Love Canal

Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, was the site of the worst environmental disaster involving chemical wastes in U.S. history.  It became a dumping ground for nearly 22,000 tons of chemical waste produced by the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation in the 1940s and ’50s. In the following years, the site was filled in. Hooker capped the 16-acre hazardous waste landfill in clay and sold the land to the Niagara Falls School Board, attempting to absolve itself of any future liability by including a warning in the property deed.  In 1978, however, state officials detected the leakage of toxic chemicals from underground into the basements of homes in the area.  The residents were awarded $20 million in damages by the company; in 1994 the parent company Occidental agreed to pay $98 million to New York to compensate the state for its contribution to the cleanup of Love Canal. The following year the company settled with the federal government for $129 million.