waste from World War II there, including waste from the frantic effort to build a nuclear bomb. Hooker Chemical purchased the land in and lined it with clay.
Then, the company put into Love Canal an estimated 21, tons of hazardous chemical waste, including the carcinogens benzene, dioxin, and PCBs in large metal barrels and covered them with more clay. The school board promptly built a public school on the site and sold the surrounding land for a housing project that built or so homes along the canal banks and another 1, in the neighborhood Figure 1.
Of the chemicals which comprise the brew seeping through the ground and into homes at Love Canal, one of the most prevalent is benzene -- a known human carcinogen, and one detected in high concentrations. But the residents characterize things more simply. His daughter also suffers from a congenital defect. On that same day, President Carter approved emergency financial aid for the Love Canal area the first emergency funds ever to be approved for something other than a "natural" disaster , and the U.
Senate approved a "sense of Congress" amendment saying that Federal aid should be forthcoming to relieve the serious environmental disaster which had occurred. By the month's end, 98 families had already been evacuated.
Another 46 had found temporary housing. Soon after, all families would be gone from the most contaminated areas -- a total of families have moved or agreed to be moved. A plan is being set in motion now to implement technical procedures designed to meet the seemingly impossible job of detoxifying the Canal area.
The plan calls for a trench system to drain chemicals from the Canal. It is a difficult procedure, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will yield some degree of success. I have been very pleased with the high degree of cooperation in this case among local, State, and Federal governments, and with the swiftness by which the Congress and the President have acted to make funds available. Unlike Love Canal, few are situated so close to human settlements. But without a doubt, many of these old dumpsites are time bombs with burning fuses -- their contents slowly leaching out.
And the next victim cold be a water supply, or a sensitive wetland. The presence of various types of toxic substances in our environment has become increasingly widespread -- a fact that President Carter has called "one of the grimmest discoveries of the modern era. Love Canal can now be added to a growing list of environmental disasters involving toxics, ranging from industrial workers stricken by nervous disorders and cancers to the discovery of toxic materials in the milk of nursing mothers.
Through the national environmental program it administers, the Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to draw a chain of Congressional acts around the toxics problem. Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, EPA is making grants available to States to help them establish programs to assure the safe handling and disposal of hazardous wastes.
With the help of a dedicated volunteer scientist, LCHA began to interview families and plotted results on a map which showed a clustering of diseases. Using old aerial photographs, geological survey maps and personal photographs from residents, LCHA determined that when the area was developed, some stream beds were filled with dirt and rubble. But water still flowed easily through these routes: Even though there was no surface evidence of these stream beds, they provided an easy pathway for chemicals to flow out of the canal.
Completed in , the study found increases amoung residents in miscarriages, still births, crib deaths, nervous breakdowns, hyperactivity, epilepsy and urinary tract disorders. There were almost three times as many defects in historically wet areas. State health authorities quickly dismissed the study. So the community went back to the streets and explained their problems to the public.
Thousands of people wrote letters and sent telegrams to the Governor, to legislators and to the President. Residents created so much pressure and public outcry that the health authorities were forced to investigate the claims. Finally, in October of a total evacuation of the community was ordered by President Carter. Everyone who lived at the Love Canal had the option of moving away, with the government purchasing their homes at fair market value.
The Next Chapter Every step a government agency took to address the damage done from toxic chemicals at Love Canal, from the health studies to evacuation, was done for political reasons. None of the decisions were initiated based on scientific evidence.
LCHA truly believes that if it had not been for the large, strong citizen organization, families would still be living at Love Canal with the health authorities saying there were no health problems. Love Canal awoke a community to the unpleasantness and unfortunate realization of how toxic wastes affect out lives, and destroy our environment. Residents at Love Canal always believed that the government would automatically protect them. Love Canal quickly came to symbolize the looming environmental disaster represented by untold numbers of toxic waste disposal sites scattered throughout America.
Legislators and activists alike have tapped the momentum generated by Love Canal activism in their efforts to deal with this dangerous and costly problem. On the level of public policy, lawmakers used the national publicity generated by the Love Canal disaster to push for new legislation to hold polluters financially responsible for cleaning up their toxic waste sites.
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