OH CR4P!

Perhaps the most infamous hazardous waste site in the U.S., Love Canal stands as a staunch reminder of what irresponsibility and bad public policy can bring about.

Love Canal began as a vision by William T. Love, a venture capitalist of the 1890's. His dream was to use a three-block tract of land on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, New York to build a "power canal" to supply cheap hydroelectric power to the region. However, economic depression, along with Nikola Tesla's invention of A.C. current, ended the project shortly after it began. The canal was left as nothing more than a huge hole.

(<-- Infrared aerial view of Love Canal in 1978 - Credit: NYSDOH)

In 1942, Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation made a deal with the current land-owners allowing the company to dump their chemical wastes into the site. By 1950 they had finished the dumping of 20,000 tons of hazardous and deadly chemicals, a long list including: hexachlorocyclohexane pesticide (Lindane), chlorobenzenes, chlorinated hydrocarbons, benzene, chloroform, trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, benzene hexachloride, phosphorous rocks, polychlorinated biphenyls, and 1, 3, 7, 8- tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (or just dioxin). Simply put, it was a big mess.

In 1953, shortly after the site was capped and sealed, the district school board approached Hooker C&P with a request to purchase the land and build a school. Despite warnings from the company on the risks to public health and safety, the school board prepared eminent domain cases in order to claim the property. In the end, Hooker C&P agreed to sell the land for only $1.00 in return for being freed from any liability. The school board sold a portion of this land to housing developers and to the city of Niagara Falls.

Construction proceeded for the school despite contractors unearthing pits of chemicals. Although no official investigations were done, ongoing health concerns and strange odors were reported in the community as it was developing. It wasn't until the late 1970s that heavy rain and snow falls produced high groundwater levels which triggered the surfacing of many of the buried chemicals. Noxious fumes began permeating the air, oily substances began leaking into basements, and surface water became contaminated. By 1978, the site received national attention, and remedial cleanup began in addition to relocating and compensating those in homes surrounding Love Canal.

For many this was not enough. Studies conducted in the area linked the disaster site to diseases, birth defects, and chemical burns suffered by some of those in the immediate area surrounding the Love Canal, specifically those 230 adults and 134 children living in homes on the property.

(Love Canal protester - Credit: EPA -->)

When playing the blame game, people seem to point fingers from all sides. From an engineering standpoint, Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation did a poor job handling the chemicals they dumped, considering the dangers they presented. Many were strewn out without being encased in barrels or containers, while others probably shouldn't have been allowed in a landfill at all. In the company's defense, however, the impermeable clay soil and clay cap used to enclose the Love Canal was carefully constructed, and was likely more than adequate to hold the chemicals and prevent leaching on its own. Reports indicate that the subsequent construction of a school, sewer system, and houses resulted in the puncture and leaching of the enclosure - construction that came about despite warnings from Hooker C&P.

Regardless of who is at fault, one lesson from this debacle is clear - prudence is a necessity when dealing with hazardous chemicals and waste sites. While many regulations and laws (e.g. Superfund) have been established since Love Canal, engineers and public policy makers alike should not forget the event. Since 1988, the area around Love Canal has been deemed uninhabitable, and goes to show that the consequences of poor hazardous waste management can last a lifetime.

Editor's Note: Past posts on CR4 regarding the Love Canal incident can be found at these links.

Happy Birthday, Love Canal

Love Canal - Reason.com

The Love Canal Disaster - Online Ethics Center