Hooker did nothing wrong except selling the land to the city of buffalo for a park. It was the city that opened the chemical dump built schools and sold land to developers . It was the government that poisoned the people
What? Like this? >>> The Trump administration on Thursday (March 2017) announced the repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water. Reported Sep 19, 2019>>> Or how bout this: >>>>The Trump administration initiated 40 of those rulemakings in 2017, 80 in 2018, 52 in 2019, 40 in 2020, and one in 2021, and successfully finalized 126 of them before leaving office. Reported Mar 8, 2022>>>> Elect him in November and he will further strip the EPA of regulatory powers. AND he will release guilty companies from any responsibility or legal consequences.
How is it that Occidental Chemical/Hooker ended up being on the “hook” for pretty much all expenses related to lawsuits and clean-up?? There’s adequate proof that the US Army was dumping plenty of toxic waste in the canal in the 1940’s, much of it tied to the Manhattan project. And after everything that has happened the toxic waste hasn’t been removed from the canal, we’re told it is “safely contained.” No wonder Lois Gibbs is still fighting.
How is it that Occidental Chemical/Hooker ended up being on the “hook” for pretty much all expenses related to lawsuits and clean-up?? There’s adequate proof that the US Army was dumping plenty of toxic waste in the canal in the 1940’s, much of it tied to the Manhattan project. And after everything that has happened , the toxic waste still hasn’t been removed from the canal, we’re told it is “safely contained.” No wonder Lois Gibbs is still fighting.
This doesn’t get said nearly enough but what a national treasure it is to have PBS. And specifically to this story, what bravery these women showed and determination they possessed to not be spoken down to when too many “powerful” people tried to downplay their realities.
I work in this industry and let me tell you that they could care less. Research how many Dupont execs were ex EPA men and how they were just interchangeable figureheads that only wanted one thing... money. Unless it makes the news and makes them look bad, they really don't care.
They continue to today. Flint, MI or PSE&G California. The Boeing cover up , Dole fruits litigation since 70’s, Monsanto, the list goes on and on. Especially, if government and defense contacts are involved. There is alot of money that makes its rounds and fines are just the cost of doing business. There are so many toxic leaks re chemical additives, coolants, etc., in the oil industry that the public never hears about. No one reads all the lawsuits. Fines are just the cost of doing business sadly.
PFOA'S are so high in Fayettville NC area and down the Cape Fear River that the UN has cited the state for HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. They are not providing safe water, food or soil to the people living there. The extent of the toxicity outside the Cape Fear Estuary extends along the coast for hundreds of miles contaminating all sea food. Studies have now documented how the foamy chemicals floated across from North and South Carolina to the entire coast of Europe- and even into the Mediterranean Sea contaminating both. Seafoam at beaches in Europe was found to be highly contaminated. The Ohio River from the Dupont plant in Parkersburg West Virginia and the Mississippi River from Weston Minnesota into the Gulf of Mexico are completly contaminated too. Sewage sludge used as fertilizer on farms and homes put this into our food supply. Paper mills coated paper with the "wax". Ski slopes are contaminated from ski wax etc... Dupont vented the chemical plants after health effects emerged and put the teflon fluff into the air via stacks so huge areas are covered with the fallout. It transforms to a salt on soil and goes down into ground water. Its getting churned into the air via wave action so everywhere it rains or snows, its building up. More precipitation- higher PFOAS in the future. " Dyslipidemia" is caused by blockage of PPAR enzymes. That manifests as high cholesterol, adult onset diabetes, overweight, lipomas, high blood pressure, kidney damage, fatty liver and liver damage -AKA " metabolic syndrome" PANCREATIC CANCER and more. PPAR enzyme cascade in developing children can manifest as occlusion of teeth, seizures, brain overgrowth causing brain swelling, hyper growth of areas of the body, usually one sided, scoliosis, strawberry marks and other mole growths like cafe a lait spots. There are genetic forms of PPAR enzyme disabilities so effects for PFOAS are along those same lines. The people with genetic PPAR issues will be the canarys in the coal mine. If you notice on this show, the people with genetic abnormalities are scandanavian. There are issues like the SOD1 mutation in a high proportion in Swedish and Japanese families that can make many toxins more toxic. SOD1 is the same enzyme pathways as are affected by eating grapefruit while taking drugs. Low levels prevent breakdown of many toxins by the liver. The effects on the PPAR enzyme cascade are along 4 to 5 other sub enzyme cascades. I have only traced one so far. It is clear that abortion is caused by teflon congeners. One study stated that between 300,000 and 600,000 deaths occured in America from PFOAS. That went down to 60,000 deaths per year after C8 production halted. Those numbers dont reflect deaths from cytokine storms in response to diseases like Covid because studies showing that effect have been tossed out as having too many confounding factors. Those studies and death numbers are from before Covid hit. During Covid- no word came that it was possible that Teflon had any part to play in Covid deaths despite patients dying in hospitals almost immediately after intubation with teflon medical tubing. The rapid deaths didnt stop until nurses started refusing to intubate. Those deaths came from "cytokine storms" just like was stated to happen from PFOAS in the body in response to disease. When we eventually die, we die from massive inflammation like cytokine storms create. The ports on the sides of blood vessels down to capillaries open up and flood the tissues with blood fluids and cells. Cellulitis. We go into shock from loss of blood volume from that fluid loss. That is what was happening to Covid patients during the Covid epidemic. It was happening before that from flu and other diseases. Covid just happens to be an organism that creates cytokine (creation) signaling enzymes also. The doubling effect! I dont believe death numbers in an earlier study reflect deaths by " spontaneous " abortion ( miscarriage) either. As in Love Canal, that is an effect of teratogenic and mutagenic chemicals. If the DNA of the fetus is not producing necessary enzymes (due to genetic code deletions aka "damage", or epigenitic toxin effects blocking methylation that reads and transfers genetic code instructions) ...the fetus dies. It can also have scattered damage so lives but has genetic damage. That can be to the eggs a girl carries within her also. It can be outright mutations, like malformations or hidden mutations like cause cancers later on life. It can be loss of code for an unfolding pathway that effects changes in development that effect maturity. Like the changes in sexual and sexuality development we are seeing. Those changes start at the end of the first trimester with a switch that is suppised to go either boy OR girl. That is later influenced by minute quantities of hormones along the unfolding development pathway. Like blooming flowers opening and closing along a developing vine. Hormone disruptors are chemicals that our body mistakes for our own hormones. PFOAS like GENX are very potent disruptors along with pthalates and mercury from coal burning. PFOAS also act "synnergistically" with other toxins magnifying their effects many fold. Lead and other heavy metals, like mercury WITH PFOAS have effects that create synnergy"Super Toxins". Phenols like in Lysol and fragrances even some herbs are another known synnergy. There will likely be others found. The effects of PFOAS include carrying and attaching toxic metals to our DNA which blocks methylation- which blocks necessary enzyme production. ( translating code and then carrying instructions to have enzymes created) That can manifest in all different ways physiologically depending on the chemicals involved and what enzymes are then blocked. PFOAS create "super toxins" out of minute " safe" levels of toxins like lead and mercury. ( Autism?) The put it bluntly, after Love Canal, the system did not protect any living organisms on earth from toxins. PFOAS are one of the worst examples in history of that failure. We can no longer eat fresh water fish from anywhere in this country. Probably the same is true for seafood but it will be especially toxic in the Gulf of Mexico and the Carolina Coastline extending probably 600 miles on either side of the Cape Fear River. I would assume that no fish have "safe" levels. Right now massive die- offs are occuring in the arctic in sea lions and seals. Studies showed high PFOA levels in Arctic and Antarctic sea life, fish and other top of the food chain animals through bioaccumilation and biomagnification. The effects of PFOAS causing immune "hyperreactivity " could be driving the deaths of many species. Frogs were the first to go. Frogs skin was used in the first inflammation studies due to its sensitivity to toxins. It makes sense they would die off first. "Thou shall not kill" didnt have fine print after it. What is bad for other creatures is bad for us. We are the top of the food chain and the eventual "sink" for PFOAS. Long term effects on DNA from PFOA attachment are unknown. That attachment was only just discovered. Maybe we finally found out what killed the dinosaurs... and we unleashed it on ourselves!
As a former resident...my family resided at 389 99th Street from 1962 to 1978 evacuation( Inner Ring) I found this to be very well done by PBS and everyone associated with the making of this. Reliving so many of these moments...I was 14yrs old in 1978...was overwhelming to reexperience at times. God Bless all of the former residents and their descendants. 😔💙
My grandparents, John and Joyce Baker, had a house on 102nd street. Love Canal in my history is scary because it feels like a ticking bomb for health issues. There have been cancer and other maladies mentioned in this documentary in our family.
@@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88 Unless you are living with water you cannot drink, cancer clusters, corrupt government, you name it. I think it is just as bad.
Flint is a very corrupt story. That catastrophe didn’t have ti happen. East Palestine,East Liverpool and Salem and such areas are also a toxic wasteland. It’s criminal. It’s horrible.
Those same people wanted Hillary's head on a stick when she tried to sell them on the idea that transitioning away from coal mining was the way forward, even as husbands, sons and daughters were dying painful and slow deaths due to Black Lung disease.
Companies will gaslight the public into thinking all is okay when in reality it is farther from the truth. As you say, profits are all that matters. The owners can move where ever they want while the rest of us don't have it that easy.
I've heard people at wood Mizer's show room complain about epa regulations for safer fuel exhausts. The old models would make you choke on black smoke. It's weird how people feel insulted by improving life.
Yep. Right-wing Republicans. And as unfortunate and ironic as it might seem, most of these people that live in places like these are just that -- conservative right-wing Republicans. The lower the education, the easier it is for people to fall for conservative double-talk. The "clean coal," that keep "hard working Americans working" type of preaching. As long as they have a job, they look the other way. And it is they that put these manipulators in power that want the EPA gone.
The EPA is 100% necessary but their initial charger was only 1.5 pages long and since they have gone well beyond their initial intent. Every government agency/department is run like a business that wants more power and money to grow. The people that work here are thinking of their careers, then the government, then the public..that is why you see so much corruption and screw ups and then need to appoint a government official tzar to figure out what went wrong ..this is a fact that most people do not realize and must keep this in mind.
I was so obsessed with this story at the time. I even visited the Love Canal site in 1984 (behind the fence) on my way to Niagara Falls. What these women did is an example of how everyday people can change the world. Well done doc!
Deep and impactful. These programs are some of the best of what our tax dollars are paying for, and so deliberately relevant. Somehow, your presentations manage to hit on the issues we need to be reminded we're still facing. Thank you PBS!!
