a Model City
William Love's planned 1890s model city near Niagara Falls included a canal between the Upper and Lower Niagara River to generate power. By 1910, economic downturns and financing problems ended those plans. A mile-long ditch remained -- Love Canal.
"Everybody's come to town, |
"If you get there before I do The ditch became a city landfill in the 1920s, also receiving industrial wastes. From 1942 to 1952, it was used by Hooker Chemical as a disposal site for over 21,000 tons of chemical wastes, including toxic halogenated organics, chlorobenzenes, pesticides, and dioxin. It was covered with earth and sold to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for $1 in 1953. In the late 1950s, around 100 homes and a school were built to serve a working-class community. In the 1960s and 1970s, odors and residues were reported and complaints continued to increase.
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