Love Canal

Love Canal
Superfund site
The Love Canal site in 2012
Geography
City	Niagara Falls
County	Niagara County
State	New York
Coordinates	43°04′50″N 78°56′56″W / 43.080518°N 78.948956°W / 43.080518; -78.948956Coordinates: 43°04′50″N 78°56′56″W / 43.080518°N 78.948956°W / 43.080518; -78.948956
Love Canal
Information
CERCLIS ID	NYD000606947
Contaminants	Various chemicals
Responsible parties	Hooker Chemical Company
Progress
Proposed	12/30/1983
Listed	09/08/1984
Construction completed	09/29/1998
Deleted	09/30/2004
List of Superfund sites

Love Canal is a neighborhood within Niagara Falls, New York. The site is known as the host of a 16-acre landfill that served as the epicenter of a massive environmental pollution disaster that affected the health of hundreds of residents, culminating in an extensive Superfund cleanup operation.

Originally intended in the 1890s as a planned model community, Love Canal served as a residential place before being purchased by Hooker Chemical Company (now Occidental Chemical Corporation). After its sale to the local school district, Love Canal attracted national attention for the public health problem originated from the massive dumping of toxic waste on the grounds. This event displaced numerous families, leaving them with long-standing health issues and symptoms of high red blood cell counts and leukemia. Consequently, the federal government passed the Superfund law. The resulting cleanup operation under the Superfund law demolished the neighborhood, wrapping up in 2004.

New York State Health Department Commissioner David Axelrod calls the Love Canal incident a "national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations". The Love Canal incident was especially significant as a situation where the inhabitants "overflowed into the wastes instead of the other way around".

Love Canal is a neighborhood located in the city of Niagara Falls in the northwestern region of New York state. The neighborhood covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, stretching from the 93rd street making up the western border to the 100th street in the east border and the 103rd street in the northeast. Bergholtz Creek defines the north border with the Niagara River marking the southern border one-quarter mile (400 m) away. The Lasalle Expressway splits an uninhabited portion of the south from the north. The canal covers 16 acres of land in the central eastern portion.