The Love Canal Disaster: The Worst Environmental Crisis You've Never Heard Of

[@bradbo3]

I lived on 90th st for 22 years….and we were there when the new leak happened in 2011…..all lawsuits have been dismissed….corruption continues to this day.

[@forgottenworld]

It is a complex system. Not fun.

[@danielwelker1286]

Sadly Our Government Is good at hiding Crap 😮

[@skeetrix5577]

​@@forgottenworldI would hardly call love canal "the worst environmental disaster you've never heard of" when it's literally the poster child for what we now call superfund sites. Since you speak lies before I even opened your video, I won't bother watching this or anything else by you. Next time try not embellishing shit.

[@OffendingTheOffendable]

In 22 years no one thought to move

[@bradbo3]

@@OffendingTheOffendable yeah cause selling a house there and buying another is just so easy.

[@jerlewis4291]

One thing that gets ignored is that when Hooker sold the land, there was an addendum added to the deed that clearly stated that there was buried chemical waste in the canal. The School Board had proposed building a school when Hooker owned the land, but Hooker said that the land was not suitable to use for a school. Furthermore, the developers and Niagara Falls both pierced the walls of the canal when they were running sewer and water lines right through the canal. That's what broke the steel barrels in the canal. The protective clay cap was removed from the site, despite a clause in the deed that said that it could not be removed. This was buried deliberately because there was no doubt that if it had become common knowledge of the warnings, and the rules on the canal the City of Niagara Falls as well as the developers would be liable for the costs. You can find the deed online, there is a copy of it on Wikipedia, go read it.

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you for posting that.

[@Drewzer154]

You're right, companies should not be held responsible for intentionally dumping toxic waste.

[@jerlewis4291]

@@Drewzer154 If you read the deed Hooker made it clear that there were hazardous materials there, and the City of Niagara Falls also had dumped hazardous materials there. Why shouldn’t the agency that actually caused the problem be accountable for causing it?

[@Jaydarabbit]

@@jerlewis4291 Well they both need to be held accountable for it, seeing how it was underhandingly sold for a dollar to the city.... clearly in cahoots on the dealings of the situation at hand.....leading to the obvious notion that both parties are somehow involved in the matter.... therefor hold them both accountable and let their be justice to the community.

[@jerlewis4291]

@@Jaydarabbit It wasn't underhand, the warning was in the deed, and the school board and their lawyers had to read it.

[@AndrewZebrunIII]

I go by Love Canal at work everyday. There are a shocking number of dead trees in the surrounding neighborhoods. You can't tell me these chemicals are contained, thanks for looking into this sad saga.

[@thomascavanagh9031]

the dead trees are black ash trees. The ash borer is the problem there.

[@Nicholas-f5]

​@@thomascavanagh9031also related to climate change

[@dashreasinger1430]

I'm an environmental scientist now, but a big reason I got into it was because my grandfather and his brother grew up in love canal. He would tell me stories about playing on the playground, there would be rainbow puddles everywhere and kids would jump in them as kids do. Then he would just hear screaming, cause a kid would get the water in his eyes and it would start burning. Now in his early 70s, he and his brother are still having health problems associated with love canal, specifically dental issues. The one good thing that came from love canal was that it became the first EPA brownfield, giving the EPA a way to raise funds to treat and try to clean up areas like this.

[@forgottenworld]

Yes, the EPA and Superfund really really helped. Without them it would still be a supermess.

[@Jaydarabbit]

Amazing that such a horrible situation could turn into a blessing by making your life have such a powerful and postitive reaction to this horrible situation created by hooker company.However the positive and most amazing part of all is how beneficial and meaningful your line of work can help not only to give back to your grandfather but as well as the community! I just wanted to say you are pretty f@&kin inspiring and wish you and your family all the best!!! You are a warrior fighting against the ignorant that think they know best!!! But they will have to answer maybe not today but in the end to the most high^^^^^^😮😮😮😮🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@aaronhuffman4852]

There’s a school district in my state of Ohio called RIVER VALLEY SCHOOLS and the buildings were built on top a dump like love canal. Its location is close to Marion Ohio. We pass by it on our way to Put In Bay and I always wondered why the buildings sat abandoned and not razed. There’s a book about it called the School Poisoning Tragedy.

[@dudemcmann6936]

I did a report on this for my Engineering Ethics course back when I was in college.

[@TracyCook-y7r]

You are the silver lining! What kills me is that they encased it in several feet of clay. Why clay? Seems permeable to me, things like concrete or steel sound better. What do I know? But I DO know this... it would be impossible to clean up all the Dioxin that leaked in 77'. We're living the aftermath like the Teflon people in PA - and no one cares.

[@theegwana2103]

Corruption is everywhere. Sucks when innocent people get effected

[@HawksDiesel]

Vote for representatives that will help its community

[@petert1692]

No way. That would be logical. Then vote for the felon who will make things worse.