Agreed ! ......My family resided at 389 99th Street from 1962 to 1978 evacuated. This was very well done for history knowledge. God Bless all the former residents 🙏💙
The budget is cut to all steward agencies every cycle -it’s known as the ‘unofficial but customary promissory trimming the fat’ that all presidents are ‘encouraged’ to do …it’s a known ‘ratcheting up’ system in that it only goes one way, not both ways …it can only be ratcheted tighter not loosened …which is unsustainable …so something always has to give Democratic presidents are advised to use the ‘blind blanket’ method where they simply tell the agencies how much total they have to cut, but the agencies are allowed to choose their own cuts (unfortunately it’s done by committee which is useless) …The president and the public never learns what got cut and there are no headlines …so no one is the wiser of what got cut …wheras Republican presidents are advised to be vocal about the cuts whether or not they are choosing the cuts or delegating them …so it makes incendiary headlines and they get the credit and the blame It doesn’t matter who is in office or what they promised or what control they think they have …the cuts happen and they happen haphazardly Basically it’s how the system indiscriminately re-cycles … it consolidates and removes some offices and expands others … it’s just not done prudently … it’s like the Mid Atlantic Ridge …it simply sucks everything in the vicinity in and it gets made molten and pops out in a new volcano elsewhere Want to pop out a new weather satellite in Florida? Destroy the only climate ship in Hawaii and close half-ass close a dozen mainland rural weather stations that only locals would know or care about The EPA makes such rediculous fine fees that the only way they can collect money is to reduce them … They fine a small business $25K for a few minor leaky barrels that can be easily cleaned up and not at risk for bothering anything …Then the small business shows them the books and they say “OK $5K” The small businesses are also generally doing the community service of hiring the ‘undesirables’ as unskilled labor which are the ones who generally cause the accidents as undesirables are generally hard to manage It’s vicious circle ⭕️
@@juggaloprofessorknowbodyim3215 The presidents and congress. We do not hold them accountable. Baffling. "The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the ability to create a federal budget - in other words, to determine how much money the government can spend over the course of the upcoming fiscal year. Congress's budget is then approved by the President."
My cousins lived right on top of that mess and, as children, we'd play a game we made up called "touch the witch" where we'd dare each other to touch the black ooze seeping through the basement walls. What did we know? Back in the 70's kids played unsupervised all day with whatever they had. Needless to say, every last one of us has either birth defects or autoimmune disorders. Our parents didn't know until it was too late.
@@AmericanExperiencePBS all three of my children were born in Niagara Falls and they, as well as me, have autoimmune diseases. The majority of people I know in and from Niagara Falls have an autoimmune disease. There are so many people from there that have cancer or birth defects.
It is still happening. Fracking, which uses undisclosed chemicals because the companies consider their operations proprietary, is polluting aquafers around the country and people live on top of the polluted left overs. We all know about it. I wish, in time, your family and friends overcome the health effects.
Hooked fought it tooth and nail. They were later purchased by Occidental. They did end up paying for some of the cost of cleanup. Remember...we did not have regulations for disposal of chemicals back then.
Thr Niagara Falls School Board was also to blame for this disaster. They knew of the danger yet looked the other way and built an elementary school on top of the chemical dump. They have not shared any of the responsibility. Shameful.
That was the worst part for me. They knowingly literally built the school smack dead in the middle of a toxic waste dump. I just can’t wrap my head around this kind of depravity.
The Niagra Falls school district is 99% the guilty party. The contractor who built the school had to have known as well. 😐 The Hooker chemical Corp had it in black and white, front page of the contract that the land was a toxic waste dump and the grantee upon obtaining said land for 1$ will assume all responsibility for clean up and lawsuits that may occur due to harm, illness and/or death due to exposure. This claim was not in fine print or written such that it take anything other than basic reading comprehension to understand. Btw, I'm negative corporations but I think they went after Hooker because they had bigger pockets.l
Mom's have the greatest super power. Their love for us. Still I remember living through the time period as a teen and never knew the depths these ladies went through. Wow, they are American heroes 👏.
hi folks this is what homeowners associations USED to do for its members. Now they just look for reasons to infract and foreclose on your home. Not even 50 years ago.
@@jessn.2665yup, sounds about right. We just went thru that last uear eith pur HOA. We wanna move so bad, but we can't afford it with the way the housing market is rn. We couldn't afford to buy our current house if we bought it today.
I don't think it's fair for you to imply all HOAs are corrupt. Do you? Full disclosure I've never lived in a home that had an HOA. I've never had anything to do with an HOA
every hoa "policy" stems from a resident's complaints. if you don't like the rules of the hoa, talk to your neighbors. people these days act like an hoa is some hidden surprise. you knew the home you were buying was in a hoa. do your own homework.
And the chemical companies has claimed "Roundup is as safe as water" yet no chemical sales guy have ever been willing to drink a glass. They spray it on the wheat and oats to "dry it faster" in the field just before harvesting. I wonder why so many people are "gluten intolerant", yet they can eat breads and pasta with gluten in Europe.
