Period+9+-+Love+Canal

[[image:http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/lae/images/LE240L46c.jpg width="172" height="135" align="right"]] Love Canal
Love Canal was a small community that became the subject of national and international controversy following the discovery of 21,000 tons of toxic waste buried beneath the neighborhood. The community had covered 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city. The Hooker Chemical Company had filled the unused canal with toxic waste drums that began to leak and percolated upward. After several years, the communtiy that was built on top of the old canal became sick due to the toxics below. On August 7th, 1978, the president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, declared a state of emergency in Love Canal, New York. Among the toxic chemicals dumped there, there were large quanitities of PCBs, toxins and other hazardous wastes. Gardens died, babies were born with birth defects and toxic puddles formed in basements. Benzene, a known carcinogen, was also found in Love Canal. Landfills can obviously be an environmentally acceptable method of hazardous waste disposal, assuming they are properly sited, managed, and regulated. Love Canal will always tragically remain an example of how not to run one.



Previously, companies that caused pollution at abandoned hazardous waste sites were made to pay for the cleanup through the polluter pays tax. However, this tax expired in 1995, and it has been defeated by the Bush administration. However, stories from Love Canal shocked people across the country, and caused Congress to pass the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act-- also known as Superfund. The law provided a way of cleaning up hazardous sites while making companies pay for the clean up. The Enviromental Protection Agency recently took Love Canal off the Superfund list in 2004. After 21 years and $400 million dollars, Love Canal is reinhabited and thriving.

Picture 1: http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/lae/images/LE240L46c.jpg Picture 2: http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0105/011005lovecanal.jpg Picture 3: http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/archives/vol38/vol38n42/images/LoveCanal-aerial1.jpg http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lovecanal/01.htm http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E1DF1231F93BA25750C0A9629C8B63
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 * The pictures are colorful and organized and the information is organized and complete as far as I can tell. Good work team Love Canal.