ocated near the source of water-powered electrical energy (p. 9, Love Canal). These problems were compounded when "Congress passed an environmental bill, restraining the removal of water from the Niagara in order preserve the waterfall" (p.9 Love Canal). The project crashed and left behind an unfinished canal 3000 ft long, 10 ft. deep, and 60 ft. wide. Time passed and the unfinished canal filled with water from creeks running into it from the Niagara River.
             2.2 It's Life as A Chemical Dump
             In the 1920's the canal was used as a landfill after being auctioned to the municipality of Niagara Falls. Along with the city, Hooker Chemical (under contract to the army) began dumping waste chemicals. In 1942, Hooker Chemical Company gained permission from the municipality to dispose of the chemical waste from all of its operations in the canal. In 1947, Hooker bought the 60 ft. wide canal along with two 70 ft. wide strips of land on either side of the canal. Dumping continued; the regulations required only that the site not attract vermin or flies to the vicinity. The thick, impermeable clay lining of the canal and the sparsely populated area (where zoning regulations did not prevent waste disposal) made the canal an ideal dumping ground in the eyes of the company officials.
             The chemicals were mostly dumped in old rusted metal drums or in fiber drums that were used to filter cake residues. The drums occasionally cracked when being dumped, allowing the chemicals to flow directly into the canal. Many of the chemicals reacted violently when exposed to air causing fire and explosions that shot flames as high as the adjacent homes. (Love Canal History, 1998) Hooker employees reported on many occasions that the water throughout the canal was contaminated and that children were swimming in sections not being used as dumping grounds. One resident described the dumping operation in a letter to the Niagara Gazette:...