I thought I was gluten intolerant. It was bread made in a teflon coated bread machine that woke me up to the real problem. My whole abdomen would swell immedietly and explosively with the feeling of blood pulsing throughout. Other bread wasnt doing that or to such extreme levels. Now Ive had to cut out tea in bags. I was having inflammatory reactions to tea. Just found out Teflon congeners are in tea bag filter paper and tea drinkers have the highest levels in their bodies. Love Canal was a victory but didnt stop another Love Canal. We have them everywhere now and worse issues than ever. Its not over. Legislation introduced in Idaho will give chemical companies immunity from having to pay damages for their toxic products. How can that be!? Other toxin health effects are buried so well they dont surface even as people die around us. PFOAS cause cytokine storms in reaction to infections. You can appear to die of a disease but be actually dying from PFOA causing extreme "immune hyperreactivity". Covid is a good example of that overreaction of the immune system. Officially , it dosent happen. The studies showing the cytokine storm reaction were squashed. Meanwhile, people sick with Covid in hospital waiting room were sick but did not die in the waiting rooms. They did not die till intubated with Teflon medical tubing. Teflon is in all of our bodies but some people have more, some less. Intubating with Teflon tubing added more to the blood stream of people who probably had high Teflon already. Adding more of what was actually killing them caused almost immediate extreme immune hyperreactions. The " Covid" patients died almost immedietly. They died so fast, bodies were getting stacked in the hallways. They died as fast as they brought new patients in and intubated them. The rapid deaths upon intubation didnt stop until nurses started refusing to intubate patients. After that, they lived. When new non teflon medical tubing was delivered, the problem went down. Meanwhile... did our leaders tell us why our loved ones were dying? We all have this in our bodies. It causes the PPARa enzyme pathway to be altered. That pathway has other enzymes involved in it " downstream". Look it up. Some of the health effects at Love Canal are symptoms of PPAR. Thats only one "cascade" said to be blocked. The enzyme cascades are like a domino effect. You can set up a room full of dominos and that is like an enzyme pathway happening in our bodies. You can set it off by pushing over the first domino and watch them fall all over. Thats like the enzyme cascades that happen all over our bodies every day. Toxins pluck dominos out of the chain. If you pull one domino at the beginning of a pathway- its all over with! Symptoms vary with where the dominos are plucked. People also can have missing dominos via genetic DNA code deletions. If you are missing the code to make a certain domino or make enough, you have a metabolic disease. That can be inherited or acquired. Acquired can be through mutagenic chemicals and ionizing radiation( photons hitting DNA and shattering it) The body can repair DNA but if the rate of destruction is faster than the rate of repair, cells will divide with damaged code carrying the " mutation" forward. Enough damaged cells lacking code to make necessary enzymes and you have health effects from your enzyme pathway systems being stopped. The effects depend on where the deleted dominos are.
There is a farmer who has site on UA-cam that has astronomical amounts of glysophate in his and his families systems and farm organically. He thinks it's from the feed for his livestock and I do too and I hope he doesn't end up getting sick!
@@pinkiesue849 I was wondering that too, but I do not believe he tested the water or soil before he moved there and just assumed it was a farm in the country and so it should be safe. If anything, that's where you run into problems as I found out when looking for property after doing research on lots for sale. I even found one property that was listed as being in one of seven of the nations worse dump sites. Scary.
I’m dying of cancer after living in cancer alley in Louisiana all my life, drinking the contaminated water and living on contaminated soil. Big corporations are a plague, they do not care if they kill.
I grew up in Niagara falls and have frequented the ghost town of love canal often never knowing the extent of their story. Thank you for this and for strength and determination of the woman and their family's that fought so hard to protect their families and future generations.
We lived on 72 nd. So a little bit farther away. My brother walked by the school all the time. He was born in 1952 and growing up he had asthma so bad the doctor advised my parents to move . Anyway I was born in 1963 and we moved to California in 1965. My brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago but it was caught before it spread and so far he’s still well.
We watched this last night and it was a really good. I never heard about the Love Canal until watching this. This is important American and Environmental History
@differenttakethanmost I'm 30, and also born and raised in ny state. But I've never heard anyone mention it, nor learned about this in school either, which is really sad.
It gets worse the longer time passes. To me...evacuated 1978 inner ring family....it brought back memory's of that final summer and what we went through.
@tonydelgobbo6797 must have been so much for you. I hope you're doing well, years later. Such a tragedy and I'm still coping with what happened in East Palestine a year later. History repeats itself but with different times and people.😔
I don't understand why they didn't put the blame where it should have been, on those companies who were making millions of dollars to produce those chemicals and then dump them wherever!!! Why did the government decide to use tax dollars instead? I never knew about this. Thank you for this interesting, thought-provoking documentary!
Because that's how things work in this country. The Government is a Massive Corporation, who steals money from everybody, and uses the percieved creation of saftey to keep people believing in the lies.
I agree. We the taxpayers pay for the cleanup, the government gets the blame and the corporations sit back and smile while they take in the billions. Justice matters.
#1 it was the 70s, #2 if you try to go after the largest employer in town, good luck with getting sympathy from anyone not affected. Plus NYS made it easy due to their incompetent response.
Unfortunately, the laws are still trying to catch up. A lot of these billion dollar companies sure fully policing themselves back then. It took things like this, tons of lawsuits and bad press- for then ti care at all. Look into how DuPont knew that the PFOS/PFAS "forver" chemicals(like teflon) were dangerous since the 1930s, lied about it all the way tunitl they were finally caught in the 1970s/80s. Everyone who worked for them knew people got sick, but while towns worked for DuPont, govt was intertwined and local politicians were being financially supported by this companies. MONEY is the reason most of these things were not addressed. Either the companies are making too much to wanna give it up or those who are effected are too poor to fight properly.
This was really good. Really important for all Americans. My dad kept us from knowing about this by innocently preventing newspapers from getting in the house. He already knew I was a mouth that always defended others. (A decade later I put myself through law school!)
@@eloinaseguro5230why not? Do you think people on the rest of the continent don’t need to hear about how corporations will poison their land? This is a global issue. But you know what they meant and it’s very pedantic and irritating to pretend you don’t understand what people colloquially call their own country. It’s just a word and can be used to refer to more than one concept if you’re not lazy or foolish
Wow!!! Congrats,,,that's amazing,,,i can relate and it's a Good end, it just hit me,,, me also, a childhood i want to forget and i beat it! i moved away, into nature and i did all the things they said i was 'not capable' of doing.
This is so heartbreaking. God Bless these families. So proud of these women who took charge in HOA and at Griffon Manor to educate themselves about the hazardous chemicals and to make sure that their voices were heard . I know it was born out of necessity and they really didn't have much choice, but that was so courageous. They didn't give up despite so many challenges and so much pushback. My heart goes out to them all.