[@jiveturkeyjames]

That thing was leaking back in 2008-2010 on Colvin Blvd and 96th St. A section of the road was being eroded away and created a dip in the road. They did some excavations and repairs to the road, but that dip still remains. The hauled away the stuff they dug up in lined dumpsters with workers in Tyvek suits. They had large vacuum trucks pumping out the main sewer line all the way down Colvin Blvd. Then they set in robotic cameras in the sewers to inspect them. I went down in my basement to the floor drain and gathered up a couple samples from the P trap of the rainbow tinted black ooze. But they said there was nothing to worry about. There are some small water filled ditches outside the perimeter of the containment area that you can access that black ooze and stench is still present.

[@Brian-fp3fk]

Not good

[@vvvvxxxx9999]

Ty

[@APBTLoverS]

I remember that! I lived on 98th street and wondered why the dip started my school bus drove over it every day

[@maxwebster7572]

It was good to see Rich. Back when news media was respectable.

[@jerlewis4291]

The media is the reason most people never actually heard of or knew about the restrictions in the deed. There was a concerted effort to keep the City of Niagara Falls from being blamed for any of this.

[@sherylhill2956]

My grandmother owned a home just outside the fenced in area of abandoned homes. Eventually, through periodic soil testing, chemicals were found on their property and the government finally bought their house, so they could move. My cousin was born with severe birth defects due to my aunt growing up in that area.

[@TracyCook-y7r]

It's criminal!

[@Nicholas-f5]

Lawsuit

[@TracyCook-y7r]

@@Nicholas-f5 hundreds of them

[@damonroberts7372]

The residents of the area around Love Canal (past and present) have my deepest sympathy. I grew up in a neighbourhood of Brisbane, Australia that was contaminated with arsenic and chromium because it was re-developed over the old Packer & Knox tannery. The safety limit for arsenic is 10 ppb (parts per billion), one environmental sample from the playground of our local school exceeded 170 ppb. The scandal broke in 1990 and the state Department of Education commissioned hair testing of the students _en masse_ for arsenic exposure. We were told that the results were "within safe limits" but they never actually released test data to the parents. There was remediation work to "cap" the original soil, and they replaced all the carpeting in the classrooms, but the school is there (sitting on top of massive quantities of arsenic) to this day. The exact extent of the arsenic contamination under the surrounding housing developments is not known to the public, and it's almost impossible to find information about the contamination scandal online... even though there were news reports at the time.

[@mikeyb7263]

It was probably not released to parents because if someone looked at those results and cross-referenced them with where each child lived it would look like a map of spreading toxins.

[@danielwelker1286]

Very smart to build toxic dumps near major water supply

[@jimc5792]

Leaking into the Niagara river but they won’t tell people that the cancer rate is high in this area even the city of buffalo

[@vvvvxxxx9999]

I was thinking the same thing. Upriver as well. It doesn't seem that others have noticed.

[@ZeroPlanB]

What kills me is they warned the school board about a chemical dumping ground and they still sold it to them anyways

[@forgottenworld]

It was a bit more complex than that. But in the end that was the case.

[@lakerfan2874]

They warned the school board, and they still bought it for a dollar to build that school. The city wants to make it into a solar farm, which I disagree with as it would still be terrible.

[@LavitosExodius]

The city had been trying to take it via emminent domain. My guess is they figured sell it for a dollar put everything in a legal document and then they'd have proof that the city had been warned.

[@poncethegayboi]

They said do not build on it. Niagara falls was like. Ok. Put a school on it. I don't blame Hooker. I blame the city

[@ZeroPlanB]

@@poncethegayboi neither are innocent

[@robertwelch8176]

Thank you for doing this. My mother died at 46 years old from breast cancer. She was an elementary school teacher at Love Canal during the 1950s. When is part two coming out?

[@John-v1b8f]

I live in the falls and they have a dump that's a mile away and it's ten times the size of love canal.. I talked to truck drivers that said that they are getting chemicals from all over the world and they bring them to Niagara falls dump. They can't bury them in their own country. It's getting worse than anyone could think

[@bc4620]

There is a map of chemical dump sites throughout Niagara county. One dump site was along the side of the Erie Canal. Also look into the other chemicals, like anthrax and also atomic waste. It’s a sign of local and government corruption from years past. Good luck and I hope Niagara Falls and Niagara county can be saved. It’s only one of the wonders of the world !!!

