Love Canal is a community near Niagara Falls in upstate New York that was built on 20,000 tons of chemical waste. In 1892, William T. Love began construction on connecting the lower and upper parts of the Niagara River and stopped the project at the onset of the economic depression. The already dug section of the canal became a chemical disposal site for the Hooker Chemical Corporation, the City of Niagara, and the US Army. By 1955, the site was filled and sold to the Board of Education to construct the 99th Street School for the 800 family homes and 240 low-income apartments near the canal.
When the homeowners bought their property, they were not warned of the hazardous waste like the Board of Education had been. In the 1970s, the community began to complain about odors, substances in their yards, and various cases of illness. In response, the city hired an investigator from Calspan Corporation in 1976, in which they found “found toxic chemical residues in the air and sump pumps of many homes at the southern end of the canal. They also found drums just beneath or on the surface, and high levels of PCBs in the storm sewer system” (Chej.org).
In 1978, the New York State Department collected their own health study on the families near the canal and found women with increased reproductive problems as well as high concentration of chemical contaminants in the soil and air. When the city issued a health order to evacuate all pregnant women and children under two, the residents of Love Canal knew it was time to establish their voice and fight for their relocation as well.
As their children grew sick, there were high rate of birth defects, increased miscarriages, and increased anger from the community, the state issued a cleanup and evacuated 239 families. They also offered concessions to other families to cover medical expenses. However, other residents wanted to be evacuated too.
The LCHA began working to raise awareness to their cause of injustice and bring forth empirical evidence of the birth defects like mental retardation, children with three ears and double row of teeth. They found that 56% of children were born with such defect and the number of miscarriages increased by 300%.
With such evidence, they wrote reports along with letters to their government demanding relocation and justice. However, their concerns were first dismissed on the basis that they were produced by housewives and could not be accurate data.
After their dismissal, the community increased their protests and letter writing to President Carter until in October of 1980 when all of the community was ordered to be evacuated and homes repurchased by the government.