"Give me Liberty. I've Already Got Death."
-sign displayed by Love Canal resident, 1978
In 1978, after recognition of a persistent pattern of birth defects and other health problems, the State of New York announced the evacuation of 200 homes in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, which had been built on a chemical waste dump. The cognizance that Love Canal was not an isolated case produced legislation to deal with toxic waste sites, known as Superfund, which defined and clarified rights and responsibilities for waste cleanup. Superfund, and new notions of environmental justice derived from it, ushered in a new policy regime that fixed financial and legal responsibilities in cases arising in modern industrial society.
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