[@rentechpad]

The Love Canal story is just a very small chapter in a period of the later industrial revolution, early technology era and the chemical/munitions era if the two largest wars man has known. Actually, industry and technology and chemical research driven by what eventually would be called the military industrial complex and pushed and heavily financed by the government was all about developing what was not only needed to win wars but to get head in ways that would scare others into not starting a new one. A lot of this came about after the bombs were dropped to end WW2. The bombs really were not needed except for expediency, it just ended a war people were not supporting as much in a quick manner and one that gave a full surrender rather than a fairer negotiated peace. And even though nuclear experimentation went on for a while, it was clear that while nuclear might possibly be a safe energy source, as a weapon it would not work without ruining the planet. In many ways the nuclear testing of the early cold war era was little more than PR putti g everyone on notice it was not how we wished to go out, and allowed for enough experimentation to prove that the major political powers needed to look into technology based on chemicalas and, later, biologicals. The problem was that while men could invent these things, they had zero idea of what they were creating a byproducts, and even when finally becoming aware due to workers health that things were dangerous to be in contact with, never bothered to research disposal.

[@MachinistSquare33]

Great video showing the absolute disgusting atrocities that Hooker and the city allowed. Then growing a community on a dollars worth of toxic land.

[@forgottenworld]

The sad part is this happened in many, many place around the country, the difference is there was a school built on top of it.

[@denizyazici5290]

I remember the stories about Love Canal from the 1970s and 1980s as a kid. And there were concerns about how much the leaking toxic waste was making its way into the Niagara River then into Lake Ontario. Living in Toronto, we were always worried about how toxic the drinking water was because of these leaky waste dumps on the U.S. side. I also found out that there were concerns about chemical wastes being pressure injected deep underground at the multitude of chemical plants in and around Sarnia, Ontario and the fact that the pressures could fracture the rock layers resulting in potential leaks. There was a report I saw from Environment Canada raising such concerns.

[@johnwattdotca]

I played in bar bands in Sarnia and along the river. Back then there was "the blob", pollution that gathered in the river and had to be dealt with.

[@bryan3409]

As a citizen of living down wind from Toronto, you're toxic acid rains should be more a concern.

[@PearComputingDevices]

We had a superfund cleanup over here in Elkhart Indiana, it was a dump site for Whitehall pharmaceutical company. It was awful.

[@Jst12341]

Great documentary. An independent look into the Love Canal situation is long overdue.

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you for that.

[@alanpiaskowski9362]

Finally a love canal documentary that got my house in it.

[@amircohn9849]

Which house

[@as48507]

Here in Flint we have a similar thing.. a field/wetlands was filled with hazardous waste by GM. The land was later converted to a soccer complex with a bunch of soccer fields.. kids and parents got sick.. it’s still fenced in, like the Love Canal.. Subbed, and hit the bell.. great work.. I look forward to more from you..

[@newtonbrook]

I saw it on the Buffalo news everynight years ago. Channel 7, 4 and 2

[@Dontneedahandle0]

My mom is a canal kid. She has so many health problems. So do I and my siblings.

[@Joybuzzard]

I ended up learning about this as a teenager because of the Dead Kennedy's song 'Cesspools in Eden'. This was before Google, so I had to use the library card catalogue system to find articles related to 'Love Canal' and found several articles a few books with articles about it. Disturbing.

[@forgottenworld]

DK sang (screamed) about this?? Holiday in Cambodia ?

[@shaggybreeks]

Never heard of? The name was a household word at one time. It was synonymous with catastrophic pollution. I can't believe that nobody's heard of it. Well, yes I can, unfortunately.

[@davidrogemoser9147]

The Niagara Falls area was also highly involved in the Manhattan project which helped develop the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan to end WW2. There are radioactive dump sites all over Niagara Falls, Lockport and Tonawanda, that I know of, and probably many other sites in WNY as well. That waste was disposed of using the technology of the days, but obviously 80 years later we are embarrassed by what was done. There is a lot of land particularly in Tonawanda, and Lockport that probably can never be used again by people. And there is no really no good solutions to address this. The best thing to do would be to dig it all up, but then it would just have to be disposed of somehow. We all need us be reminded of all the benefits that we have all had from all the things all these chemicals and radioactive materials have done to make our everyday lives better for all these years.

[@TracyCook-y7r]

I live in a surrounding zip code, and I am telling you the junk seeps in. We have such a high rate of weird cancers like bladder, kidney and thyroid - they only talked about the people who got sick right away, not the long term. All my relatives who worked in that area died before 55 years old. I just feel like there needs to be a bigger fence like for several miles around this area. What do they do? Build more housing near it and rent it cheap. No signs of toxic waste - people live right on top of it. There's a golf course where the Manhattan project was centered and when the wind blows a certain way, it smells worse than farts. Digging it up is a wee bit scary -- can't they use mushrooms to absorb toxins?

[@davidrogemoser9147]

@@TracyCook-y7r I agree with everything you said

[@TracyCook-y7r]

@@davidrogemoser9147 Thanks for saying that. Nice to feel heard.

[@J0K3-R]

Great video! I watched a documentary about this a few years ago, and now I get a follow-up to it. I can't wait for the next video to drop.

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you.

[@ctravvsss]

I live in Buffalo and I will say my jaw dropped at 0:15 when you said NF, NY. I’m sure I’ve heard of this but I was not expecting this to pertain to anything near me. Wild.

