Landfills can of course be an environmentally acceptable method of hazardous waste disposal, assuming they are properly sited, managed, and regulated. Newmans love canal is a superb history of what happened before, during and after the weeks in 1978 when the area made national headlineshis book is a wonderful study in contested memories and a sophisticated addition to american environmental history. The neighborhood emerged in the 1970s as an environmental nightmare and harbinger of the worldwide hazardous waste crisis. The history of love canal began in 1892 when william t. Aug 04, 2018 reporter michael brown, later to author a book on the love canal, gathers samples for testing. Love canal revisited issues in science and technology.
How brave they were, to combat such highplaced, wealthy, and conscienceless adversaries. Thanks to physical abnormalities caused by poisoning, the graveyards in love canal are filled with twenty percent more appendages and teeth than the average burial site. The love canal was simply unfit as a container for hazardous substances, poor even by the standards of the day, and now, in 1977, local authorities were belatedly finding that out. But in 1972, when lois gibbs moved there with her husband and new baby, it was simply a modest neighborhood in niagara falls, new york. Almost everyone has heard about love canal, but not many people know what it is all about.
Let me say, first, that i have also written a book on love canal, entitled love canal revisited kansas, 2008. Lcha membership consisted of approximately 500 families living within a 10block area surrounding the love canal landfill. Love canal is one of the most iconic and appalling environmental tragedies in american history. This is the second very long joyce carol oates book. Today, love canal is synonymous with the struggle for environmental health and justice. The most interesting element of the book was about the love canal case.
I have lived near two toxic waste sites left by hooker chemicals. Love abandoned the project after an economic depression, leaving behind a partially dug section of the canal. Very useful information and helpful that she isnt as close to the story as lois gibbs is who also wrote a few books on her experience at love canal. The partial resettlement of the love canal neighborhood in the 1990 the legacy of love canal i appreciated the books inclusiveness, especially the big picture of the niagara frontiers industrial history. Lois marie gibbs born june 25, 1951 is an american environmental activist. However, many other love canals laid dormant in the u. Love canal is a neighborhood in niagara falls, new york, infamous as the location of a.
Nov 25, 20 thirtyfive years after love canal became a symbol of the dangers of toxic waste in residential neighborhoods, the legal and medical issues there are still playing out. Our society has many faults, but people like lois gibbs are a true inspiration to all of us who care about our land and homes and willing to fight our failed systems of government to get results. Nov 05, 2014 ninetyninth street looks serene in these summer 1978 photographs, writes penelope ploughman in love canal arcadia publishing, 20. Initially seeking evacuation, area activists soon found that they were engaged in a far larger battle over the meaning of americas. A primary organizer of the love canal homeowners association, lois gibbs brought wide public attention to the environmental crisis in love canal.
Decades of dumping toxic chemicals harmed the health of hundreds of residents. Love canal was also a segment in the premiere episode of michael moores television series tv nation, which featured realtors attempting to lure prospective residents to the area. Love canal is a name which until recently was relegated to the back pages of history along with the unspent dreams of a visionary for whom it is named. While the two older kenny boys survived living in love canal, their youngest brother did not. Love canal is gibbs original account of the landmark case, now updated with insights gained over three decades. Anyway, i dont want to drag this out, but it seems pretty obvious that in this case the cause of the tragedy was the school board and not the chemical company. My story appeared in 1982, after a lengthy siege of legal activism on the part of mrs.
