The Hooker Electrochemical Company, which is today the Occidental Chemical Corporation, built its first plant in Niagara Falls in 1905 and in 1942 received permission by the state of New York to use the canal for chemical dumping (Beauchamp p. 106). The company, which manufactures plastics, pesticides, chlorine, caustic soda and fertilizers, considered the site ideal because it was located in an underdeveloped, unpopulated area and because the canal had highly impermeable clay walls that retained the chemicals with virtually no penetration. Research suggested that the canal's walls allowed only a third of an inch of water over a 25-year period (Beauchamp p. 106).

The problem with the Love Canal began in 1953 when the Niagara Falls School Board wanted to b

Even though Hooker has this duty it is not the company's sole responsibility. The duties of government and the duties of corporations are not the same. Corporations cannot and should not be held to the same standards for protecting welfare as governments are (Donaldson p. 101). The government is designed to protect social welfare by regulating companies to assure they adhere to certain ethical standards. Fifty years ago companies were largely unregulated and were left to make moral decisions that often interfered with profit motives. When a poor choice was made the public had to pay. Companies are not equipped to handle the role of the government. It is the government's duty to aid and protect society from physical harm and when it fails in this duty companies cannot be expected to fill the void. For this reason the government is partially to blame for the dumping at Love Canal.

The second issue is that of the development of the Love Canal. The major question here is how much of a duty does a corporation have in protecting the public when the local government has threatened eminent domain? Hooker never denied dumping chemical waste at the Love Canal (Beauchamp p. 110) nor did the company try to deceive the school board, on the contrary, Hooker made a significant effort to repeatedly warn the school board that the site was unsuitable for development. Hooker protested in a public meeting, in writing and in the deed which stated the property's past use and that all future risks be passed on to the school board (Beauchamp p. 110-111). Hooker tried to protect itself and in doing this it also attempted to avoid depriving the public of physical security and subsistence, but was it expected to do more? Again, Hooker's duty was to help in protecting society from physical harm, to inform the school board of the property's past use and to argue against the development due to it's being unsuitable for habitation. Hooker met these duties unlike the school board and the city of Niagara Falls. The school board and the city had a right to buy land and ultimately make a profit, but in their efforts to find cheap land they forgot what one of their major duties was. This major duty was to aid and protect the public from harm. It is for this reason the city of Niagara Falls and the school board is largely responsible for the Love Canal disaster. The city's duty to protect soci

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Approximate Word count = 1615
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)