[@johnsweeney6072]

You’ve got to be gullible to think mild steel drums will last for ever.

[@islesofshoals3551]

I've walked this site. It was one of the most haunting experiences I've ever had

[@kmmkmm7499]

Lots of people have covered this disaster story...thank you for your insight..its so important to shine that light on these issues, so they dont repeat themselves...waiting for part2....thank you sir.

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you. So much on the internet is "me too" stuff. I tried to actually understand it, not just recite factoids.

[@marklynch8781]

I remember this from when I was young. Everyone across the nation thought the super fund was going to completely clean this up, not just cover it up with a clay cap. I for one want this mess completely cleaned and made 100% safe.

[@susansauceda9879]

Look up the Superfund map from 80's, then look up the current one.

[@sammylacks4937]

Ever notice the perpetrators of whatever never live anywhere near the location of their mess.

[@butwhytharum]

Ever notice that the perpetrators are always nameless corporations?

[@sammylacks4937]

@@butwhytharum Not always nameless but unaccountable Dupont made a fortune poisoning us with the chemicals they say are safe.

[@sqeekykleen49]

​@@butwhytharumchemours cough cough owned by DuPont! Who has stock in that company? Those mfers should be defended, don't worry, they got the inheritance of pfas in their kids blood too. Now it is in dairy, fruits and veggies and we use it in the manufacturing process of polyethylene!

[@a.azazagoth5413]

They still haven't completely cleaned that place up?! I remember this story when i was fairly young and figured that it would be taken care of by now. Thanks for keeping this story relevant! 6:50: Men like him are true sociopaths. To so easily lie while children are getting sick and mothers are having miscarriages.

[@Redlined997_C2S]

My Dad grew up on Cayuga Island. I remember, in the late 60's and early 70's visiting Grandma and Grandpa and the distinct smell of Hooker chemical around there and Lewiston.

[@tonygeorgeson8426]

I worked at a factory named AIR TECHNIQUES in Hicksville NY they made dental x ray machines among other medical items. The machines that were running non stop were CNC turning centers and paper shreaders. The building was originally owned by Sylvania they were refurbishing nuclear fuel rods in a nice suburban community. Hooker had a plant on the other side of town. The next town over is Bethpage home of Grumman Airspace now part of Lockheed Grumman. Who besides building the LUNAR EXCURSION MODULE was planting not stainless steel but regular oil drums with thorium waste. Space vehicles can't use regular batteries. The toxic plume has passed my current address.

[@Nicholas-f5]

Please report to EPA if it's not known

[@JulieZook-xz3jl]

I grew up an hour's drive from there and have my suspicions that the toxins were dumped over a wide radius as the countryside in that region is sparsely populated and convenient for Hooker's purposes. In regards to capping the known dump, it is so close to a water way that it is laughable to keep the waste there and expect it to be contained. Rain water is going to run toward that nearby river. Storm run-off can rip through blacktop in half an hour near a creek or river. Clay is not going to contain that waste to protect that waterway and, based on past experience, no one should trust the government to stick up for the population and warn people when it is breached.

[@evanwest1929]

“no one should trust the government” there is the key takeaway. On every subject ever.

[@kettleblackartsand]

Also check out Gratwick park in North Tonawanda NY just down the road from Love Canal. The dog park next to it had that same goo coming up all the time. Plus Gratwick was full of hills and bumps from all the damaged barrels underneath. They fixed the park but you know how it goes..... Fingers crossed for future generations. Side note, we have a few magnet fishing videos from the area and i told the wife to not drink the water.....

[@SilentKnight43]

We did some photography at the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, NY several years ago and prior to the visit were told by several others who had previously explored and photographed the site to avoid the puddles if it was a rainy day. Apparently the puddles glow at night. Bethlehem Steel was part of the Manhattan Project during WWII and although it was claimed there was no uranium involved at Bethlehem and their primary function was the production of high grade steel for machines that developed uranium, a lot of questions remained unanswered and there's considerable revisionist history surrounding Bethlehem's involvement. Niagara Falls, NY also had a massive Union Carbide plant (with another in Welland, Ontario) that produced all sorts of lovely toxic land. In Niagara Falls, Canada we had Cyanamid Chemical (later renamed Cytec Industries) that was notorious for dumping deadly chemicals into the local environment. Toxins abound throughout the Niagara region on both sides of the river. In Welland we still have huge tracts of brownfield land leftover from the long--gone chemical companies that existed here.

[@panachevitz]

I believe that the waste uranium tailings that was manufactured at Bethlehem in Buffalo were interred in Niaraga County next to Model City landfill. There is a nuclear waste storage site next to the landfill that used to be a dynamite manufacturing plant in WW2. I thought that was on the superfund list to be cleaned up over the next 10 or so years but I'm not very sure.

