Love Canal
Love Canal is the name of a district of Niagara Falls in upstate New York. Love Canal referred simultaneously one of the first major toxic waste scandals that powered the emerging environmental consciousness of the carefree 1970s after decades of dealing with chemical waste.
- 2.1 Purchase by the school board and school construction
- 2.2 Construction of a residential district
Prehistory
Creation of the channel section
The name derives from the entrepreneur William T. Love, who wanted to build a model city with planned population of 600,000 in the early 1890s. A channel should allow navigation between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, the slope of the channel should provide hydroelectric power for the planned settlement of many industrial plants. Love reached financing from banks in the Group to John Pierpont Morgan and completed a remarkable agreement with the State of New York, which allowed him not only the procurement of the building ground for the planned city, but also to take the Niagara River as much water as he wanted, to the drying up of Niagara Falls.
The project was initially delayed by the depression of the 1890s and was shattered finally by the almost simultaneous development of alternating current technology by Nikola Tesla. Thus, it was possible, hydropower, converted into alternating current to transport over long distances and decentralized use. An economic basis for an industrial project Loves centralization around a huge Mühlkanal around was no longer given and the work was stopped after the channel trench of about 1.5 km in length and 20 meters wide had been dug.
Loves project company was liquidated, with the last plots were sold in the 1920s.
1920-1942: use of the channel trench as landfill
The canal trench and the surrounding land was auctioned in 1920 and acquired by the City of Niagara Falls, which turned the channel as a landfill for its thriving chemical industry. The United States Army used the landfill to bury waste from experiments with chemical warfare agents.
1942-1952: intensification of use as Giftmüllabladeplatz by Hooker
As of 1942, the Company Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, the deposit of toxic waste expanded considerably. It acquired the site in 1947 and stored until 1952 approximately 14,000 cubic meters of toxic waste into the canal digging a. Then the capacity limit was reached and Hooker brought an insulating layer of clay and brought the channel to ambient level. The terrain was so closed to further waste dumping.
Colonization of the site
Purchase by the school board and school construction
Since Niagara Falls because of the " baby boom " strong growth, the school board was very interested in its reasonable ground for a primary school and entered into negotiations with Hooker Chemical. This initially refused to sell and then tried to leave commit a exclusive use of the area as a parking lot. But not without making eight drilling before the members of the school board, two of which are actually encountered chemicals - Hooker Chemicals gave the land to eventually symbolic price of one U.S. dollar after the school board had threatened expropriation. The purchase agreement contained a disclaimer for Hooker was explicitly stated and warned of problems with the building.
The location of the planned school had to be moved during construction because the original location of chemical -filled pits were discovered. The new location was directly above the former toxic waste dump. The excavation work the clay layer, which Hooker had be affixed, was broken.
Construction of a residential district
In 1957 the grounds for the development of affordable housing and single-family homes was developed. The building was largely completed by the end of the 1960s. The new owners were not aware of the toxic waste dump under their homes.
Residents initiative and relocation
The residents soon began to complain. Strange odors occurred in the gardens came from chemical substances at the surface. Children in elementary school seemed to be constantly sick. Statistical evaluations revealed an excessive number of cancer cases and birth defects in the affected area.
From 1978 began an initiative led by Lois Gibbs residents of the Love Canal Homeowner's Association to call for the investigation of the problems. The hitherto concealed dangers were known. The residents initiative then tried to prove the responsibility of Hooker Chemical. She had not only against Occidental Petroleum, the parent company to fight, but also to all the authorities involved. However, it managed to draw the attention of the press and television to the scandal, so that President Jimmy Carter declared the area on 7 August 1978 a disaster area. A resettlement of those affected was but only from 1980. The primary school and a large part of the residential areas, and next to the canal digging were demolished. Some older residents decided, however, to remain in their homes.
The successful public relations initiative of local residents became the model for environmental groups throughout the Western world.
In the movie Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman is briefly recalled in an aside to the events.
Also in Erin Brockovich with Julia Roberts takes her boss Ed Masry in the meeting of the stakeholders to respond to the legal repercussions related to the class action and their success.
The environmental scandal also plays a role in the novel published in 2004 Niagara by Joyce Carol Oates.