What exactly happened on the Love Canal?

Normally, when we rent or buy a house on land, we don't think about what's under the ground. There may be a cemetery, archaeological sites, etc. But we don't think too much about them. And even less when it comes to a waste cemetery. The waste does not die in a cemetery, it is only stored, it is degraded and transformed, it creates toxicity in the environment and finally, it is transferred.

This is the case that happened in the Love Canal more than 35 years ago, located in New York (USA), next to Niagara Falls. This case was one of the first to attract public attention on issues of waste management and treatment. What exactly happened on the Love Canal?

Constructions don't last forever

Nowadays the construction of an urbanization under land closed by waste is totally prohibited. In addition, to keep it under surveillance and avoid possible leaks of confined material, monitoring pits must be installed. However, no man-made construction is safe from any possible accident. Although Chernobyl, where the largest nuclear accident in history took placeTons of cement were put in to contain it, it is useless, since any earthquake, landslide, earthquake or something like that, can destroy everything and let the contents escape.

The accident on the Love Canal featured, in addition to a public health problem, a millionaire demand to the company that deposited the waste. This accident generated one of the greatest ironies in the world as the "Canal del Amor" led to many deaths and intoxicated people that, even after 35 years, there are still consequences.

What exactly happened on the Love Canal?

Earlier I mentioned that when you decide to move into a home, you don't think too much about what may be under the ground on your plot. That is what happened to all the families who decided to move to this place. These people began to suffer from the symptoms of poisoning. more than 80 types of toxins that left the residues buried under this area. When the symptoms became more visible and could begin to stop them, it was too late, because the waste had already contaminated the water tables from which they obtained the water, supposedly drinkable, but which was really toxic.

Between 1947 and 1952 the Hooker chemical company used an old channel that had not been completed, to deposit 20 thousand tons of very toxic chemicals. At that time, the city of Niagara Falls expropriated these lands to build a housing estate and a school. Before starting construction, the chemical company warned of the dangers of building such places under a waste graveyard. However, it was thought that placing a coating and some layers of clay and soil would be enough to avoid possible contamination or poisoning.

Consequences of constructions

When the workers began to build the school and began to remove the clay, that was when the problems of contamination and poisoning began to arise. Children who played at recess began to suffer burns, and some even became ill and even died. This was due to the toxic vapors that were emanating from the subsoil and damaging the plants. These damaged plants, with the rainwater, formed a kind of toxic mud with which the children played and became intoxicated.

In 1978 the waters of that area were analyzed and the results showed the presence of 82 polluting chemicals. Many women had miscarriages and other children suffered from malformations. The incidence of these problems was clearly related to the amount of chemicals in the water. Faced with this situation, the school was closed and the families evacuated. All this had a cost of almost 200 million dollars in addition to the damage to people's health.

As you can see, there are times when human beings put projects that generate large sums of money before human health.