[@forgottenworld]

There is a lot of toxic material still all over the Bethlehem Steel site.

[@jrevan]

Hard to believe that they let em bury it so close to a major river.

[@jeffbybee5207]

It was sealed by impenetrable clay. The cannel was dug in clay and they sealed the top and ends with clay

[@TailgunnerATC]

My family is from there and lost my grandma due to it. The whole city is a shit hole. I grew up watching Rich on the news. Nice to see him again.

[@forgottenworld]

Rich was really great to work with. He is a real straight up guy.

[@parkinson1963]

I have touched the contaminated soil from Live Canal. My class met the scientists who drilled the holes to determine how bad and big it was. It is worse than anyone imagined.

[@flipperfryer]

Another scary thing is how close Love Canal is to the Niagara River . Its likely there is Leaching Chemicals making it into the drinking water of Lake Ontario coming from the Niagara River. I think Hooker Chemical chose Love Canal knowing that waste Chemicals would slowly disperse over time through the Lime stone into the Niagara River

[@runeguidanceofthenorse]

That's what I was thinking.

[@JulieZook-xz3jl]

This is also my thought on the matter. Capping waste with a clay barrier near a river is as much of a joke as standing back with documentation and watching while children play in sludge.

[@APBTLoverS]

My dad grew up and went to that school. His street was the first to emergency evacuated. Then when I was born I lived down the street from the fenced off area on 98th street from 1992 until 2011 then we moved. Used to walk along the fenced off area all the time sometimes even trued to climb it to get over to the otherside... we had no clue back then what it was.

[@cottonmouth8394]

I’m from the area, and me and my girlfriend both work in healthcare. To this day, we still interact with people who are affected by this. Usually since the reason we see them in the first place, is they have cancer or some other chronic disease

[@DanielPhillips-d5f]

Good start bringing this to light. Brings back memories of growing up here. A great place for kids to play... in all those chemicals. Unfortunately my house is long gone as I was in the "inner ring" and our home backed up to the Canal Zone. Although I do remember hitting barrels in the yard with the lawn mower as they popped to the surface. Makes me sad for my childhood.

[@mistymang321]

Good video here. Both the city and Hooker had a hand in causing this, glad you touched a little on that aspect. Many other docs put the entire thing on Hooker and completely absolve the city of any wrongdoing.

[@forgottenworld]

Hooker did make this stuff in the first place...

[@L.T.-ed4cp]

Yes!! The city isn't a victim in this mess!

[@jerlewis4291]

@@forgottenworld Maybe you should read the original deed, where it clearly states that "Prior to the delivery of this instrument of conveyance, the grantee herein has been advised by the grantor that the premises above described have been filled, in whole or in part, to the present grade level thereof with waste products resulting from the manufacturing of chemicals by the grantor at its plant in the City of Niagara Falls, New York, and the grantee assumes all risk and liability incident to the use thereof. It is therefore understood and agreed that, as a part of the consideration for this conveyance and as a condition thereof, no claim, suit, action or demand of any nature whatsoever shall ever be made by the grantee, its successors or assigns, against the grantor, its successors or assigns, for injury to a person or persons, including death resulting therefrom, or loss of or damage to property caused by, in connection with or by reason of the presence of said industrial wastes. It is further agreed as a condition hereof that each subsequent conveyance of the aforesaid lands shall be made subject to the foregoing provisions and conditions."

[@JohnRockManJohnson]

The city, the school board and the developers should have been held liable for this whole mess. Between love canal and the Manhattan project waste buried in our area. Its disgusting what our government has done to this whole area. No wonder why the cancer rates are so high and no one is held responsible fir this continuing disaster

[@Jaydarabbit]

@@mistymang321 I only heard of this as of today and just from watching the video, I can honestly say without a doubt that both parties are to be held responsible its clear as day....

[@veronicafuller4353]

This is amazing work and a beautiful documentary and you should continue to make videos like this. I love hearing about history and all the mysteries.

[@zoeslovely7096]

My grandmother was a secretary for Hooker chemical. I remember this very well despite us all living on the Canadian side of Niagara falls. Terrifying.

[@MiracleFound]

I went to kindergarten and part of first grade in the Love Canal Zone in the 1960's. I walked to school every day, so I lived very close, if not in the zone. I have had cancer twice and have autoimmune issues. I have to wonder.

[@robbsclassics]

I grew up hearing about Love Canal. I was going to a school in Middleport, NY not far from Niagara Falls. The same thing happened there just a few years later. People near the local chemical plant would find 55gal drums surfacing in their yards after a hard rain. Children having chemical burns when they played outside. When I was in elementary school there, a herbicide chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC) spill happened. It was the same MIC that killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, within weeks. The only reason I am alive now is India is much warmer than NY, so the chemical wasn't as volitile. There was a creek that went through the middle of Middleport that the edges had dead plants. Nothing ever got cleaned up as far as I heard there. People in the town wanted to deny their local chemical plant could do wrong.