Lois gibbs is a role model for people struggling for social justice around the world. Love canal is a story of failure and success, of how citizens can alter policy. This book does a great job of showing us the meaning of what happened at love canal. Love built love canal to create a dream community on the fringe of niagara falls where all could see it as a dream community. Feb 01, 1981 love planned his hydroelectric canal project as a means of supplying this electrical power to nearby industry and even dreamed that his love s canal would become the basis for a booming model city. This book gave perspective that connected my childhood experience with the experience of the families affected. It is important because the pollution disaster at love canal, along with similar pollution calamities at that time times beach, missouri and valley of drums, kentucky, helped to create superfund, a federal program. No part ofthis book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written premission except in the case of brief quotations. In the summer of 1978, residents of love canal, a suburban development in niagara falls, ny, began protesting against the leaking toxic waste. Oct 18, 2006 love canal had its waste properly stored underground with impermeable clay. The evidence of love canal s danger to residents is overwhelming. Concerns about problems at the love canal voiced by niagara county health officials and. Her book moves the story of love canal well beyond its iconic legacythe superfund act that makes polluters accountableto highlight another vital legacy, one firmly rooted in race, class, and gender. Love canal and the poisoning of america the atlantic.
This is all to the good, because it is hard to read this book without feeling that one is caught in a time warp. I was born in tonawanda, ny an old industrialized area along the niagara river. What is the best book about the love canal tragedy. I came across the book last march when i was searching for books written by or about women environmentalists in honor of womens history month. Jon allen was the only kenny child born while his family lived in the canal area. Gibbs has authored several books about the love canal story and the effects of toxic waste. She founded the nonprofit, clearinghouse for hazardous waste in 1981, to help train and support local activists. Love canal homeowners association lcha was established in august of 1978 to give the community a voice in the decisions made during the love canal environmental crisis. Review quotes what i knew of the environmental disaster was taken from books, newspaper and magazine articles and, above all, the courageous firstperson accounts by a housewifemothersurvivor of the love canal disaster, lois. Love canal is an aborted canal project branching off of the niagara river about four miles south of niagara falls. Race, class, and gender in environmental activism by elizabeth d. The young housewife who organized the residents of the love canal neighborhood to publicize their plight and protest to state and federal officials updates the struggle to persuade government officials to act.
With marsha mason, bob gunton, penny fuller, roberta maxwell. Her actions resulted in the evacuation of over 800 families. Aug 24, 2016 while other books have been written about love canal, newman provides a comprehensive, starttofinish history, with an emphasis on how the residents of love canal people who had no background. At love canal, with the nation watching, lois proved that an average person could become empowered enough to change not only her life, but also the lives of others. Love canal is a neighborhood in niagara falls named after a large ditch approximately 15 m wide, 312 m deep, and 1600 m long that was dug in the 1890s for hydroelectric power. The falls by joyce carol oates meet your next favorite book. Love canal will always remain a perfect historical example of how not to run such an operation. The love canal story is about a thousand families who lived near the site of an abandoned toxic chemical waste dump. The ditch was abandoned before it actually generated any power and went mostly unused for decades, except for swimming by local residents. Rit professors new book revisits love canal center for. Today, more than threequarters of a century later, this 16acre rectangular piece of land, located only a few miles from the worldfamous waterfall which each year attracts thousands to the. Lorem ipsum dolor nam faucibus, tellus nec varius faucibus, lorem nisl dignissim risus, vitae suscipit lectus non eros. Love canal tells a tragically common story by peeling away the facts, science, laws, data, news reports and bureaucracy to expose not only the toxic conditions but also an environmental injustice.
Love, to connect the niagara river to lake ontario and also to provide water and hydroelectric power for the city of niagara falls. The unfinished story of the love canal the toronto. Newman examines the love canal crisis through the areas broader landscape, detailing the way this evercontentious region has been used, altered, and understood from the. Love proposed connecting the upper and lower niagara river by digging a canal six to seven miles long.
When people should go to the book stores, search foundation by shop. Eightyfour years later, love gave up and put his unfinished, 16acre canal for auction. Safe or not, love canal remains in perpetuity local news. Hay, the journal of american history newman manages to retell the story in a way that is fresh and imbues love canal, as place and symbol, with new importance for understanding the history of citizen activism, environmentalism, and environmental regulation in the united states newmans examination of love canal in the. The love canal protest movement inaugurated the era of grassroots environmentalism, spawning new antitoxics laws and new models of ecological protest.