I am embarrassed to say I am 52 and never knew what”Love Canal” was all about. This is one of the best and most satisfying documentaries I’ve ever seen! God bless Lois and all those women!
No offense, but how crazy is that? I’m 57 and have heard about it since it happened. (Lived in Florida and Michigan) Good for you for being open to new information, lifelong learning.
I grew up an hour away and remember watching the news on TV and Love Canal being discussed all the time. I'm basically your age and never understood it until watching this doc today.
I've seen more than one arterial lately, asking why so many young people are having cancer these days. Gee I wonder why... We all have forever chemicals and micro plastics in us all now. God help our kids and grandchildren.
If you live near a refinery, a chemical plant, etc, especially in the south. That's all you see. Refineries. Chemical plants. LNG. Billowing smoke stacks, but they tell everyone it's "burning clean". That's why the south has some of the highest cancer rates in the country.
I worked out of one of the ring 2 homes (contractor to EPA) back when Habitability Study was conducted. They found even more contaminated areas in Niagrara Falls during the study. The chemical plants still spew nasty chemicals into the air. Glad I got out of that area after a couple of years.
I was a child living in Griffon Manor and then 99th St during this time. This brought up so much emotion for me. I remember the black soot coming up from the sinks in the basement and when it rained and we played in the mud, neon green would run through the mud. I still battle endometriosis, migraines and autoimmune illness to this day. I am 52. PS - there is a scene that shows Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario for some reason.
I was born in Buffalo in that 77 blizzard. I have had unexplained health problems which doctors have never been able to diagnose or help me with... very much like am autoimmune disorder and hormonal issues...pmdd . Buffalo is only 20 minutes away...😢 I wonder....
Also people on this documentary are reporting seizures..l I also have them... why didn't I know about this before... it's chilling. I've always said that I felt that I had been exposed to toxins ...maybe from using the microwave as a kid... I could only intuit something like that as a cause.... this is awful😢😢😢
This was great I just wish you spent more time discussing the plight of the renters and poorest among them because we all know they were the ones who truly received no justice!
I remember Love Canal being on the news so much when I was young. Little did we know growing up along the Titabawassee river watershed that our land was being poisoned by Dow Chemical. My parents still live in the same house. Just this past summer they used their land to access the river and cap off a very deep hole under the river which was created because of the currents and a curve in the river. It was determined that the level of accumulated dioxins would create a continued hazard downriver. They capped off that hole leaving the toxic dump below the cap. Corporations like Dow and Hooker are nothing but evil. I also remember the fight to prevent the nuclear plant being built in Midland from being completed - when the containment building started sinking into the ground. My high school physics class was able to tour the site and meet the woman that was primarily responsible for getting it shut down. Her family was constantly harassed, received death threats and the brake lines on her car were cut. That place would have ended up being the next Chernobel, Fukushima, or Three Mile Island.
This hits home. My father worked his entire career for chemical company DuPont. He was in sales and always in chemical plants and most customers were paper mills. Recently learned I have autoimmune issues, high cholesterol, and severely deformed sinuses which align with poisoning from the forever chemical C8 used to make Teflon.
@@heydudedolfan13it is a heartbreaking and triumphant at the same time. 2011 DuPont paultry settlement is about half of what they profited in 1yr. Damage for decades. 2019 movie is on Netflix now.
In 2024 there are still areas of the US plagued by the impact of chemical waste dumping. I currently live in South NJ and we have a water boil warning for the last 3 years. Our water has been tested and is as toxic or worse than that discovered in Flint, MI.
true that. everyone looks at the situation for a second, then moves on to the next cause of shock in the headlines. What have the officials in your town stated regarding the contaminates?
@@awesomesaucekitty They're downplaying it at this point but we have the EPA reports coupled with weekly boil advisories saying otherwise. EPA is supposed to conduct a public hearing in a couple weeks.
Justice is for everyone, it’s not only for the well-to-do or the Know-how. People, most of them are Women continue to fight for the justice in every aspect of our lives.
@@Savoiefair64 SCOTUS. You meant to type SCOTUS. Between what they did in their recent ruling that disallows the EPA to truly enforce regulations, and the ex LIAR-IN-CHIEF putting an oil lobbyist in charge for 4 years (that's when they would have really been in the take, just like the leader of CULT45), they really aren't allowed to do too much. Lobbyists need to find themselves in the unemployment line and every elected representative needs to raise money ONLY via grass roots fundraising. Corporations are NOT PEOPLE.
Every time a politician starts complaining about "regulations" please remember this and every other industrial tragedy because there are many and this but one.
@@heidiembrey4917 You people are always okay when the pollution is in someone else's back yard until the train crashes in your backyard and then you scream about how the government should clean it up.
I would be interested to see a deeper investigation into the Tittabawassee River watershed in Michigan. Dow Chemical spent decades destroying it and decades more fighting their responsibility for cleanup.
Fantastic story. I was only a teenager at this time and lived on the West Coast and heard about this but had no idea what really happened. In hindsight, it hits home, HARD! Because I am where I grew up as a teenager was Libby Montana. One of the biggest superfund sites in history due to asbestos/vermiculite and my dad did briefly work there. We lived in homes where we played with this stuff in the loft bedrooms and it was put in our gardens and playgrounds. One of the contributing factors to my sisters death was due to asbestos. I can see that Libby did not have as hard as a time as Love Canal did. Perhaps they paved the way for us.
What a despicable man their mayor was- "I don't want to put the city's reputation at risk." The homeowner who asked "Why didn't we know about this?" -the mayor didn't want to hurt the reputation of the city. The school board wanted free land. Sorry your kids are dead.
