The History of Love Canal: The Environmental Disaster That Created the Superfund Program

Originally designed to be a groundbreaking canal project, this site succumbed to a fate of pollution as industrial and municipal waste accumulated over decades. The catastrophic rainfall in 1976 triggered the release of these harmful chemicals into nearby homes, displacing numerous families. This incident catalyzed the formation of the Superfund program, dedicated to remedying toxic environmental disasters across the nation.

William T. Love, a 19th-century real estate and railroad entrepreneur had a visionary idea of digging a canal that would connect the upper and lower Niagara River bypassing the Falls to generate power for a new "Model City. " But soon Nikola Tesla invented alternating current, enabling the economical transmission of energy over long distances, leaving the idea useless. By then, the 3,200 feet of the Love Canal had been dug. With a failed purpose, it first became a local swimming hole and then a dumping ground for municipal and industrial waste beginning in the 1920s, as per a report by Buffalo News. While the initial waste was more or less harmless, the organic chemical revolution starting in the 1940s resulted in toxic chemicals and residues being deposited at the site.

A homely neighbourhood

In 1953, the owner of the Love Canal, Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corp., sold the dumpsite filled with 22,000 tons of toxic chemicals buried underground in barrels to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for $1. A school, park, baseball field, and neighbourhood were built over the ticking time bomb, which finally exploded in 1976. Three years of unusually heavy rainfall triggered the toxic chemicals to start leaching to the surface and into basements. EPA administrator Eckardt C. Beck recalled that when he visited the site at one time, “corroding waste-disposal drums could be seen breaking up through the grounds of backyards. Trees and gardens were turning black and dying.” There were puddles of noxious substances everywhere and "the air had a faint, choking smell. Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces," he shared, as per a report by AS.

A federal emergency for a disaster that wasn't natural

While some residents were aware that chemicals had been buried in the area, they had no idea that they would invade their yards and homes. Nor did they initially give credit to the high rate of cancers, kidney disease, birth defects and miscarriages that were occurring in what they thought was an “idyllic” blue-collar neighbourhood. The Niagara Gazette reported about the chemicals leaching into residents’ basements in 1976, but few took notice. However, when Lois Gibbs’ five-year-old son Michael began having seizures, despite her family not having a history of epilepsy, she figured her son must just be sensitive to the chemicals he was most likely exposed to on the playground. She petitioned to have her son transferred to another school, citing the potential danger at the current one. Her request was denied, so she began a petition to have the school closed. While going from door to door, she began to realise the extent of the health problems affecting the entire community, she explained to National Geographic. Gibbs eventually became the president of a grassroots organisation devoted to getting to the bottom of what was happening and fixing it called, the Love Canal Neighbourhood Association. Finally, enough pressure was applied and the dangers from the contamination were too great that the state acted. After it was declared a federal emergency two years later, Beck said: “Quite simply, Love Canal is one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history.”

Rescue efforts

First, the families, beginning with pregnant women and children under two years old, in the immediate area of Love Canal, those most affected by the toxic chemicals seeping out of the ground, were evacuated starting in August 1979. President Jimmy Carter declared a national emergency at the site and approved financial aid in May 1980, the first time such emergency funds were approved for a disaster that wasn’t natural in origin. In the end, roughly 950 families were relocated, with the government purchasing their homes. The Love Canal disaster led to the federal government establishing the Superfund program to clean up other sites of hazardous waste contamination around the nation. When asked about the biggest environmental “surprise” in 1985 over the last couple of decades, EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas said: “The sheer pervasiveness of hazardous waste contamination. Even the experts didn’t anticipate a problem of such magnitude,” adding, “only during the last five years did we begin to appreciate the immensity of the cleanup task ahead of us.”