Environmental Disasters that Shook the World
Love Canal Love Canal is a neighborhood within Niagara Falls, New York. It is the site of a pollution disaster that extensively affected the health of hundreds of its residents, necessitating a Superfund cleanup operation. Originally intended in the 1890s as a planned model community, Love Canal grew and then slowly declined before being bought out in the 1940s by the Hooker Company, which dumped industrial waste in the never completed canal. In the late 1970s, Love Canal received national attention for the public health problem originating from the disposal of 22,000 barrels of toxic waste. Numerous families were displaced from their houses, which had been contaminated with chemicals and toxic waste. Many of the families suffered several health issues with common problems of high red blood cell counts and indications of leukemia. The entire neighborhood has since been demolished and a Superfund cleanup was only wrapped up in 2004.