Love Canal Factpack

Love Canal FactPack FactPack – P001 Center for Health, Environment & Justice P.O. Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040-6806 703-237-2249 [email protected] www.chej.org Love Canal FactPack Center for Health, Environment & Justice FactPack – P001 Updated August 2009 Copyright 2009 by Center for Health, Environment & Justice. All rights reserved. For Permission to reprint, please contact CHEJ. Printed in the U.S.A. P.O. Box 6806 Falls Church, VA 22040-6806 703-237-2249 [email protected] www.chej.org Center for Health, Environment & Justice P.O. Box 6806 l Falls Church, VA 22040 l Phone: 703.237.2249 l Fax: 703.237.8389 l www.chej.org Mentoring a Movement Empowering People Preventing Harm About the Center for Health, Environment & Justice CHEJ mentors the movement to build healthier communities by empowering people to prevent the harm caused by chemical and toxic threats. We accomplish our work by connecting local community groups to national initiatives and corporate campaigns. CHEJ works with communities to empower groups by providing the tools, strategic vision, and encouragement they need to advocate for human health and the prevention of harm. Following her successful effort to prevent further harm for families living in contaminated Love Canal, Lois Gibbs founded CHEJ in 1981 to continue the journey. To date, CHEJ has assisted over 10,000 groups nationwide. Details on CHEJ’s efforts to help families and communities prevent harm can be found on www.chej.org. Table of Contents pg. 1 Chapter 1. A History of Love Canal pg. 3 Chapter 2. Love Canal Homeowners Association pg. 5 Chapter 3. A Summary of Events pg. 7 Chapter 4. Community Health Studies pg. 12 Chapter 5. Key Dates of Events at Love Canal pg. 15 Appendix. Love Canal News Collection Center for Health, Environment & Justice | Mentoring a Movement, Empowering People, Preventing Harm P.O. Box 6806 | Falls Church, VA 22040 | Phone: 703.237.2249 | Fax: 703.237.8389 | www.chej.org Chapter 1 History of Love Canal The history of Love Canal began in 1892 when for one dollar. Hooker included in the deed transfer William T. Love proposed connecting the upper a “warning” of the chemical wastes buried on the and lower Niagara River by digging a canal six to property and a disclaimer absolving Hooker of any seven miles long. By doing this, Love hoped to future liability. harness the water of the upper Niagara River Perhaps because they didn’t understand the potential into a navigable channel, which would create risks associated with Hooker’s chemical wastes, the a man-made waterfall with a 280-foot drop into Board of Education began in 1954 to construct an the lower Niagara River, providing cheap power. elementary school on the canal property. The 99th However, the country fell into an economic Street School was completed by 1955, opening its depression and financial backing for the project doors to about 400 students each year. slipped away. Love then abandoned the project, Homebuilding around the old canal also began in leaving behind a partially dug section of the canal, the 1950’s. However, homeowners were never given sixty feet wide and three thousand feet long. In 1920, any warning or information that would indicate that the land was sold at public auction and became a the property was located near a chemical waste dump. municipal and chemical disposal site until 1953. The Most families who moved into the area were unaware principal company that dumped waste in the canal of the old landfill and its poisons. The one-time canal was Hooker Chemical Corporation,a subsidiary of looked very innocent, like any field anywhere. It Occidental Petroleum. The City of Niagara and the certainly did not appear to be a chemical dump United States Army used the site as well, with the with 20,000 tons of toxic wastes buried beneath it. city dumping garbage and the Army possibly dumping parts of the Manhattan Project and In 1978, there were approximately 800 private other chemical warfare material. single-family homes and 240 lowincome apartments built around the canal. The elementary school was In 1953, after filling the canal and covering it with located near the center of the landfill. The Niagara dirt, Hooker sold the land to the Board of Education www.chej.org 1 [email protected] Love Canal River, to the south and a creek to the north of the landfill formed natural boundaries for the area affected by the migrating chemicals. From the late 1950’s through the 1970’s, people repeatedly complained of odors and substances surfacing near or in their yards and on the school playground. The city, responding to these complaints, visited the area and covered the “substances” with dirt or clay. After years of complaints, the city and county hired a consultant to investigate. In 1976, the Calspan Corporation completed a study of the canal area and found toxic chemical residues in the air and sump pumps of a high percentage of homes at the southern end of the canal. They also found drums just beneath or on the surface, and high levels of PCB’s in the storm sewer system. Calspan recommended that the canal be covered with clay, home sump pumps be sealed off and a tile drainage system be installed to control the migration of wastes. However, nothing was done by the city with the exception of placing window fans in a few homes found to contain high levels of chemical residues. In March of 1978, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) began collecting air and soil tests in basements and conducting a health study of the 239 families that immediately encircled the canal. The Health Department found an increase in reproductive problems among women and high levels of chemical contaminants in soil and air. 2 Center for Health, Environment & Justice | Mentoring a Movement, Empowering People, Preventing Harm Chapter 2 Love Canal Homeowners Association Love Canal Homeowners Association (LCHA) Gibbs first approached the School Board armed was established in August of 1978 to give the with notes from two physicians recommending the community a voice in the decisions made during transfer of her child to another public school. But the Love Canal environmental crisis. LCHA the Board refused to transfer her child stating that if membership consisted of approximately 500 it was unsafe for her son, then it would be unsafe for families living within a 10-block area surrounding all children and they were not going to close the the Love Canal landfill. The community consisted school because of one concerned mother with of bluecollar workers with an average annual income a sickly child. Gibbs was angered and began talking of $10,000-$25,000. The majority of people worked with other parents in the neighborhood to see if they in local industries which were largely chemical. were having problems with their children’s health. After speaking with hundreds of people, she realized The Love Canal Homeowners Association grew that the entire community was affected. out of another group established in June 1978, the Love Canal Parents Movement. The Parents On August 2, 1978, the New York State Department Movement was started by Lois Gibbs, who lived of Health (NYSDOH) issued a health order. The in the neighborhood and whose children attended health order recommended that the 99th Street the 99th Street School. Ms. Gibbs, unaware of School be closed (a victory), that pregnant women the dump, was alerted first by newspaper articles and children under the age of two be evacuated, that describing the landfill, its wastes, and proximity to residents not eat out of their home gardens and that the 99th StreetSchool. Having a small sickly child they spend limited time in their basements. A few attending the school, Gibbs became very concerned days later, the state agreed to purchase all 239 homes about the danger the landfill posed to the school. in the first two rings of homes closest to the canal. She also realized that the school being built so These unprecedented actions served to bring the close to the landfill might have something to do residents together to form a strong united citizens with her son’s poor health. organization, and served as the stepping stone to the www.chej.org 3 [email protected] Love Canal establishment of the Love Canal Homeowners The Love Canal and the Surrounding Neighborhood Association. Within a week of the health order, the residents held a public meeting, elected officers and set goals for the newly formed organization. All goals set at that time were ultimately reached. 4 Center for Health, Environment & Justice | Mentoring a Movement, Empowering People, Preventing Harm Chapter 3 A Summary of Events At the time of the first evacuation order in August system designed to “contain” the waste and prevent of 1978, the state established the Love Canal any outward migration of chemical leachate. A graded Interagency Task Force to coordinate the many trench system was dug around the canal to intercept activities undertaken at the canal. The task force migrating leachate and create a barrier drain system. had three major responsibilities: the relocation The containment system is shown below. of evacuated families, the continuation of health The leachate collected from the drain system is and environmental studies and the construction pumped to an on-site treatment plant that uses a of a drainage system to prevent further migration series of filters, most importantly, activated charcoal, of toxic chemicals. to remove chemicals from the waste stream. The Remedial Construction remaining “clean” water is then flushed down the sanitary sewer system.

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