I've driven by there. Vacant area now. I remember studying about it in college. I am from SW NY state. It's sad how all those chemicals seeped through their cellar walls and was saturated in that land. They buried drums of chemicals decades prior and they rusted and seeped into the ground. I remember reading that a boy fell in the playground and ended up with a rash. Women were having miscarriages. Children were born with deformities. I will never forget reading about it.
i grew up hearing about love canal and the people that lived there. the high rates of cancer, the scandal. but i never knew the details of what happened, despite going to school in Niagara County. fantastic documentary, thank you for covering this.
I’m 32 years old and And a good Friday night for me it’s a nice steak dinner and then I turn on one of these documentaries. I feel like I’m in a Time Machine.
The EPA was created to create government action. And the government doesn’t give a crap. Socialism enacts government control and leaves The People powerless.
@@1927su it'll continue until people wise up and start holding corporations responsible. They've also spent decades creating a population of ignorant, lazy, and fat people though so I wouldn't hold your breath on that one just read the comments here still repeating lobbyist talking points about the EPA while sucking down chemicals that will probably give them cancer in a couple decades themselves.
We live in a beautiful community on an island of the Mississippi. Five miles away is a chemical plant owned by a big manufacturing company. For years they dumped their waste, and byproduct chemicals in a pit near their plant. Now, a giant underground plume is spreading through the aquifer. So years ago they started testing our wells. Now, all of our wells are contaminated. Five years ago our well tested positive. Now, all of the residents have to have household water filters. It's way past time that big corporations pay for the damage they have done. No, it won't restore people's health or lives lost, or permanent damage to the environment, but it will be some justice.
Sadly this is only 1 more example of American greed. Still to this day greed out weighs the safety of the citizens of "our" nation. Do we accept this as just how it is? Or do we remind the greed in power who they really work for?
24:47 From everything I read, the city was threatening to acquire the land through eminent domain anyways so when it was sold, Hooker told the school board do not dig. They ignored this and built an entire school and playground on top of it. Developers who built that neighborhood broke the clay seal multiple times when putting in roads and water lines yet never disclosed to anyone what they dug up. I don’t like big companies as much as the next guy but we shouldn’t paint this entire thing as the their fault and everyone else was innocent. Some would say Hooker actually did their job correctly and the only reason they were held at fault is because they had the money to pay for damages. This was a good doc but it skims over the fact that the city completely ignored the warnings and put (short lived) economic prosperity over lives.
I grew up there.... corner of Center and 102nd St. Just down the road from the Tolli home. My older sister was good friends with Mike's older sister. I have lots of good memories of that neighborhood before all this happened. Easter parade walks, trick or treating, bike riding, events at the nearby Fire Station, sneaking over to JJ's to buy candy and so much more. It really was a nice neighborhood with great families. Neighbors would watch over everyone's kids as they played outside until the street light came on. No matter where you were at lunchtime, someone would make you a sandwich or give you an ice cream cone. It's so sad to have witnessed that all crumble away.
This broke my heart, hearing these stories... My uncle and his family are all gone after living in Love Canal. They all passed from various cancers and strange diseases deemed "rare". This makes my blood boil how the government treated this. We don't deserve this planet.
I remember this happening, so tragic. Never, ever underestimate the power of women, especially when it involves our children. All of this women, home owners and renters are true heroes
I lived here when I was 2. On 99th street. We were relocated with no compensation because we were renters. I’ve never gotten any money settlement. I have autoimmune diseases as do my sisters.
We learned these lessons decades ago, and we're still seeing this today in East Palestine, Ohio. We have 60 Billion dollars for Ukraine, and nothing for those people?
First and foremost, a lot of these people were A-ok with the pollution when it was being dumped in other people's back yards. They are anti-regulation, but low and behold, when the disaster happens in their backyard (Talking about people in and around East Palestine, Ohio), then it's different because it personally affected them.
Those women of Love Canal were heroes, plain and simple. Especially Lois Gibbs, who worked tirelessly to make sure they never lost momentum. I admire them all so much.
Is it the government? Or the corporations who knowingly created the mess in the first place? We the taxpayers are the ones paying for all the chemical damage done. Why aren’t the corporations?
Excellent documentary. All those women are indeed heroes & should be recognized as such. They undoubtedly save many lives. Did the EPA do any follow up studies on the long term health of the residents?
My Dad was a higher- up at Hooker through this. This brings back so many memories - Marie Rice, Irv Weinstein- and now my children know to be appalled that people would be allowed to live near dump sites.
what a important documentary to watch - powerful, painful. my heart goes out to all those people. no money can ever bring back a loved one. rip to all those souls 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Thank you for this documentary. Im in Tonawanda NY not too far from Love Canal, we have some of the same issues here and we are still cleaning it up... Tonawanda Coke & Seaway dumps recently in the news.... from Occidental Chemical , Hooker and the Manhattan project for the atomic bomb
I'm in the town of niagara. I just found out today about the chemical waste in North tonawanda on Nash road. Absolutely sickening. I learned about this the past couple of days, I told my wife we're moving. I'm not staying in western New York
I'm 42 years old and I'm born and raised in Niagara Falls NY and the people of the City still talk about this disaster. After these events the dirty politicians drove my city in the dirt. Till this day the city still haven't recovered. RIP to the victims.
My father was the Vice President of an engineering firm involved in evaluating and later containing Love Canal when superfund went through. He came home to Pittsburgh shook up by ramifications of the pollution on that site. I remember his face when he said to me, a high school student, that there were dioxins there. Looking at him, I knew something terrible had happened. I can’t imagine living through it.
