Closing a major chapter in one of the nation's most notorious environmental disasters, the company that buried chemical wastes at Love Canal reached an out-of-court settlement with New York State yesterday, agreeing to pay $98 million and to take on cleanup work that will extend for decades, at a cost of millions more.
What happened to Love Canal Hooker?
After protracted litigation, 1,300 former residents of Love Canal agreed to a $20,000,000 settlement of their claims against the Occidental Chemical Corporation, which had taken over Hooker in the late 1960s, and the city of Niagara Falls. In the early 1990s New York state ended its cleanup and declared parts of the Love Canal area safe to live in.
What is the LoveLove Canal?
Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a 0.28 km 2 (0.11 sq mi) landfill that became the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s.
Is LoveLove Canal a Superfund site?
Love Canal was the first Superfund site on that list. Eventually, the site was cleaned and deleted off the list in 2004. Because the Superfund Act contained a "retroactive liability" provision, Occidental was held liable for cleanup of the waste even though it had followed all applicable U.S. laws when disposing of it.
Is it safe to live in the Love Canal area?
In the early 1990s New York state ended its cleanup and declared parts of the Love Canal area safe to live in. The area north of the dump site was renamed Black Creek Village, and the state began to auction off houses there.
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What was the outcome of the Love Canal incident?
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 221 families have moved or agreed to be moved.
How were people affected by the Love Canal?
From 1974 to 1978, 56% of the children in the Love Canal neighborhood were born with a birth defect, including three ears, a double row of teeth, and mental retardation. There were almost three times as many defects in historically wet areas. State health authorities quickly dismissed the study.
Who paid for the Love Canal disaster?
The Occidental Chemical Corp.The Occidental Chemical Corp. yesterday agreed to pay $129 million to cover the federal government's cleanup costs at Love Canal, closing another chapter in the nation's most notorious toxic dumping case.
What were the long term effects of the Love Canal?
The Love Canal landfill contained approximately 21,800 tons of chemical wastes. Substantial migration and contamination of soil, groundwater and basement air of nearby homes was apparent in the late 1970s.
Is the Love Canal still toxic?
They say they found toxins "previously found in Love Canal-related sites." Indoors, toxins can get trapped and build up. Tests there found toxin levels 10 to 100 times higher. So far, state officials have declined to test inside residents' homes.
Is Hooker chemical still in business?
The company became notorious in the 1960s, when residents near its chemical waste site, Love Canal, reported extraordinarily high incidences of leukemia, birth defects, and other injuries....Hooker Chemical Company.TypePrivateDefunct1968FateAcquired by Occidental PetroleumArea servedUnited StatesProductschloralkali products4 more rows
Has the Love Canal lawsuit been settled?
Closing a major chapter in one of the nation's most notorious environmental disasters, the company that buried chemical wastes at Love Canal reached an out-of-court settlement with New York State yesterday, agreeing to pay $98 million and to take on cleanup work that will extend for decades, at a cost of millions more.
Was the Love Canal ever cleaned up?
Two decades after Love Canal became the first polluted site on the newly created Superfund list, federal officials announced yesterday that the neighborhood that epitomized environmental horror in the late 1970's was clean enough to be taken off the list.
What is the status of Love Canal now?
Love begins a canal to link the Niagara River to Lake Ontario. The partially completed canal is later abandoned. 1942-1952: Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation takes over the 15-acre canal site in 1942 and by 1952 has buried over 20,000 of tons of toxic chemicals there.
What happened to the residents who lived in Love Canal 35 years ago?
Residents began complaining of miscarriages, urinary and kidney problems and mental disabilities in their children. With Love Canal getting national attention, President Jimmy Carter in 1978 issued a disaster declaration that eventually led to evacuation and compensation for more than 900 families.
What can be learned from the Love Canal tragedy?
Love Canal resulted in stronger state and federal regulation of pollution and dump sites. It led to the creation of the Superfund for cleanup of sites contaminated by hazardous substances.
What happened at Love Canal and why was it significant?
The Love Canal area was originally the site of an abandoned canal that became a dumping ground for nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste (including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, and pesticides) produced by the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation in the 1940s and '50s.
What was buried in Love Canal that caused so many health issues?
Love Canal was sold to the local school district in 1953, after the threat of eminent domain. Over the next three decades, it attracted national attention for the public health problems originating from the former dumping of toxic waste on the grounds.
Why was the Love Canal important?
Love Canal was a major turning point that shaped environmental policy in the US. It is widely cited as the beginning of the anti-toxics movement and was a landmark event in the grassroots struggle for compensation.
What was the Love Canal controversy?
Contamination at a waste dump site in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls became a hotbed issue in 1978. Contamination at a waste dump site in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls became a hotbed issue in 1978. His wife, Teresa, said she's had two miscarriages and numerous unexplained cysts.
What is the Love Canal?