The deed contained language that sought to protect hooker from liability for what was buried there. A dream community on the fringe of niagara falls 2302 words 10 pages. Mazur reexamines the circumstances that made an upstate new york neighborhood synonymous with ecological catastrophe and triggered federal superfund legislation to clean up thousands of hazardous waste sites. Historically, blame has been placed upon the company that has since been held legally responsible for the wastes present in the area. Table of contentsacknowledgmentsintroduction by murray levine1. Borrowing the multiviewpoint technique of rashomon, the book reveals that there are many versions of what occurred at love canal. The analytic resources that the book deploys seem almost as dated as the events themselves. My story, written with murray levine and published in 1982. From 1942 to 1953, the hooker chemical company, with government sanction, began using the partially dug canal as a chemical waste dump.
An poorlyeducated housewife fights companies polluting her hometowns watertable in upstate new york during the 1970s. Sep 18, 2017 the book brought many of the issues surrounding environmental advocacy and the historians craft into sharp relief for me. In the summer of 1978, residents of love canal, a suburban development in niagara falls, ny, began protesting against the leaking toxic waste dump in their midsta sixteenacre site containing 100,000 barrels of chemical waste that anchored their neighborhood. Sep 22, 2016 the canal was turned into a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite. Families remind silent, unsure what to do and love canal tells a tragically common story by peeling away the facts, science, laws, data, news reports and bureaucracy to expose not only the toxic conditions but also an environmental injustice. The love canal disaster one of the most famous and important examples of groundwater pollution in the u. Jan 26, 2020 sarah rated it liked it the falls is an expertly crafted plate of liver and onions, unappetizing despite the skill it took to prepare. It is also the name of a fifteenacre, workingclass neighborhood of around 800 singlefamily homes built directly adjacent to the canal. Mar 18, 2016 in the 1950s the hooker chemical company pumped the love canal section of niagra falls with 22,000 tons of dioxins from perfumes and shoe rubber. Love canal and its mixed legacy the new york times. At 218 pages plus a brief appendix, mazurs version of the love canal story is refreshingly brief. A hazardous inquiry allan mazur harvard university press. A chainlink fence around 70 acres of land in the southern part of niagara falls.
The true story of the love canal disaster is given in the february 1981 edition of reason magazine. Apr 21, 2016 this legacy of love canal may provide redemption and hope. An informative onsite documentary about the environmental disaster that occurred at love canal in western new york over 40 years ago. Since i took a class with this professor, i decided to read her books as well. A history of the love canal disaster, 1893 to 1998 history. Love canal is the name of a 7 single released by the noisepunk band flipper in february 1981. Nov 02, 20 love canal s notorious history began when hooker chemical co.
Mar 25, 20 love canal originated in 1894 as part of william t. Love abandoned the project after an economic depression, leaving behind a partially dug section of the canal, sixty feet wide and three thousand feet long. The case of love canal is one of the most tragic and wellknown instances of environmental injustice in the history of the united states. Newman freedoms prophet, a historian and environmentalist, diligently digs into how and why love canal became perhaps the worlds most famous toxic trash heap. Children are walking on the sidewalk, the trees are full, lawns are mown, american flags are flying and flowers are in bloom. Love canal is a neighborhood in niagara falls, new york, infamous as the location of a 70acre 28 ha. From a woman who had skipped a day of school when she had to present a book report, lois became the spokeswoman and political strategist for a thousand. Heck, the company didnt even want to sell the land until it was threatened with legal action to acquire it. Apr 12, 2016 the love canal protest movement inaugurated the era of grassroots environmentalism, spawning new antitoxics laws and new models of ecological protest. Love canal protests project gutenberg selfpublishing. The long article by eric zuesse was a real example of investigative journalism that doesnt seem to exist any more. Government engineer surveyed the niagara county area, looking for a possible site for a ship canal to connect the lakes erie and ontario. The opinions expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect.
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