Agreed. However, society doesn’t see it that way. If you’re Unfortunate enough Not to be a **Property or Landowner**, then basically you’re expendable.
You left out something very important. Hooker Chemical did not want to sell the land to the school board because the board wanted to build the school no matter what Hooker told them about the danger. The board threatened to take the land by eminent domain. Hooker sold the land to control what the deed of transfer would contain. Specifically a warning they hoped someone would pay attention to when buying sub-parcels. It's true they were trying to cover their ass, but think of it this way. A co-worker snatches your car keys off your desk and yells, "I'm gonna go buy five kilos of black tar heroin." You really like the guy and don't want to see him arrested for stealing your car but you report it to the police as stolen because you know he's an idiot who will likely get pulled over for driving like a fool and you don't want to be included in the fun as an acomplice. The following clause in the deed mentions what can happen if you dig there for just that reason... "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."
It's a tragedy -- and is inexcusable -- that Hooker's senior management at the time of the proposed transfer didn't stick with its initial position that the Love Canal property should not be sold, but should remain under the custody and control of the company. Ironically, if the property was taken from Hooker through eminent domain, might the company have had a defense for its actions at Love Canal? Admittedly, there is evidence the site was never properly secured, with fencing and/or security personnel, as was recommended by some within the company. Apparenty not all mid level Hooker executives were on-board with the idea of a property transfer. Quoting from records of the 1994 lawsuit United States v. Hooker Chemicals & Plastics Corp, Hooker exec and engineer Jerome Wilkenfeld is recorded as having remarked: "At that time I think the company should have told the School Board to take us to court if you want that land. We are not going to give it to you. It is not an appropriate place for a school. I have said that before and I will repeat it again, and I still feel that way. I felt that way at the time." Something else that I think is frequently overlooked is the fact that Hooker wasn't the only chemical company dumping at the canal, there were others, and the military played a role in this as well. This was a disaster on so many levels that it is truly mind boggling.
@@richk7565 Hooker was definitely no angel, but they weren't the only bad actor in this disaster. As I recall, the advantage of selling versus fighting was that as a seller, Hooker would be able to include warnings in the deed that would remain no matter how many subparcels the land would be split into. This would guarantee that the danger would be passed on in perpetuity. In the face of an exercise of eminent domain, they felt this was the better choice. Perhaps contesting the matter in court to the bitter end would have been the better strategy, and left Hooker in a better position to claim that they had vehemently opposed development on the land. This would likely have made no difference when it came time to pass out blame. Local government ignored the warnings and failed to recognize the danger by digging foundations and then later breaching the walls of the containment area with deep stornsewers. There are reports from writers that attempted to gather information and interviews in later years that they were met with a wall of silence and hostility from the old members of theschool board and other officials from the period. The full story is frequently never told as writers from Michael Brown onward failed to follow Robert Caro's guiding principle, "Turn over every paper."
@@nickhancock589 Good points, Nick. No one is excusing Hooker's behavior, but you're correct in noting that local government and the school board played a role in the debacle. I've read accounts of how the land was mis-handled after the transfer. The removal of huge amounts of cover from the site and the excavation for sewer lines, backfilled with porous gravel, proving a "highway" for toxic sludge to travel. They even had to shift the location of the proposed school after construction crews ran into underground reservoirs of chemical waste. And selling off parts of the property for home construction? Are you kidding?! The warning signs and warnings from Hooker -- written and verbal -- were there, but not heeded. Your theory about why Hooker chose the transfer option makes sense, particularly in light of the era. Things were a whole lot different in 1953-54. It is a horribly tragic story. Another fascinating Hooker story is what happened in Montague, Michigan, at the Hooker plant in that community, now home to what the locals call "The Temple of Doom." There's a video somewhere here on UA-cam entitled This is Not a Chocolate Factory. Check it out. I think you'll find it quite interesting.
My elementary had a Cintas location right next to us that had been dumping chemicals in the river right behind our playground for years. Unfortunately it was quietly "cleaned up" quickly...😢
My elementary school had a big construction company behind it. They’ve since been demolished and nobody would know it was ever there. I remember my mom musing about whether that factory being right there was an EPA type problem. Crazy to think about it now.
I live in Central kentucky now but my family most of it is from Rhode Island (on my dad's side) in Syracuse and skaneateles on my mom's side. My mom got Hodgkin's in the late 70s and early 80s had to go through chemo and radiation at 17 and 18 years old, will my aunt just told me a few years ago maybe less than five years ago; that her and my mother used to play out on some rock piles and dirt piles across the street from where their house which had a chemical plant there this would have been in the 60s and 70s, in my aunt told me that she remembers there were these strange chemical barrels with toxic hazardous labels on them rusting away around where they played at, coincidence that my mother got cancer as a teenager Hodgkin's lymphoma, I think not, also in the early 2000s she got breast cancer and then in the later part of the 2000s 2008 to 2010 and that's what did her in and that's what she passed away from, the government is not your friend and the lobbyists who work for them are not your friend!!!!!!!!.
I grew up just a few blocks away from Love Canal. My father lived in Love Canal as a kid and died of cancer at 56. I had friends in Love Canal and spent time there when I was young. We used to ride our bikes around there checking out the abandoned houses after everyone moved out. People should have gone to prison for what happened at Love Canal. They knew there was hazardous waste there and built houses and a school on that land. I moved away from Niagara Falls 25 years ago its a dump.
How all the women became activists at Love Canal is so similar to the story at Three Mile Island! I watched a documentary about that case a while ago and this one immediately reminded me of it.
