Whaling City Information - - Love Canal, Round 2 - New Bedford's Story is just getting started

Aug 12 2008

Love Canal, Round 2 - New Bedford's Story is just getting started

Written by Dave Gould
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
It's amazing how much the New Bedford burn dump contamination issue resembles the love canal issue we all vaguely remember from 30 years ago. Love Canal is on the mend, but New Bedford is just discovering the extent of the problem. Politicians then and our current batch now, still react the same way. With contempt for the citizens who question their authority. Kids protest their government for releif from contaminated land that was intentioanlly settled by Niagara Falls own local government NEW BEDFORD, MA - I don't know who said it, but the following bit of wisdom is well worth repeating. Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. In my history, Love Canal was little more than a historical foot note from my teen years. We teens knew there were chemicals and we knew there were protests and we knew the Niagara neighborhood was eventually vacated and cleaned up. Cleaned up of course is a misnomer for dug up and reburied in a better container. The bottom line is; after a lot of kicking and screaming by the residents and a lot of really dumb decisions by the local government and school boards, the issue was made reasonably safe. continued... - - What's that, did I say School Board? Oh yea, the Niagara School board caused the whole problem, even though they were informed of potential problems by the very company that originally buried the toxic waste. The Niagara School board and the local government were all told that buried under the land that they wanted to purchase was tons of horrible gook no one should be exposed to. It was essentially a dump. The company who dumped didn't just dump there willy nilly, they did take steps to contain the toxic slurries, but they have the legitimate right to claim scientific ignorance that was 1956. They did what was asked of them and what was thought responsible for the time. In the 1920's the love canal was a place to go for kids to play. It was also the start of one of the city of Niagara Falls burn dumps. No one knew any better in the 1920's. Eventually, the city set up a power plant and in the 1940's also made an agreement with Hooker Chemical to dump their toxins in the old canal. The canal was drained and lined with a thick clay layer. Hooker, with the blessing of the local government, dumped their toxic brew and buried it. Hooker eventually bought the property out right in 1947. A few years later, the city of Niagara Falls was growing and needed to build a new school. They wanted to buy back from Hooker Chemical land that toxic barrels were not buried. Hooker refused on the grounds of safety and even dug test bore holes to prove to the city that the toxins had escaped the clay enclosure and were leeching through the ground. Unswayed, the School board and local government insisted. Hooker Chemical sold the property and the city built a school and a neighborhood. As part of the contract, Hooker was made not liable for any future health issues. Eventually, the City expanded the area to include not only a school, but elevated expressways, houses, stores, etc. A wet spring floated the contaminates to the surface after which all hell broke loose. In 1978, Lois Gibbs began to wonder if all the epilepsy, asthma, urinary tract infections, various birth defects, learning disorders and slight retardation and cancer were caused by the weird stuff oozing from people yards and odd smells that occasionally wafted through the air. Naturally, Hooker chemical ignored the issue as they assumed they had ended their liability through their earlier discloser's. The government was tight lipped or questioned whether the toxicity even existed. Many resident chose to ignore the problem because they were afraid of simply loosing everything. No one would buy their houses, so they would have to simply walk away and take the loss. For two years, Ms. Gibbs and few of her friends worked the issue, eventually convincing President Carter to force the EPA to act by agreeing to temporarily evacuate 700 households. In the end, Hooker Chemical, now Occidental Petroleum, paid a paltry 129 million dollars in fines. The amount was so low because Hooker Chemical did make an overt effort to persuade the Niagara Falls Government not to purchase their land. Former government officials suffered nothing more than public humiliation and today's officials are still trying to get people to return to Love Canal to this date. They are having successes.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 August 2008 )