Love Canal
When William T Love first envisioned Model City, how could he have suspected the twists of fate that would turn his vision into a chemical disaster area that would grab the attention of the nation and bring suffering upon the people living around it? The engineers at Hooker Chemicals had some idea of the toxic melting pot that was fermenting when they strongly recommended that the site was not suitable for inhabitation. But apparently city planners did not realize what they were doing when they built a school and community on top of the buried dump of brewing chemicals puncturing the already poor containment walls and spreading the chemicals throughout the surrounding area. The pandemonium that broke out when residents finally discovered what was oozing out of the ground perked the attention of the attention of the nation and brought home dangerous effects that toxic chemicals can have on humans. As with any large-scale disaster there is no one villain, but instead a procession of events that led to the climax of the disaster in August 1978. In the late 1800's the potential use of hydroelectric power in conjunction with the Niagara Escarpment came to th
A state of emergency was declared in the Love Canal area, 239 families living near the Love Canal were relocated. The State of New York purchased all the houses in the first two rows bordering the canal from residents. This decision was criticized by many of the residents for the lack of concern for the remaining residents. At this point the extent of the contamination was still not known; it appeared that an arbitrary line had been drawn as to who should be relocated. This was followed in September by a temporary evacuation of all residents in the area while cleanup activities were completed. [The] Love Canal Chemical Waste Landfill constitutes a public nuisance and an extremely serious threat and a danger to the health, safety and welfare of those using it, living near it, or exposed to the conditions emanating from it, consisting, among other things, of chemical wastes lying exposed on the surface in numerous places and pervasive, pernicious and obnoxious chemical vapors and fumes affecting both the ambient air and the homes of certain residents living near such sites. (p.28 Levine) Hert, Joshua, 1998, "The Love Canal Disaster." Ethics Center. Compound Acute effects Chronic Effects Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, whose services were retained by Occidental (The Hooker Chemical Company was taken over by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation during the fifties) for the project, handled the cleanup of the Love Canal. They drew up the initial plan for the site shown in figure 1 and supervised the implementation of this plan. Although this measure was appreciated, it was not satisfactory since everyone was to return eventually. Angered by the government's stance that no more residents would be evacuated, a group of Love Canal residents took two EPA representatives hostage on May 19, 1980. They ordered the White House to relocate all families by May 21 at noon. The White House gave in and agreed to temporarily evacuate all residents until funding for relocation could be found. The final relocation of the remaining 900 families didn't happen until October, when the president signed the appropriation bill for the funding of the relocation. All but 67 of the families living in the area left. The initial site had been covered with a clay cap to seal in the chemicals, however through the many years of construction this seal was broken several times. So the first step in the cleanup was to bulldoze the school and houses built directly on top of the dumping area and place an 8-ft. thick clay cap over the area. A lined trench was constructed around the contaminated area to contain runoff, which was subsequently collected in containment tanks and treated. The soil in the outlying area was then treated to try and remove the contaminants. When Hooker finished dumping, the canal was sealed. Problems began to arise with the onset of urban development; the construction activity allowed the chemicals to seep out through the cracks and into the surrounding soils. Throughout the fifties, sixties and seventies a series of incidents in which the ground subsided allowing drums and waste to rise to the surface. The environmental effects of the dump became very apparent in 1975 and 1976, when unusually heavy precipitation caused the dump to subside further. The chemicals continued to seep out of the site contaminating the surface water in the Love Canal neighborhood; the basements of nearby houses began to ooze oily residues. In 1977 noxious chemical odors were detected throughout the surrounding area. Testing done by local scientists showed that there were unusually high levels of toxic chemicals present in neighborhood creeks, sewer lines, soil and homes. Trichloroethylene Central nervous depressionSkin irritantLiver damage Paralysis of the fingerRespiratory and cardiac arrestVisual defectsDeafness A second study done involved 523 Love Canal children and 440 control group children. This study showed tha
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2695
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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