[@user-xt7rs8md7p]

Horrific… my wife spent her first years of life in a house along the canal in either middleport or gasport… before the family moved elsewhere in the county I attended university there… there’s no way that I would allow my family to live in that county or many parts of Erie County for that matter. No way

[@Mcseverythingoutdoors]

I live 40 minutes from Niagara Falls. It’s the actual armpit of NY. The entire city is complete garbage. It’s embarrassing actually.

[@user-xt7rs8md7p]

It’s a horror story of a city.

[@butterflysonacid]

Haha I loose that the armpit of ny! I also believe back in 2016 there’s something in Lackawanna that was leaking and there’s maybe one or two houses still occupied. They’re dead now. I don’t remember what that cesspool is called?

[@islesofshoals3551]

NY Governors have never cared about this place

[@peach7210]

Especially compared to the Canadian side. Such a shame.

[@TailgunnerATC]

I'm also about 40 minutes away. Total shit hole of a city

[@retrojim79]

You were on the corner my block! Great video!

[@chrismc8000]

Look at Hoosick Falls, NY. I believe now removed from the Super Fund List because of the water filtration system. The water has a taste and is the hardest water that I have ever come across. You would think that the “water filtration system” would have removed these issues. The number of my family members alone that have cancer, or currently have cancer, is unbelievable, but “studies” say this is not a problem.

[@LakeErieLee]

Great informative video. Cool to see Rich Newberg, grew up watching him on the news.

[@YarickZan]

Man if you think this place and Chernobyl are the most toxic places in the world I'd love to acquaint you with the list of Superfund sites for the US alone, as well as a lot of places in the former Soviet Union that make Love Canal look like a great place to vacation. For being a documentary film maker you sure missed a lot of things. Like how the city threatened to take the land through eminent domain if Hooker didn't sell. Another person already pointed out the clauses as part of the deal to sell the property disclosed what was underground, and how they shouldn't dig there.

[@krisone5253]

We have a landfill in my neighborhood. Edith Avenue Landfill! Soccer players are playing on it, and they built a couple of buildings on it. Don't know if they are aware that it's a landfill. Louder Than Life Concert tore up the clay cover on it! I don't think they buried toxic chemicals in it. But, it shows you how careless people are to Lease this property and let them build on an unstable landfill!

[@Suntan38]

Search for the original documentary from the 70's. It's so much deeper than what's presented here. The state then waited about 15 yrs and built houses right back in the area that should be condemned

[@The_Practical_Bond]

Excellent story Steve, quite sad indeed.

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you.

[@The_Practical_Bond]

@@forgottenworld when is part 2?

[@mitchf.4450]

The Hooker Company took extraordinary precautions, especially when compared to the standards of the day, in placing the chemicals into impermeable clay soil. While they did, of course, "sell" the land, it was only when they were threatened with an eminent domain case by the state. Even after the land was sold, Hooker continued trying to stop the land's development. Unfortunately, the local government went against all repeated warnings and tried to profit off the contaminated land. The government knew the chemicals were there and even pierced the clay container several times to fill the dirt and put sewer lines in place. Then, by selling the land for development, they virtually asked for attention to be brought to the site. The government's shoddy handling of the wasteland and their concern for money over their constituents caused the ultimate Love Canal Disaster. Moreover, when the outrage began, they pointed the finger at the Hooker company, at which point the mob sued them out of business. Worst of all, the families most affected did not see a dime; for some, it has been over 50 years.

[@forgottenworld]

As for the clay barriers I have been in communication with the DEC and EPA on what is actually down there. They are researching their records. That will be in part 2.

[@eman7892]

I remember this being uncovered in the late 70s. Kinda thought with the superfund sites, this had been cleaned up....

[@nemodapimpfish]

The government doesn't give a shit and they never full remediate these sites. But they'll tell you they did.

[@wieslebomb]

My mom's dear friend of over 30 years succumbed to the toxins of the Love Canal about 15 years ago. She had lymphoma, vascular disease and 2-3 other autoimmune diseases. She grew up in the neighborhood directly next to the canal.

[@beckeredward14]

Unknown to most people is that many of the components and processes involved in the Manhattan Project were developed, processed, and manufactured in the Greater Buffalo area that Niagara Falls is part of because of all the heavy industry here at that time. Love Canal is just the tip of the iceberg in this region when it comes to toxic pollution from the industrial era. There are many superfund sites related to the Manhattan Project that have not yet been ameliorated almost 80 years after WWII ended.

[@MiracleFound]

93rd street school. That was where I went to school in 1963-1965.

[@72chargerse72]

I live in Canada very close by... This area is very close to the Niagara river which flows into Lake Ontario and then St. Lawrence river and the Atlantic ocean. So how many people get their drinking water from these watersheds? Millions. It will impossible to determine the causes of those people's illnesses because by the time these chemicals effect and kill the folks down stream Hooker will be gone and those responsible will be gone. While they were legal in doing this, (and they keep reiterating this) and then dumping the property onto the city of Niagra Falls hands, the fact remains, it was douchey but... now it's someone else's problem.

