Love Canal, New York
Arial view of the Love Canal site during cleanup. Housing development surrounds.
The Love Canal began its life as the centrepiece to a vision of a sustainable model city in Niagara, Upstate New York. It was the brainchild of William T. Love, a flamboyant millionaire, who in 1892 proposed a city to house a million people, sustained by the hydro-electric power harnessed through the joining of the Upper and Lower Niagara rivers. Unfortunately, only a one mile long section of the canal was ever completed before Love declared bankruptcy and the abandoned canal lay dormant for 28 years before being sold at auction to a local power company. From that point onwards, the canal, once a beacon for clean energy, would forever be used as a municipal and chemical disposal site.
In 1947 the canal was bought outright by Hooker Chemical Company. Hooker intended to use the structure (1 mile long by 15 yards wide, with a depth ranging from 10-40 feet) as a disposal site for their own cocktail of some 200 thousand cubic yards of industrial waste contained in 21,800 rusting 55 gallon drums. As a dumping site the Love Canal was unsurpassed thanks to its clay lining, and other waste from the city of Niagara and the US Army including material from the Manhattan project were added to the mix. When the canal was finally filled to capacity Hooker topped the site with a further layer of clay and grassed it over, hoping that it would be used as a park.
In 1947 the canal was bought outright by Hooker Chemical Company. Hooker intended to use the structure (1 mile long by 15 yards wide, with a depth ranging from 10-40 feet) as a disposal site for their own cocktail of some 200 thousand cubic yards of industrial waste contained in 21,800 rusting 55 gallon drums. As a dumping site the Love Canal was unsurpassed thanks to its clay lining, and other waste from the city of Niagara and the US Army including material from the Manhattan project were added to the mix. When the canal was finally filled to capacity Hooker topped the site with a further layer of clay and grassed it over, hoping that it would be used as a park.
A toxic playground
Love Canal - Affected houses boarded up after families relocated.
In 1953, despite having full knowledge of the site’s use, and at least some idea of the contents lurking beneath the soil, a determined New York school board insisted on buying the land from Hooker Chemicals for the princely sum of $1 to use for building a new school to meet the needs of the area’s expanding population. Hooker reluctantly sold the land with clear instructions that the area remain undisturbed. Although the actual canal site would have no buildings erected on it, the abutting works – which included a school, several blocks of houses, drainage and utilities – pierced the thin clay lining.
Development continued in the area and by 1977 the land immediately surrounding the canal contained 800 houses, 240 apartments and 3 schools. None of the residents were aware of the toxic dump in their midst, and as most had invested all they had in the purchase of their new homes by the time reports of children being burned by phosphorus, basements in houses being uninhabitable, fumes which turned paintwork black and tarry substances oozing from drains began to surface and many residents could not afford to move away.
However, it wasn’t until a particularly wet winter exacerbated the problems that the scale of the pollution became evident. Residents woke to find decaying barrels of toxic waste in their backyards. Testing of the area, houses and the people themselves revealed astonishingly high levels of contamination, illnesses, birth defects (56%), miscarriages and still births. The government advised residents not to go into their gardens or eat any produce grown in them, or to use their basements, many of which contained the children’s bedrooms.
Development continued in the area and by 1977 the land immediately surrounding the canal contained 800 houses, 240 apartments and 3 schools. None of the residents were aware of the toxic dump in their midst, and as most had invested all they had in the purchase of their new homes by the time reports of children being burned by phosphorus, basements in houses being uninhabitable, fumes which turned paintwork black and tarry substances oozing from drains began to surface and many residents could not afford to move away.
However, it wasn’t until a particularly wet winter exacerbated the problems that the scale of the pollution became evident. Residents woke to find decaying barrels of toxic waste in their backyards. Testing of the area, houses and the people themselves revealed astonishingly high levels of contamination, illnesses, birth defects (56%), miscarriages and still births. The government advised residents not to go into their gardens or eat any produce grown in them, or to use their basements, many of which contained the children’s bedrooms.
Children at Play - Love Canal, New York
"Children at Play - Love Canal" - Edge lit acrylic installation © Sharon Andrew - 2012
Despite the obvious risks to health, initially only pregnant women and children under the age of 2 were temporarily relocated with government funds. It would take a further 3 years before the residents in the most severely affected areas were moved permanently; the reason given by the government for their removal was mental anguish. This would enable later rebuilding of the homes on the site, some of which has already occurred.
During the period the residents were fighting for the government’s help to be moved away from Love Canal, the tragedy received a lot of media exposure and ultimately resulted in the creation of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and a Super Fund to support those affected by environmental disaster. It was at this time I watched an expose of the disaster, designed to reveal just how bad the contamination was and the plight of those forced to live amongst the poison. A young child showed the reporter a neat trick to impress him. I watched in horror, possibly the first awakening of my own environmental conscious, as he picked up a rock and threw it at the pavement, skipping it down the street. At each point the stone made contact with the pavement it ignited in great bursts of bright sparks. Many children suffered in later life as a result of the innocent games they played on those contaminated streets. The rock he threw was most probably the highly radioactive material Phosphorous. My piece “Children at Play – Love Canal” pays homage to that moment in my history, and highlights the need to be aware of the dangers of chemical dumping and the effects it has on us and our environment.
There are an estimated 50 thousand toxic waste sites in the US alone, figures for the UK are unknown. There are no federal laws prohibiting the burial of toxic waste in the US.
During the period the residents were fighting for the government’s help to be moved away from Love Canal, the tragedy received a lot of media exposure and ultimately resulted in the creation of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and a Super Fund to support those affected by environmental disaster. It was at this time I watched an expose of the disaster, designed to reveal just how bad the contamination was and the plight of those forced to live amongst the poison. A young child showed the reporter a neat trick to impress him. I watched in horror, possibly the first awakening of my own environmental conscious, as he picked up a rock and threw it at the pavement, skipping it down the street. At each point the stone made contact with the pavement it ignited in great bursts of bright sparks. Many children suffered in later life as a result of the innocent games they played on those contaminated streets. The rock he threw was most probably the highly radioactive material Phosphorous. My piece “Children at Play – Love Canal” pays homage to that moment in my history, and highlights the need to be aware of the dangers of chemical dumping and the effects it has on us and our environment.
There are an estimated 50 thousand toxic waste sites in the US alone, figures for the UK are unknown. There are no federal laws prohibiting the burial of toxic waste in the US.
