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. … In the wake of Love Canal,
the EPA’s Superfund program was established to clean up toxic waste sites
.
What is the significance of Love Canal?
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.
What was learned from the Love Canal?
These included
asthma, epilepsy, migraines, and nephrosis (kidney disease)
, along with abnormally high rates of birth defects and miscarriages. News of this tragedy began to build momentum thanks to local activists, which culminated in 1978 when President Carter declared the area a federal health emergency and ordered …
What impact did the Love Canal have on the environment?
The canal families didn’t know that they were being exposed to poisonous chemicals, nor were they aware that chemical wastes were being dumped in our rivers, soil, and air. Love Canal awoke a community to the unpleasantness and unfortunate realization of how
toxic wastes affect out lives
, and destroy our environment.
What happened at Love Canal and why was it significant?
In the 1920s, the canal became a dump site for municipal refuse for the city of Niagara Falls. … The Love Canal incident was especially significant as a
situation where the inhabitants “overflowed into the wastes instead of the other way around”
.
Is the Love Canal still toxic?
According to the federal agency’s website,
the waste site and the neighborhood are safe
. … In the case before Kloch, lawyers for more than 550 present and former residents of the Love Canal neighborhood contend that toxic contamination from the landfill created a “public health catastrophe” in the neighborhood.
Who cleaned up Love Canal?
Between 1942 and 1953, when it ceased disposal operations,
the Hooker Electrochemical Company
(now Occidental Chemical Corporation, or OXY) disposed of over 21,000 tons of hazardous chemicals into the abandoned Love Canal, contaminating soil and groundwater.
What were the 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.
Who was responsible for Love Canal?
A federal judge ruled yesterday that
Occidental Chemical Corp.
is responsible for the costs, estimated at $250 million, of cleaning up Love Canal, the New York state community that came to symbolize the dangers of industrial pollution.
What happened after Love Canal?
The canal was turned into
a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite
. Landfills can of course be an environmentally acceptable method of hazardous waste disposal, assuming they are properly sited, managed, and regulated.
How did the Love Canal affect animals?
He found that animals caught near the fence had
severely damaged livers
, including excess fat, underdeveloped reproductive organs, lowered levels of important body chemicals and unusually low levels of the energy-producing substance called glycogen.
How much did the Love Canal clean up cost?
The cleanup at the toxic waste site, the nation’s most notorious, took 21 years and cost
close to $400 million
, but most of the work was completed a few years ago.
Are people living in Love Canal?
Today, there are still a few occupied homes on 101st Street and many on 93rd Street, but there are also plaintiffs in the new Love Canal litigation who lived on 93rd Street and say they got sick, some of them recently. So the answer to the question is,
maybe two blocks, maybe six, maybe more
.
Why was Love Canal built?
The canal was built by William T. Love in 1834
as a failed attempt to connect the Upper and Lower Niagara Rivers
. The state health department declared an emergency at the Love Canal in 1978, but the history of the dump site stretches back to the last century.
How did Love Canal lead to the Superfund Act?
Eventually, Love Canal became a national issue. Television news covered the
protests and showed the black, toxic sludge that oozed into residents’ basements
. … Due to the actions of Gibbs and the Love Canal Homeowners Association, President Jimmy Carter signed the Superfund bill into law on December 11, 1980.
Why was the Love Canal getting so much attention and publicity?
Love Canal became the subject of media attention after it was revealed in a two-year investigative series in the Niagara Falls Gazette that
the site had formerly been used to bury 21,000 tons of hazardous waste by Hooker Chemical Company
(now Occidental Petroleum Corporation).
