John Anderson
12/1/16
LAW 301B
Professor Agnello
Environmental Disasters
With environmental concerns becoming more and more of an issue, there has been
numerous disasters that have negatively affected communities and essentially the entire earth.
There are two instances within the past century that highlight crucial mistakes made by people
who are oblivious to the harsh effects of chemicals on human beings. One of these instances was
the disaster of Love Canal. The Love Canal was built to connect Lake Erie to Lake Ontario but
ended up being a dumpsite for Hooker Chemicals. The other detrimental issue was the Flint,
Michigan water crisis. Both situations had very harmful consequences that are still relevant
today.
Love Canal and the Flint, Michigan water crisis are extremely similar. In both cases, the
residents of those areas had no idea what was going on in their environment until people began
getting sick and rumors started to spread. People of these areas knew that something had to be
done, but it didn’t happen quick enough. With Love Canal, it was the government that wasn’t
willing to admit that there was an issue and the situation is identical in Flint, Michigan. In both
instances, the government fudged the numbers/results until the people couldn’t take it any
longer.
From the early 1940’s to the mid 1950’, the Love Canal was the main dumping area of
chemical waste from a local company Hooker chemical. For over 10 years, Hooker chemical
company dumped approximately 21,000 tons of deadly bi-products such as pesticides, plastics,
and acids (Video). After the disposal of the waste, Hooker chemical sold the property to the
Niagara Falls School Board for one single dollar. The chemicals began to erode at the clay
protection inside the dumpsite and began to spread throughout the ground of the surrounding
neighborhoods. Finally, people began to realize that they had a toxic dumpsite in their backyards.
Once people noticed, it was too late. In 1976, the discoveries were very alarming. The
builders began to excavate and were soon to find that the school was built on top of numerous
chemicals. A lot of these chemicals happened to be discovered when kids playing on the
playground would play in the “black hole” which was compared to quicksand (Video). In reality,
