What is the legacy of the Love Canal tragedy?
One of the most important legacies of Love Canal was the creation of the Superfund Act of 1980, through which national legislation to tax corporations to clean up hazardous waste sites throughout the US. Environmental activists in China, too, are calling for new laws in the wake of the Changzhou disaster.
What was Love Canal meant for?
It is a cruel irony that Love Canal was originally meant to be a dream community. That vision belonged to the man for whom the three-block tract of land on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, New York, was named–William T. Love.
What is the Love Canal controversy?
Contamination at a waste dump site in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls became a hotbed issue in 1978. Contamination at a waste dump site in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls became a hotbed issue in 1978. His wife, Teresa, said she’s had two miscarriages and numerous unexplained cysts.
What lessons can be learned from Love Canal?
Love Canal resulted in stronger state and federal regulation of pollution and dump sites. It led to the creation of the Superfund for cleanup of sites contaminated by hazardous substances.
What is Love Canal called today?
In 1890, Love Canal was created as a model planned community, but was only partially developed. In the 1920s, the canal became a dump site for municipal refuse for the city of Niagara Falls….
| Love Canal | |
|---|---|
| The area in 2012. | |
| Geography | |
| City | Niagara Falls |
| County | Niagara County |
How did the Love Canal affect humans?
Completed in 1979, the study found increases amoung residents in miscarriages, still births, crib deaths, nervous breakdowns, hyperactivity, epilepsy and urinary tract disorders. Miscarriages were found to have increased 300%, for example, and most occurred in women who lived in the historically wet areas.
How was the Love Canal disaster resolved?
Industrial chemicals dumped into the partly completed canal by the Hooker Chemical Company from 1947 to 1952 have been removed or contained in one area that was lined with impermeable materials and capped by clay. A drainage system collects water runoff and treats it.
How did Love Canal affect people?
Who was affected by the Love Canal?
In July, 1978, in the homes immediately adjacent to the landfill there were resident 97 families composed of 230 adults and 134 children. During the 1977-78 school year, 410 students were enrolled at the school.
When did the Love Canal tragedy happen?
1978
In 1978, Love Canal, located near Niagara Falls in upstate New York, was a nice little working-class enclave with hundreds of houses and a school. It just happened to sit atop 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste that had been buried underground in the 1940s and ’50s by a local company.
What can we learn from Love Canal?
What is the Love Canal tragedy?
The Love Canal Tragedy. Love Canal can now be added to a growing list of environmental disasters involving toxics, ranging from industrial workers stricken by nervous disorders and cancers to the discovery of toxic materials in the milk of nursing mothers. Through the national environmental program it administers,…
Did Love Canal cause chromosomal damage?
A month after New York State filed their lawsuit the EPA announced that of 36 Love Canal residents tested 11 had chromosomal damage, undoubtedly caused by the chemicals they had been exposed to.
Is Love Canal a public health emergency?
Not long after the EPA tests were released Commissioner Whalen declared the site of Love Canal a health emergency and implemented a state of emergency for the region.
When was it safe to move back to Love Canal?
On November 6, 1979 the remedial work was completed and the state announced that it was safe for 110 of the displaced families to move back. A demonstration of the tile drain system and clay cap. Courtesy of NYSDOH. Still many lawsuits were filed by Love Canal residents.