When a neighborhood in Niagra Falls is named "Love Canal," you might think it would be a perfect place for a weekend get-away, or an idyllic spot to raise one’s family. Tragically, as its residents discovered in 1978, a chemical company had already put this area to use as a dumping site for highly toxic chemicals - which they then covered up, literally and figuratively. But it couldn’t, and didn’t, stay buried forever, and once the citizens actually learned about the horrific compounds stored in the very soil they lived on, there was only one thing to do: get out as soon as humanly possible.

Rob teaches Ray about any terrible history of Love Canal, New York, where deadly chemicals were discovered and identified as the cause of persistent health and safety issues that were afflicting the adults and children of the community; why the United States government originally allowed the Hooker Chemical Company to use the area as a dumpsite before it was populated; how this catastrophe impacted local and national politics; how Hooker managed to sell off the contaminated area; and how the story of Love Canal provided a tragic example to the entire nation about the dangers of industrial waste and its impact on those living near it. 

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TEAM

Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

ARTICLESEPISODE CLIPS

The Love Canal Disaster: Toxic Waste in the Neighborhood | Retro Report | the New York Times

Love Canal TRAGEDY..PT 1 of 3

Abc News Close-Up: The Killing Ground (1979)

Love Canal Tragedy (Part 2 of 3)

ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

“Happy Bee”

• Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro