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'Revenge of the industrial past'

Broadcast Date: March 19, 1979

It was a public-health disaster: a school and a community built on top of a toxic-waste dump. In August 1978 hundreds of families were relocated and the school was closed at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, N.Y., just across the Canada-U.S. border. Now, months later, details of the contamination are beginning to emerge. As officials launch a search for more such chemical dumps, CBC's As It Happens asks: could it happen here?

The Love Canal, between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, is just one of an estimated 500 to 1,000 sites around the Great Lakes suspected of carrying a toxic threat. The International Joint Commission, a committee composed of Canadians and Americans charged with settling waterway issues between the two countries, wants to find them. Maxwell Cohen of the IJC calls the dumps "the revenge of the industrial past and the chemical present."

'Revenge of the industrial past'

• In 1892 William T. Love envisioned a canal through Niagara Falls, N.Y., parallel to the Niagara River, that would provide hydroelectric power for the town. Work began in 1894 but the plan was abandoned after just 1.6 kilometres had been dug.
• From 1942 to 1953 the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corp. used the site, dumping almost 20,000 tonnes of toxic chemical waste in the canal.

• Once the site was full, Hooker covered it with backfill. The local Board of Education, desperate for expansion space, wanted to build a school on a clean section of the site. Under pressure, Hooker sold the land to the board for $1, stipulating in the deal that dangerous chemicals were under the land and absolving it of future responsibility.
• The board built a school there in 1954 and sold the adjacent land to housing developers over the next few years.

• In the mid-1970s, after several years of heavy precipitation, chemicals began seeping into yards and basements in the area. A series of governmental studies began in 1977, and the state health commissioner declared a health emergency in August 1978. The school was closed and pregnant women and children under age two were removed.
• Soon after that, President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency and New York's governor announced the relocation of 239 families in the area.

• Tests at Love Canal found evidence of 82 chemical compounds, 10 of which were suspected or confirmed cancer-causing agents.
• Among the health problems residents faced were higher incidences of miscarriage, birth defects and cancers. A 1980 study by the Environmental Protection Agency showed chromosome damage in 11 of 36 residents.

• An August 1978 article in the Toronto Star reported that seepage from the Love Canal site appeared not to threaten the health of Ontarians. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment tested water at treatment plant intakes at Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake and found tiny proportions of benzene, toluene, xylene and chloroform. The levels were not significantly higher than normal.

'Revenge of the industrial past'

Medium: Radio

Program: As It Happens

Broadcast Date: March 19, 1979

Guest(s): Maxwell Cohen

Host: Barbara Frum, Alan Maitland

Duration: 5:19

Last updated:
Aug. 9, 2004