Love Canal, neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, N.Y., U.S., that was the site of the worst environmental disaster involving chemical wastes in U.S. history. The Love Canal area was originally the site of an abandoned canal that became a dumping ground for nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste (including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, ...
How much did Occidental pay for the Love Canal?
In 1994 Occidental agreed to pay $98 million to New York to compensate the state for its contribution to the cleanup of Love Canal. The following year the company settled with the federal government as well, agreeing to pay $129 million over three years. Written by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
When did the Love Canal cleanup end?
In the early 1990s New York state ended its cleanup and declared parts of the Love Canal area safe to live in. The area north of the dump site was renamed Black Creek Village, and the state began to auction off houses there. In 1994 Occidental agreed to pay $98 million to New York to compensate the state for its contribution to the cleanup of Love Canal. The following year the company settled with the federal government as well, agreeing to pay $129 million over three years.
Is the Love Canal safe to live in?
In the early 1990s New York state ended its cleanup and declared parts of the Love Canal area safe to live in.
Why is the Love Canal being closely observed?
A large percentage of people in Love Canal are also being closely observed because of detected high white-blood-cell counts, a possible precursor of leukemia.
Who covered the Love Canal?
Love Canal will always remain a perfect historical example of how not to run such an operation. In 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company , then the owners and operators of the property, covered the canal with earth and sold it to the city for one dollar. It was a bad buy.
What was the name of the canal in Niagara Falls?
It is a cruel irony that Love Canal was originally meant to be a dream community. That vision belonged to the man for whom the three-block tract of land on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, New York, was named--William T. Love.
What is the chemical in Love Canal?
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.
When was the canal turned into a dumpsite?
In the 1920s the seeds of a genuine nightmare were planted. The canal was turned into a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite.
Was Love's city a model city?
Perhaps it wasn't William T. Love's model city, but it was a solid, working-class community. For a while. On the first day of August, 1978, the lead paragraph of a front-page story in the New York Times read:
Is the Love Canal a tragedy?
Quite simply, Love Canal is one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history. But that's not the most disturbing fact. What is worse is that it cannot be regarded as an isolated event. It could happen again--anywhere in this country--unless we move expeditiously to prevent it. It is a cruel irony that Love Canal was originally ...
Why was the Love Canal sold?
Love Canal was sold to the local school district in 1953, after the threat of eminent domain. Over the next three decades, it attracted national attention for the public health problems originating from the former dumping of toxic waste on the grounds.
What was the Love Canal incident?
In 1988, New York State Department of Health Commissioner David Axelrod called the Love Canal incident a "national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations". The Love Canal incident was especially significant as a situation where the inhabitants "overflowed into the wastes instead of the other way around".
How deep was the Niagara Falls canal?
These chemicals were buried at a depth of twenty to twenty-five feet (6 to 7.5 m). Upon its closure, the canal was covered with a clay seal to prevent leakage. Over time, vegetation settled and began to grow atop the dump site. By the 1950s, the city of Niagara Falls was experiencing a population increase.
How deep is the Niagara River?
Only one mile (1.6 km) of the canal was dug, about 50 feet (15 m) wide and 10–40 feet (3–12 m) deep, stretching northward from the Niagara River.
What was the name of the project that Love built?
He named the project Model City , New York. After 1892, Love's plan incorporated a shipping lane that would bypass Niagara Falls. He arranged backing from financial banks in New York City, Chicago, and England. During October 1893, the first factory opened for business. In May 1894, work on the canal began.
What happened in 1907?
The Panic of 1907 combined with the development of the transmission of electrical power over great distances, creating access to hydroelectric power far from water sources, proved disastrous. Love's remaining investors forced Love to abandon the project. The last piece of property owned by his corporation was lost to foreclosure and sold at public auction in 1910.
Why is the Love Canal important?
Love Canal, along with Times Beach, Missouri and the Valley of the Drums, Kentucky, are important in United States environmental history as three sites that significantly contributed to the passing of the CERCLA. Love Canal "become the symbol for what happens when hazardous industrial products are not confined to the workplace but 'hit people where they live' in inestimable amounts".
What is the Love Canal?
Love Canal is an aborted canal project branching off of the Niagara River about four miles south of Niagara Falls. It is also the name of a fifteen-acre, working-class neighborhood of around 800 single-family homes built directly adjacent to the canal. From 1942 to 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, with government sanction, began using the partially dug canal as a chemical waste dump. At the end of this period, the contents of the canal consisted of around 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals, including at least twelve that are known carcinogens (halogenated organics, chlorobenzenes, and dioxin among them). Hooker capped the 16-acre hazardous waste landfill in clay and sold the land to the Niagara Falls School Board, attempting to absolve itself of any future liability by including a warning in the property deed.
What diseases did the Love Canal have?
