The Daily Bulletin

Please join the Biology Department and the Great Lakes Center for the seminar “Beyond Love Canal,” presented by Luella Kenny, former research scientist and environmental advocate, on Monday, April 29, at 3:00 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 151. Attendees are welcome to enjoy coffee and cookies during the seminar.

Abstract
Rachel Carson’s 1962 warning to the world became a reality in 1978 when 20,000 tons of buried chemicals surfaced in a canal and spread into the yards and basements of homes in a nearby Niagara Falls neighborhood that became known as Love Canal. These chemicals, including halogenated hydrocarbons such as dioxin and known carcinogens such as benzene, which had been buried there in the 1940s by Hooker Chemical (later known as Occidental Petroleum), posed an existential threat to the health of Love Canal residents. Complaints of foul odors emanating from basements and unknown substances appearing in yards and drainage ditches went unheeded by local officials. Reports over time of an inordinate number of miscarriages, babies born with birth defects and intellectual disabilities, and children with respiratory illnesses were also initially dismissed by local and state authorities. Ms. Kenny's 7-year-old son died because of the chemicals in her backyard.

Residents of the area united and fought for over two years until they were finally given the option to be evacuated. The Love Canal disaster led to the passage of the Superfund Act in 1980 (a.k.a. the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), and Love Canal was the first Superfund site listed. It also contributed to the inception of the environmental justice movement.

Despite the health risks, some Love Canal residents, even those whose homes were closest to the canal and declared uninhabitable, chose not to be evacuated in the early 1980s. Now these condemned homes are being sold to unsuspecting buyers. The area has no signage to indicate that the neighborhood is Love Canal and that 20,000 tons of chemicals are still buried in the old canal.