1950s: normal-looking development Love Canal, Niagara Falls, Ny by Andy Levin. Image Credit: Science Source Prints
Whenever we purchase or lease a real estate property, we hardly think about what lies beneath the ground. It may hide a cemetery, an underground fuel tank, abandoned mine workings or even a toxic waste dump. Fact is, waste does not simply "die"; it accumulates and deteriorates, and possibly producing toxins that can pose a long-term hazard.
Leaking barrels of hazardous waste discovered at Love Canal, Image Credit: Human Accumulation
During the years 1942 through 1953, more than 21,800 tons of wastes were buried in an abandoned canal in Niagara Falls, New York. The site was covered with soil and several structures, including a school, were built nearby in 1953.
Image Credit: Stephen hicks, Ph.D.
For years, waste remained underground, and a lot of time went by till the beginning of the 1970s, when residents started calling the authorities to complain about strange odours and visible chemical leaks.
Image Credit: Washington Post
Investigations unmasked the movement of chemicals towards the vicinity, and as a result, hundreds of families close to the canal and thousands of people living nearby were evacuated between 1978 and 1980.
1970s: evacuated homes / contaminated area
Image Credit: RenovablesVerdes
The catastrophe has turned into a symbol of hazardous waste mismanagement in the USA and contributed to the establishment of the Superfund program back in 1980, which aimed at dealing with abandoned hazardous waste locations. But the Love Canal issue did not end there. EPA and New York State conducted long-term cleanup of the area.
Abandoned Streets in Love Canal Image Credit: Wikimedia
The site was deleted from the Superfund National Priorities List back in 2004, but the waste is still effectively contained.
Children and babies were the most at risk for health effects from chemical exposure. Photo: Fierce Green Fire via Living on earth
The most recent Five-Year Review completed by the EPA shows that the cleaning up of the site continues to protect human beings and the environment from any hazardous materials.
Photo of westbound Frontier Avenue in Niagara Falls, New York showing the southern limits of the Love Canal site. Photo taken looking northwest between 100th Street and 95th Street.
Image Credit: wikimedia
The moral of the story is clear: throwing something away does not make it disappear. Over seventy years later, waste buried in the 1940s still needs to be contained and monitored
References:
New York State Department of Health Love Canal Special Report
Historical background and the 21,800-ton waste figure.
New York State Department of Health Love Canal Follow-up Health Study
Contamination, residents, and evacuations.
U.S. EPA Love Canal Superfund Site
Cleanup and current monitoring/maintenance. EPA confirms that ongoing operation, maintenance and monitoring continue at the site.
