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• THE LEGACY OF LOVE CANAL problems as well as increased miscarriages and A Case Study birth defects all began to come to the attention of Student Information Sheet government and health authorities. As news of health risks mounted, many residents became The once thriving neighborhood in the Love Canal convinced that their health was endangered. Some section of Niagara Falls, New York, now looks like residents like Jim and Ursula Clark tried to sell a boarded-up ghost town. The empty streets and heir homes. But they couldn't attract any buyers, abandoned homes are silent testimony to the even after offering their$50,000 home for S1 dangers posed by improper hazardous waste disposal. In August of 1978, the New York State Health Department investigated the area. They found 82 Love Canal, named for William T. Love, is a half- chemicals,including a dozen potentially carcino- ' mile trench. Love had the trench dug during the genic or cancer-causing substances. They ce- 1890s as part of an industrial project to channel ciared a health emergency for the 240 homes water from the Niagara River. The project failed bordering the canal. The families were relocated, ' but the trench remained. Over the years the their homes were purchased by the government, trench or canal became a disposal site for chemi- and work to contain the oozing chemicals was cal wastes. During the 1940s and early 1950s the Begun. These measures cost state, federal, and Hooker Chemical Company buried 21,800 tons of local agencies more than $27 million. ' wastes in the abandoned canal. Most or the wastes were contained in steel drums. Thev were Unfortunately, the chemical leaks did not stop at then buried in clay to seal them off from rainwater. ,he homes directly bordering the canal. An infor- mal study conducted by the EPA found that 11 of The canal site was sold by Hooker Comoany to 36 Love Canal residents tested had developed the local school board for$1. A school was built chromosome damage. This kind of damage is ' on the land and a neighborhood developea around linked to birth defects. The methods of the study it. But even the bargain price tag would not have were criticized by researchers because they did attracted buyers if anyone had known that the not compare blood samples with people living dump site was like a ticking environmental time outside the Love Canal area. But the high incl- ' bomb ready to go off. Bence of miscarriages and birth defects was alarming. Of the fifteen babies born to Love Canal When the school and homes were built the con- families between January 1979 and January 1980, struction of the underground utilities may have the Love Canal Homeowner's Association re- damaged the clay cap over the landfill. Cracks in ported that only two were normal. The others had the clay allowed snow and rainwater to seep into birth defects or were stillborn. ' the Love Canal and overflow. The chemicals, some of which had corroded through steel drums. Many of the residents remaining in the neighbor- then began oozing to the surface anc seeping hood were frightened and frustrated. They wanted into the basements of unsuspecting homeowners to move but knew that no one would buy their nearoy. Some chemicals leached into soil and nomes. Jo Ann Kott, a Love Canal resident who groundwater and made their way into nearoy had suffered a miscarriage and astillbirth,claimed: streams. "I want a fair market value for my house and to get ' ,his nightmare over with." The Love Canal Community residents began to notice noxious Homeowner's Association president, Lois Gibbs, fumes and pools of thick blacK sludge on the sent a telegram to President Carter: "Don't let our ground. Some school children oegan to complain people get lost in a sea of red tape as we watch ' of rashes and respiratory proclems. Eient-year- our babies fiehting sickness and growing up into • old Jon Kenney usea to play in a neienborhood an uncertain future." The distraught residents creek with his friends. Traces of the deadly also held two EPA officials"hostage"for six hours ' chemical dioxin were found in the creeK. Jon n the Association's headquarters to draw atten- Kenney died of kidney failure. Kidnev and liver non to their plight. t ' 160 The No Waste Anthology