Love Canal Tragedy Research Paper

The Love Canal Tragedy is regarded as one of the most notorious hazardous waste dumpsites in United States history. In 1942, Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation (now Occidental Petroleum Corporation) purchased the site of Love Canal. During the time period from 1942 to 1953 Hooker Chemical dumped approximately 22,000 tons of mixed chemical waste into the Love Canal. After Hooker Chemical was finished using the site it was sold to the Niagara Falls School Board for the price of $1.00, with full disclosure of the chemical waste problems (Beck). During the 1970’s due to climate changes, the groundwater levels became abnormally high. High groundwater levels caused a variety of problems including, soil, air, and water contamination, noxious chemical odors, and oily residues permeating into people’s homes. The Agency for Toxic substances and Disease Registry released studies that showed a list of 421 chemicals causing contamination. This in turn led to the health commissioner declaring a health emergency, and recommending an evacuation of pregnant women and young children (About the Love Canal). An ethical analysis of this case will show that one main party is at fault, the Niagara Falls School Board. Placing the blame on Hooker Chemical is easy to do, and makes sense for obvious reasons. Hooker chemical dumped 22,000 tons of mixed chemical waste into a landfill, filled it over and then decided to sell it to the Niagara Falls School Board. But ethically speaking, the Niagara Falls School Board is at fault for this disaster. One of the main reasons this is the case is because Hooker Chemical sold the Love Canal with full disclosure of the chemical waste that was present. Hooker chemical did everything in its power to make sure the land was used safely, and even went so far as to escort school board officials and test the land in front of them. Out of the eight tests performed, two of them showed chemicals heavily present and the other six, towards the edges of love canal, showed no chemicals present (Zuesse). It is very …show more content…
Hooker Chemical did not protest this decision, because it fell in line with a term of their agreement that the school is built adjacent to the chemical dumpsite, and not actually on it. However, the school board showed negligence when it did not inform the contractors who were working in this area of the chemical waste. The contractors had to discover the waste themselves, and brought the problem to the attention of the school board. The school board then tried to sell the land, without informing whoever bought it of the chemical waste problems. Hooker Chemical acted as the only responsible party in this, when lawyers showed up at the school board vote to sell the land to real estate developers, to talk about the chemical waste that was present. The school board decided not to sell the land after a vote. Construction on the waste site was taking place in other forms throughout this whole process. A few different storm drains were put in through the waste site, which broke through the outer barriers of the clay that Hooker Chemical had put in to protect the chemical waste (Zuesse). Once this was done the chemical waste could easily flow out of the waste site through the broken