No more love left in the canal

The ironic Love Canal incident is one of the most tragic, but well-known instances of environmental injustice in United States history. Love Canal was an abandoned canal that the Hooker Chemical Company used to dump their hazardous toxins. From the beginning the circumstances surrounding the disaster don’t demand a need to uncover the various deceptions regarding the true liability of where the tragedy lies. For one, the Hooker Chemical Company sold the land to the city of Niagara Falls for only one dollar! After the city took advantage of what can literally be perceived as the deal of a lifetime, many of the new residents who resided in the new one hundred homes and school began to complain about chronic burning of the eyes and face. Oblivious to the chemicals which festered right beneath their feet, the people of the Niagara Falls community had settled on toxic land. Eventually the chemicals rotted entirely through their containers and leached into backyards and basements, but if we look beyond the fault of the Hooker Chemical Company we notice the facilitator that actually looms above. The government is truly at fault for allowing the legal disposal of toxins and not monitoring the sites afterwards for possible problems. Although the Hooker Chemical Company dumped the waste legally, they knowingly sold the toxic land in the Love Canal neighborhood in New York. The government should be the one at blame for allowing the legalization of toxic disposal, because if it were not allowed the Love Canal incident would have been prevented. This incident is just another reminder of our need for more stringent environmental planning and legislation. We are now left with a monument symbolic of our neglect, but also a reminder of a possible future.