Disturbing look inside the toxic New York town where chemical disaster led to devastating deformities

Daily Mail​

19-06-2025

Void of people and carpeted with barren patches of grass and crumbling tarmac roads, the ghost town of Love Canal has somewhat of a haunting feel.
But locals say when you learn about its dark history, the deserted community in Niagara Falls, New York, will leave an even more chilling imprint.
In the 1940s and 50s, the neighborhood of Love Canal was the site of what the EPA deems 'the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history ' - and the fallout still looms over the area today.
From 1942 to 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, which produced industrial chemicals, dug canal in the town as a chemical waste dump, under government sanction.
Approximately 22,000 tons of waste were buried in the area.
In a bid to transform the dumping site, in the 1950s it was sold to the Niagara Falls City School District and developed into a 'charming' rural neighborhood.
However, it was discovered that the industrial waste had not been cleaned up sufficiently and, as a consequence, many residents were hit with a range of miscarriages, birth defects and diseases like cancer.
An administrator for the EPA, Eckardt Beck, visited the site in 1979 and explained that one woman he met had two grandchildren with birth defects.
One of her granddaughters was 'born deaf with a cleft palate, an extra row of teeth, and slight retardation', while one of her grandsons was born with an eye defect.
Beck said that another two men he met also had children with birth defects - and as he wandered the streets, he described spotting 'puddles of noxious substances' and experiencing 'a faint, choking smell'.
'Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces,' the EPA worker added.
Hooker Chemical Company closed in 1968, but to this day, some say the toxic waste continues to impact those living in the surrounding areas of Niagara Falls.
In a Facebook group about the town, Sally Ann wrote: 'The sad thing is that people believe that it's all 'fixed' and the chemicals don't go past the fence.
'It's still leaking into the ground. There are still active tank trucks that are pulling chemicals out of the ground.
'The part of the 102nd street dump on the river is visible from my dad's dock on Cayuga Island and I can see it from there. Everyone that lives around here is sick.
'My mother died from a rare autoimmune illness and my father has three different kinds of cancer. This is not coincidental.
'It's sad what they did to this area so many years ago. The repercussions will last forever.'
In the same Facebook thread discussing Love Canal's fate, Susan Rufrano Waitzman revealed how her aunt lived in the town and got mouth cancer, which resulted in the palate of her mouth being removed.
Heidi Czewicz Barnett described how she had equally haunting memories of the place, writing: 'Lived on the corner of Colvin Boulevard and 97th Street. One of the original built houses.
'The fumes in the basement were so bad my mother used to pass out because of it and would always fall down the stairs to do laundry.
'Sister had boils all the time. My father used to watch contractors dig foundations for new homes and would ask what the green stuff was coming out of the ground.
'They told him to mind his own business. I myself came across some white rock that I thought was chalk and gave me a chemical burn all over my body. It's terrible.'
Love Canal, which sits on a three-block patch of land on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, is named after its founder, William T. Love.
He had visions of building a dream community, with a man-made canal utilizing current from the river to supply it with energy.
But the project was ditched in 1910 due to economic fluctuations and the EPA report notes that 'in the 1920s the seeds of a genuine nightmare were planted [and] the canal was turned into a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite.'
It is believed that 82 different compounds were dumped into the land Love Canal encompasses and 11 of these are suspected carcinogens.
After leaving the site, the Hooker Chemical Company covered the 16-acre hazardous waste landfill with a 2ft bed of clay.
On top of this, around 100 homes were built, along with a public school.
But after residents started complaining about chemical leaks and strange substances surfacing in their yards and basements that they said were leading to health problems, an investigation was launched.
Tests revealed that there were high levels of toxic chemicals in the soil, air, and water, prompting government action.
As a primary organizer of the Love Canal Homeowners Association, Lois Gibbs helped to bring wide public attention to the environmental crisis in Love Canal.
Both of her young children started to suffer from health issues, including asthma and seizures, after moving to the town.
After much campaigning, on August 7, 1978, the then-New York Governor Hugh Carey announced that the state would purchase the homes of residents affected by the Love Canal chemical contamination.
This decision came after a public health emergency was declared due to the hazardous waste site.
The state's purchase aimed to facilitate the relocation of families from the most contaminated areas.
In his 1979 report, EPA worker Beck noted that he was 'very pleased' with how the Love Canal relocation initiative was actioned.
However, he concluded: 'But this is not really where the story ends. Quite the contrary.
'We suspect that there are hundreds of such chemical dumpsites across this nation.
'Unlike Love Canal, few are situated so close to human settlements. But without a doubt, many of these old dumpsites are time bombs with burning fuses - their contents slowly leaching out. And the next victim cold be a water supply, or a sensitive wetland.