The Love Canal was supposed to be a suburban idyll. Instead, it became a dumping ground for chemical waste. After the land changed hands in the 1950s — from the Hooker Electrochemical Company to the Niagara Falls Board of Education — a school and 900 homes were built atop the toxic landfill. Decades later, residents are still battling adverse health outcomes and government negligence.

This is the first episode in our four-part series, “They Knew,” covering four times corporations and government officials knew their actions could cause harm, and forged ahead anyway.

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