William Love started building a canal by Niagra Falls. He ran out of money and the partially completed project was abandoned. When the locals found it, they nicknamed it the “Love Canal.” The children would swim in it during the summer and use it as a skating rink in the winter. Later, the Hooker Electrochemical Corporation leased the canal as a toxic waste dump. After dumping more than 21 thousand tons of toxic waste, they lined the canal with cement and put a cap on it. The school board needed a place to build and they saw this dump as an open site. The Hooker Corp. warned the school board that it was a bad idea and harmful, but the school board didn’t listen and built on the land. Later all of the board members died, but no one linked the deaths to the site they built on. So then they built an elementary school and houses on the site.
In 1958 three children suffered from burns from toxins that had resurfaced. Hooker investigated and found that there was probably a toxin leak but he kept it a secret. People kept seeing death due to the toxins so they decided to form the LCHA (Love Canal Homeowners’ Association). The disaster was so big that the Love Canal became the first hazardous site to be featured on television and magazines. Scientists saw the situation and came to the site to investigate and a public health emergency was declared. They realized how much money it would cost to relocate the people so they just declared the site safe. Dr. Beverly Paigen came into the picture and did studies and realized that there was something going on that no one knew about. There were more miscarriages, asthma problems and birth defects in that neighborhood than any others. The New York State Commision of Health started evacuating and didn’t let pregnant women join unless they could prove they were pregnant. This was a problem because the tests at that time could not detect early pregnancies and they were more sensitive to the toxic waste. Eventually EPA got involved and showed that the people living in the area were at higher risk. Funds were made available to hundreds of “Love Canal” families, Hooker chemical company got sued, and they started cleaning the area up. In 1994 the clean up was done and they re-opened the subdivision as “Sunrise City.”
I think it wasn't fair that the Hooker Company was sued becuase they gave the school board fair warning that it wasn't safe. I think that the pregnancy issue shouldn't have been the way it was. THey should have evacuated EVERYONE IMMEDIATELY!! THis is definitely not the love canal... let's try the death canal!
ReplyDeleteSeriously!? After all the board members died, they did not even think to check the site to see if there was something wrong with it? They built a school and houses and people were hurt, but they kept it a secret? Scientist saw there was somehting wrong, then realized it was too much money to help the poor people so they decide to say that the site was safe. This case is morally wrong in so many ways. People were hurt because of self pride and not wanting to spend money or time.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how they were able to just keep ignoring the fact that people were dying from something at the site. If there was something harmful at the site of the canal then someone needed to do some research and not allow people to be around it.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many places where people went wrong in this article that it's not even funny.First of all,You should not start a project and then abandon it **coughWILLIAMLOVEcough**. Second of all, dumping toxic waste. It's a BAD THING.I'm not gonna go any further on that. Third, Who was the GENIUS that decided to build a school board building, an elementary school, and A NEIGHBORHOOD!!! if an electrochemical corporation team of scientists tells you to NOT build on a certain site, than you should LISTEN TO THEM!!! Logical thinking, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! fourth, I don't care if you've cleaned it up, HAVE YOU PEOPLE NOT LEARNED YOUR LESSON YET????? don't reopen it AT ALL!!!! its a BAD IDEA. Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteThis is not an entirely accurate representation of the case. Hooker claimed it told the school board about the danger of the buried chemicals but we don't really know what they actually told them and board meeting minutes don't back that up. The board members had died, but not because of the land. It is just that by the time the sale was being questioned, they had died. The board members did not ever work on the land. Only the elementary school was built there. Still, as Stephanie said, it was a BAD IDEA.
ReplyDeletethis is really sad......
ReplyDeletehow many things have to go wrong before some action actually takes place?!?!
i mean hooker company should have never allowed the school board to build on the site. they gave them a warning saying that it could be harmful but if there was any risk at all for people's health they should not have allowed it.
and i agree with stephanie that they shouldnt have even rebuilt on the site. obviously that site isnt good. just clean it up and leave it alone!
That is so terrible! Yes, they did get a fair warning about the board,however as Mrs. Laplace said, the board members did not work on this land so there was actually no warning to anyone occupying this land. They should have closed down the site immediatly, or took the time and money to clean it up. Letting people live there, and not evacuating EVERYONE from the site, was so unsafe. It was very poor judgment of Hooker company.
ReplyDeleteI think the Hooker Corp. should have not only gave them the warning about building on that site but they should have also explained to them the consequences and effects the toxicans could have had on the people. I don't understand why the people didn't leave that area after the first deaths happened. Didn't they understand that the area was unsafe to live on?
ReplyDeletePersonally I believe that once they realized they had a spill, they should have cleaned it up. I mean couldn't they realize that once something is bad it only gets worse unless you fix it, and that is what diffently happended in this case!
ReplyDeleteThat's so wrong that they even started dumping toxins on the land in the first place! It was such a nice place why did they want to pollute it? If they would have just not even began dumping there there would have been no problems at all.
ReplyDeleteat least hooker tried to contain the waste. The way society is today, we have a lot of waste and not many options for disposing of it. I think that the main ethical problem in this story is the officials who decided to ignore the declaration of a public health emergency just because of the cost of evacuation. SHAME ON THEM!!
ReplyDeleteAnd...let's not forget the poor children who had to give up their swimming hole so that it could be filled up with toxic waste. AAAW:(
I think that the company should not have got sued because the school board was warned that it was a harmful site. I think that the neighborhood people should have gotten a clue when they had so many defects in people and deaths. I think that both sides are guilty and it's just a tragic thing.
ReplyDeleteWOW! I cannot believe they knew that it was a public health emergency and they decided not to tell anyone because it would cost too much to evacuate everyone. I wonder how many lives were lost or harmed in some way because it just cost to much money.
ReplyDeleteI was very surprised that they did not relocate the school even though they knew that the site was harmful. I know that it might have been difficult and expensive to relocate the people, but it would have been a better than declaring the site safe and people dying from the toxins.
ReplyDeleteLoving Brooke's new name for it! I definately think they should change the name to Death Canal! And as for why the people didn't just move away as soon as they knew the area was unsafe, I don't think they could afford to move. Since their houses were on unsafe land, they weren't able to sell them, and they probably didn't have enough extra money lying around to buy a new house.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it was a horrible case.
ReplyDeleteCatherine- I'm not sure that the people living in the neighborhoods knew all of the information. The school board was alegedly informed though, but Mrs. LaPlace is correct, it is not sure what was actually said.
And Morgan C- I especially agree with you about the swimming pool getting taken away!
Why would the Hooker Company get sued, especially when they warned the school that it was dangerous toxic waste dump? I think that is totally unfair towards that company and that the school that decided to build there was to blame for this, but I also think that the company should have told the school and others living there of the toxin leak instead of keeping it a secret.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad to think that this all could have been avoided in the first place. They should have told everyone what was going on or, even earlier than that, used all force necessary so that people couldn't build on the "land".
ReplyDeleteThe school board, the first people to build a site on the land, were warned that the land was harmful and should not be built on. They should have listened to this warning, and choosen to relocate their building site. If the site was never built on, many deaths could have been avoided. I just do not understand how people did not connect the harmful chemicals dumped underground to the death of so many adults and children.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Laplace is correct but, they did build a building for the school board over the site and then once the board members died they tore it up and put an elementary school over it.
ReplyDelete