The Love Canal

Heather Ahlgrim

The Love C

anal was

originally

built to be a

dream socie

ty…

Public Health

Time Bomb…

$1.6 billion

cleanup

• The Love canal was named after William T. Love. He wanted to build a canal from the Niagra River to Lake Russia.

• He built about a mile of the canal when he ran out of money.

• The pit filled with water and it became a regular dumping site for the City of Niagra Falls.

• In the 1940’s the U.S. Army began using the site to dump wastes from the WWII effort including some waste from the Manhattan Project.

• In 1940, Hooker Chemical Company began looking for a place to dump the large amount of chemical waste it was producing.

• The Niagara Power company granted permission for them to dump waste into the Love Canal in 1942.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

• This dumpsite was in operation until 1953. During this time, 21000 tons of chemicals were dumped.

• In 1947 Hooker bought the canal and after 1953 the canal was covered with soil and vegetation grew on top of it.

• In 1953 the Niagara Falls City School District needed land to build new schools. Hooker refused to sell because of the safety concerns.

• Faced with the property being condemned, they agreed to sell it for one dollar.

• After schools were completed in 1955, 400 children attended.

• A 25 foot area crumbled exposing toxic chemical drums, which filled with water during rainstorms, children enjoyed playing in these…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

• The school sold unused land to homeowners. The land where the homes built was not part of the agreement thus, none of these residents knew about the waste.

• The residents began noticing chemical pools in their yards and basements.

• A reporter from Niagara Falls Gazzette tested the water and found the chemicals but no one could prove that the chemicals came from the Hooker pit.

• In 1978 he went door to door surveying for birth defects. He found an abnormal amount of these.

• Resident Karen Schroeder (12 defects) organized a protest group.

• On August 7, 1978 President Carter declared the Love Canal to be a federal health emergency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal• http://www.rapingmothernature.com