Public awareness of the disaster unfolded in the late 1970s when investigative newspaper coverage and grassroots door-to-door health surveys began to reveal a series of inexplicable illnesses—epilepsy, asthma, migraines, and nephrosis— and abnormally high rates of birth defects and miscarriages in the Love Canal neighborhood.
How many tons of chemicals were in the canal?
At the end of this period, the contents of the canal consisted of around 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals, including at least twelve that are known carcinogens (halogenated organics, chlorobenzenes, and dioxin among them).
What is the Love Canal lawsuit?
The class action lawsuit for Love Canal alleges that chemicals leaking from the site migrate throughout the area. These leaks infiltrate the groundwater, leaky sewer pipes, and through the air. This exposed the public to the same chemicals that required a full-scale evacuation of the area almost four decades ago. At the time, many of the local activists were dismissed by apathetic New York state officials. Sadly Love Canal is not an isolated incident of an environmental disaster.
What is a class action lawsuit for Love Canal?
The class action lawsuit for Love Canal seeks to address injuries to persons who were exposed to Love Canal chemicals that leached from the landfill and were carried by the City’s sewer system to residential properties. Health impacts proven to be caused by Love Canal chemicals include:
What is the Love Canal?
Love Canal is an area synonymous with hazardous chemical waste and public health impacts. Love Canal is the site of a toxic waste dump created by Hooker Chemical Corp. The Love Canal site caused a public health emergency in the late 1970s. Much of the hazardous waste that caused this historic health and environmental crisis remains at ...
Who is the plaintiff in the Niagara Falls lawsuit?
Napoli Shkolnik has filed a class action lawsuit against the City of Niagara Falls, the Niagara Falls Water Board, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (the former Hooker Chemical Corp.), and other defendants.
Is the Love Canal an environmental disaster?
At the time, many of the local activists were dismissed by apathetic New York state officials. Sadly Love Canal is not an isolated incident of an environmental disaster.
Can you recover money from the Love Canal?
There are no upfront legal fees and we only recover money if we win your case.
How much did Reynolds settle for?
St. Anthony, Minnesota, reached an $800,000 settlement with Reynolds.
How much did Laquan McDonald get?
LaQuan McDonald - $5 million. Family members of Laquan McDonald, including his grandmother (C), leave the sentencing hearing for former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on January 18, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Van Dyke was sentenced to 81 months in prison for McDonald's murder.
Who was Philando Castile's girlfriend?
Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images. Philando Castile was in a car with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and daughter when St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled them over on July 6, 2016.
Why was Loehmann fired?
In 2017, Loehmann was fired from the Cleveland Police Department, not for Rice's death, but for inaccuracies on his job application. At the time, Rice became a central focus in the conversation about community policing. His death sparked protests in Cleveland and on a national scale, according to Voice of America.
Overview
Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a 0.28 km (0.11 sq mi) landfill that became the site of an enormous environmental disaster in the 1970s. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals harmed the health of hundreds of residents; the area was cleaned up over the course of 21 years in a Superfund operation.
In 1890, Love Canal was created as a model planned community, but was only partially develope…
Geography
Love Canal is a neighborhood located in the city of Niagara Falls in the northwestern region of New York state. The neighborhood covers 36 blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, stretching from 93rd Street comprising the western border to 100th Street in the east border and 103rd Street in the northeast. Bergholtz Creek defines the northern border with the Niagara River marking the southern border one-quarter mile (400 m) away. The LaSalle Expressway splits an un…
Early history
In 1890, William T. Love, an ambitious railroad entrepreneur, prepared plans to construct a preplanned urban community of parks and residences on the shore of Lake Ontario, believing it would serve the area's burgeoning industries with much-needed hydroelectricity. He named the project Model City, New York.
After 1892, Love's plan incorporated a shipping lane that would bypass Niagara Falls. He arrang…
Love Canal disaster
At the time of the dump's closure in 1952, Niagara Falls was experiencing prosperity, and the population had been expanding dramatically, growing by 31% in twenty years (1940–1960) from 78,020 to 102,394.
By the end of the 1940s, Hooker Chemical Company was searching for a place to dispose its large quantity of chemical waste. The Niagara Power and Develop…
In popular culture
The legacy of the disaster inspired a fictionalized 1982 made-for-TV film titled Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal. An award-winning documentary by Lynn Corcoran titled In Our Own Backyard was released in the U.S. in 1983. Modern Marvels retold the disaster in 2004.
Joyce Carol Oates included the story of Love Canal in her 2004 novel The Falls, but changed the time period of the disaster to the 1960s. The latest history of Love Canal is Paradise Falls: The T…
See also
• 102nd Street chemical landfill, a landfill located immediately to the south of Love Canal.
• Superfund
• Cancer Alley (in Louisiana)
• Landfills in the United States
External links
• Love Canal Collections in the University Archives, University at Buffalo Libraries
• Adeline Levine Love Canal Papers at The Buffalo History Museum
• Love Canal Medical Fund, Inc.
• New York Heritage: Love Canal Images