[@414RadioTech]

They also have been dumping radioactive waste in there as well when they threw all the other chemicals in barrels like that so it's not just Yucca Mountain this also has radioactive stuff buried under the ground there in Niagara Falls as well in the Love Canal

[@forgottenworld]

There are stories of some radioactive waste in there but I have not yet verified that.

[@jeremyrude6883]

NYS really needs to step up it's game. How is our government pissing away this much tax revenue yet cannot clean this disaster area up properly?

[@CarlWrobel]

I was born and raised in Niagara Falls. They made nasty things there. Still do. Drive by the factories and huge lots of abandoned industrial plants. The smell of burning rubber mixed with sewage comes in the car. I don’t know what in particular generates the smell, but it’s been that way since I was born, and fifty years before that. I would visit the abandoned neighborhoods on my bike as a kid. There were no birds, no insects. Just the wind and distant road noise. My mom has had cancer three times, myself once, a friend my age had the exact same cancer as me. My sister was born with defects and went into surgery the day she was born. After I moved away, my asthma cleared up and I rarely get sick if at all. The people don’t know what it’s like to leave. They just don’t know. The rust belt, the America that won the civil war, and WW2, that America is a rotting hulk of a factory covered in graffiti with smashed out windows staring at a cloudy smog sky.

[@susieschilling4009]

Bottom line- If they were so concerned why did they not keep the land to make sure the dump was protected? Rather they chose to give it away and deflect there toxic mess.

[@L.T.-ed4cp]

And why did the city of NF collude with Hooker to keep it hush hush when people started to report about happenings on the playground? The book "Paradise Falls" goes into detail about this.

[@mrs2691]

The School Board was threatening to seize the property via eminent domain. Hooker Chemical felt that deeding it to the board was the only way to put in restrictions on the lands use.

[@michellem.9172]

@@mrs2691 I don’t understand why Hooker didn’t let the eminent domain proceeding move forward and publicly reveal in the proceeding that the property contained buried chemicals and couldn’t be safely redeveloped.

[@mrs2691]

@@michellem.9172 The various proceedings were conducted during school board meetings attended by the Niagara Gazette. If Hooker allowed the transfer via eminent domain, Hooker actually would have been absolved of legal responsibility. Instead they tried to include restrictions on the land use, which the school board rejected. Before transferring the property Hooker even brought the school board onto the site, did test boring, and showed them the chemicals. Later, when the school board was meeting to debate selling a lot of the property off to land developers, Hooker sent lawyers who reiterated that the land would not be safe for homes, that only surface development such as a park or parking lot would be safe, and that underground utilities would be dangerous. The Niagara Gazette attended and reported on it. The school board didn’t seem to care about safety, and had also obtained land from the Federal Government that was later found to have radioactive contamination.

[@gobillz6895]

Because hooker execs and city leaders belonged to the same country club

[@majorsellllllllll]

Man needs editing and proofreading so his evidence is respected and taken seriously

[@yamahagytrracing21]

Very good content you have you deserve more subscribers than you get

[@ericwobschall8410]

I'm a Western New York resident, and pretty much of a tree hugger. So, I think I have some credibility when I say that my belief is this: When Hooker buried nasty chemicals they were in compliance with what was supposed to be acceptable methods at the time. Hooker did not want to, but was forced to sell the Love Canal property to the City for one dollar. When they acquiesced, they begged the city to not disturb the site. So the City ignored that and built a school and subdivision. Obviously that excavation caused or worsened the problem. Now, it's possible that Hooker didn't want to disclose the extent of any deviations from contemporaneous regulation. But probably they were in compliance with whatever minimal regulation had been lobbied for, so the City is primarily to blame. To any shortsighted cretins listening: This is why regulation is necessary. Corporations with stockholders do not have the option to altruistically regulate themselves. They (if we're lucky) will only comply with what's required, not with what makes sense or is morally right. Politicians who run on platforms of deregulation are responsible for this, but they never take responsibility, The people are always left holding the bag.

[@mainman8098]

The craziest part is, people are now living there again 🤦‍♂️

[@worldoneprofessorjamesperr2417]

Of course, there is still toxic waste. It never goes away. Well Done. Peace 😎

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you

[@nathanventura548]

Growing up in WNY the story of Love Canal is inescapable, and it only serves as a primer for all the other local environmental horror stories. The property behind my house was a designated brown field site for decades and remained vacant until a certain local landlord cut down all the trees that had grown there in the years since.

