The Love Canal
Love Canal was named after its creator William T. Love and its construction began in the 1890s (http://onlineethics.org/environment/lcanal/timeline.html). The project was never finished and an extremely large, seemingly useless hole was left in the ground in the Niagara Falls area. Almost 40 years later, when the area of Niagara Falls began to industrialize, a use for this gaping hole was found. Different businesses and industrial corporations started to manufacture goods and products and with the manufacture of these came the unwanted additive of industrial wastes. During the 1940s these companies looked at the unused canal as an easily accessible place to dump their wastes. During the 1940s and 50s, the Hooker Chemical Company, filled the canal, later named the "Love Canal", with about 21,000 tons of organic solvents, acids, and pesticides as well as their by-products, many of them causing cancer or birth defects (http://onlineethics.org/environment/lcanal/timeline.html). Once the canal was full, Hooker widened the canal in order to accommodate even more waste. It then covered it with clay, which was supposed to keep moisture away from the chemicals and act as a barrier seal.It was The City of Niagara Falls that sta
Many studies (termed "epidemiological studies") showed that birth defects, miscarriages, low birth-weight, cancers and respiratory disorders were found in people whose homes were along these swales. 1977, chemical odours filled the air and chemicals were detected in neighborhood creeks, sewer lines, and soil, in the sump pumps in the basements of homes and in the indoor air of the same homes (http://onlineethics. There is a city that's built on human waste, which in itself can be dangerous, but on waste generated from herbicide, pesticide and nuclear manufacturing. After several years of complaints and investigations, the state of New York purchased more than 230 of the residents' homes and financed some of the costs of their moving (http://www. The government, after much pressure from citizens, as well as numerous EPA cover-ups, acted and paid to have the area cleaned up and periodically tested. Throughout the post-war period, more and more residences were being built in the area. Presently, however, New York State is proclaiming the site clean and is building new homes at reduced prices in order to repopulate the area. The Army joined in and dumped chemical warfare material and "parts of the Manhattan Project". The actions taken by Hooker and The City of Niagara falls were corrupt in their handling of this affair. Also during this time, Hooker knew that, as a result of the way the drums and wastes were dumped in the canal and pits, the drums were deteriorating, and would continue to deteriorate, and the subsurface would shift, causing a collapse of the surface. The drums sometimes broke apart as they were being dumped and sometimes chemical wastes were even dumped directly into the canal. Hooker also knew that when the surface fell in, the drums and wastes would become exposed further endangering children and others.
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Acceptance Essays