[@josephlangman1373]

I grew up there on 95th street in the 1970's up until our family was forced out in 1982. We lived in a motel for almost a year that i can recall. I went to 93rd Street school and our baseball diamond 1st base was always leaking and covered in black slime that everyone of us who played on it ended up covered in whatever it was. So 🤷‍♂️

[@Nothingmuch1039]

You're right! I lived in Jamestown NY for a while. Spent a lot of time in Buffalo and Niagra Falls... NEVER heard about this!

[@Vance-ik9ck]

You forgot to mention the most witnesses that worked in that area said that three out of four trucks that came in there were painted army green!

[@fumanpoo4725]

Most folks my age, 59, know of Love Canal. Alas, there are far mor dangerous sites in the USA.

[@scoutcoolkid]

Great work

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@RV_Chef_Life]

I was a truck driver in the 90’s and had parked at a truck stop in Niagra near an industrial area to sleep. I left the vents open because it was cool and only to wake up the next morning to a chemical smell and severe sore throat that lasted a week. There are other nasty areas there that probably pollute the air every day.

[@writerconsidered]

I remember love canal. Unfortunately this is not the same government or EPA we had in 1970. E. Palestine needs to be bought out the way love canal was. It was my first thought When E. Palestine hit. Ohio EPA is falsifying testing. And the laissez-faire Federal EPA is just accepting the results.

[@chupacabra3331]

The EPA has become a money making venture for politicians. There’s no money in doing the right thing

[@MrBrody420]

Thumbnail pulled me in cuz I thought it was Rob Hallford

[@forgottenworld]

Haa haaah… breakin the law. lol.

[@bretyoung1869]

Amazing !!! Great video 👍 Thanks

[@forgottenworld]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@genxrando625]

I periodically look at this area on satellite. It's surprising that any place new has been built within blocks of the fenced off area but it has. Cheap land today will have a health cost to pay years from now.

[@booker5618]

I drove through Love Canal last week, was surreal.

[@randymorgan8375]

We've turned earth into a big Toilet. That's a fact.

[@L.T.-ed4cp]

@16:49 I'm assuming you meant consistent, not constant. Nice docu. I personally think the City of Niagara Falls carries as much responsibility - if not more - than Hooker/Oxy in this matter. They downplayed it then, and they downplay it now, and sadly, a lot of hardcore NF residents drink the local government's propaganda Kool-Aid and really believe the assertion that all is well down at Love Canal. It isn't. Very much looking forward to Part 2.

[@forgottenworld]

Hooker oxy did what they did and that is known to history. I don’t think they ever denied the fact that they created all of that. And it is difficult to keep things clear as history marches on.

[@L.T.-ed4cp]

@@forgottenworld No. They didn't ever deny their actions. And it wouldn't be so difficult to keep things clear if local officials weren't so hell bent on keeping a low profile about the events there. There's still a delusion amongst many that NF can return to its glory boom days, and they don't want a little thing like LC keeping that from happening.

[@forgottenworld]

@@L.T.-ed4cp Such a mess.

[@halon7476]

I remember Irv Weinstein from channel 7 Buffalo talking about this.

[@georgeallen8721]

Man, i remember as a young kid living in western NY. Hearing from Day 1 when this story broke. Infuriating, what people are and have been exposed to. News was as it seemed forever. The out come or repercussions were endless. No Excuses, how people are so Cruel, inhuman, to other people is Wow, Very Sad.

[@RobinMarks1313]

I sure remember it. I live in the Niagara Region. Love Canal was on the Buffalo news nightly back in the day.

[@joshuarankin1905]

Thanks for the coverage! Could you also investigate West Valley Demonstration Project in West Valley, New York, It's Nuclear Waste. It's not too far from Niagara Falls & it still has some major concerns...

[@forgottenworld]

One of my colleagues said he was looking into that one for a story.

[@joshuarankin1905]

@forgottenworld Awesome! I hope they do it some justice. Again, thanks for this coverage! It's a shame what greed will do to a planet with finite resources, etc...

[@kennixox262]

I don't understand these sump drains in the basements. The hole just goes to where? Could someone explain? My second question, could that migrate into the Niagara River?

[@WoodStoveEnthusiast]

They are usually pump out to the yard or the storm drain.

[@jamesshore3191]

This is like one of the most talked about environmental disasters in American history, the "you've never heard of" bit is nonesense.

[@dpgreen11]

When are you releasing the 2nd part?

[@Mikk-t2o]

If they delay it long enough they know all reasonable parties and victims will b passed away

[@CerveloR5]

This is why Regulation is so important! Back in 2018 the king tried to deregulate things like this.

[@johnwattdotca]

I like hiking in the Niagara Gorge. You can see a florescent looking red color as chemicals reaching the side of the gorge, that are running down the gorge into the water. The Love Canal and Hooker Chemicals are like biblical symbols for the United States.

[@biggmann2525]

Has part 2 been released?

[@forgottenworld]

Working on it hope to have it out by the end of October or sometime early November

[@Willyswy3998]

i live in Niagara falls we didn't forget