The local school district bought Love Canal for a single dollar in 1953, and they knew very well of the chemical waste that was buried there since the forties by Hooker chemical.
I remember the news reports, and my mother worried about visiting parts of Niagara Falls because of Love Canal. Once, Hooker Chemical and Oxidental sponsored a show for us kids years later, and the older kids booed and heckled the representatives. Their behavior horrified the teachers. I guess they didn't have anyone there that suffered.
I remember this, but I did not know any of this. Ten years prior to this we spent a portion of our national budget to walk people on the moon and we Could have spent. 27 million dollars to buy some houses.
So the EPA states that the cancer rate was not higher than the US average? That tells me that we’re all in trouble then. This has affected the entire country.
Remember stories like this when you hear business leaders complaining about there being too many regulations.
Hooker did nothing wrong except selling the land to the city of buffalo for a park. It was the city that opened the chemical dump built schools and sold land to developers . It was the government that poisoned the people
What? Like this?
>>> The Trump administration on Thursday (March 2017) announced the repeal of a major Obama-era clean water regulation that had placed limits on polluting chemicals that could be used near streams, wetlands and other bodies of water. Reported Sep 19, 2019>>>
Or how bout this:
>>>>The Trump administration initiated 40 of those rulemakings in 2017, 80 in 2018, 52 in 2019, 40 in 2020, and one in 2021, and successfully finalized 126 of them before leaving office. Reported Mar 8, 2022>>>>
Elect him in November and he will further strip the EPA of regulatory powers. AND he will release guilty companies from any responsibility or legal consequences.
Yuuuuuuuup
How is it that Occidental Chemical/Hooker ended up being on the “hook” for pretty much all expenses related to lawsuits and clean-up?? There’s adequate proof that the US Army was dumping plenty of toxic waste in the canal in the 1940’s, much of it tied to the Manhattan project. And after everything that has happened the toxic waste hasn’t been removed from the canal, we’re told it is “safely contained.” No wonder Lois Gibbs is still fighting.
How is it that Occidental Chemical/Hooker ended up being on the “hook” for pretty much all expenses related to lawsuits and clean-up?? There’s adequate proof that the US Army was dumping plenty of toxic waste in the canal in the 1940’s, much of it tied to the Manhattan project. And after everything that has happened , the toxic waste still hasn’t been removed from the canal, we’re told it is “safely contained.” No wonder Lois Gibbs is still fighting.
This doesn’t get said nearly enough but what a national treasure it is to have PBS.
And specifically to this story, what bravery these women showed and determination they possessed to not be spoken down to when too many “powerful” people tried to downplay their realities.
Right?!
Public broadcasting it’s fucking beautiful!
PBS and our local libraries; always feel some sanity and hope when enjoying these free services
Imagine serving in Vietnam being poisoned by agent orange to come back and move into a house to continue to be poisoned at home?
That is a double whammy...😔
Triple as many of those also worked at Hooker......
Unfortunately, this happened way too often in towns all over the US from the 1950s until as late as the 1990s. It is insanity.
My Dad did two tours in Vietnam. He got agent orange and lost most of his teeth from the bad water.
@@lynderherberts2828 Holy crap!🤯
This is why the Environmental Protection Agency is vital to America. Don't think for a moment that U.S. businesses won't do this to us again.
I work in this industry and let me tell you that they could care less. Research how many Dupont execs were ex EPA men and how they were just interchangeable figureheads that only wanted one thing... money. Unless it makes the news and makes them look bad, they really don't care.
The EPA is compromised and can no longer be counted on to work on behalf of we the people. Lobbying has corrupted it all. Just think Monsanto.
You got that right!
They continue to today. Flint, MI or PSE&G California. The Boeing cover up , Dole fruits litigation since 70’s, Monsanto, the list goes on and on. Especially, if government and defense contacts are involved. There is alot of money that makes its rounds and fines are just the cost of doing business. There are so many toxic leaks re chemical additives, coolants, etc., in the oil industry that the public never hears about. No one reads all the lawsuits. Fines are just the cost of doing business sadly.
PFOA'S are so high in Fayettville NC area and down the Cape Fear River that the UN has cited the state for HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. They are not providing safe water, food or soil to the people living there. The extent of the toxicity outside the Cape Fear Estuary extends along the coast for hundreds of miles contaminating all sea food.
Studies have now documented how the foamy chemicals floated across from North and South Carolina to the entire coast of Europe- and even into the Mediterranean Sea contaminating both. Seafoam at beaches in Europe was found to be highly contaminated.
The Ohio River from the Dupont plant in Parkersburg West Virginia and the Mississippi River from Weston Minnesota into the Gulf of Mexico are completly contaminated too. Sewage sludge used as fertilizer on farms and homes put this into our food supply. Paper mills coated paper with the "wax". Ski slopes are contaminated from ski wax etc...
Dupont vented the chemical plants after health effects emerged and put the teflon fluff into the air via stacks so huge areas are covered with the fallout. It transforms to a salt on soil and goes down into ground water.
Its getting churned into the air via wave action so everywhere it rains or snows, its building up. More precipitation- higher PFOAS in the future.
" Dyslipidemia" is caused by blockage of PPAR enzymes.
That manifests as high cholesterol, adult onset diabetes, overweight, lipomas, high blood pressure, kidney damage, fatty liver and liver damage -AKA
" metabolic syndrome" PANCREATIC CANCER and more.
PPAR enzyme cascade in developing children can manifest as occlusion of teeth, seizures, brain overgrowth causing brain swelling, hyper growth of areas of the body, usually one sided, scoliosis, strawberry marks and other mole growths like cafe a lait spots. There are genetic forms of PPAR enzyme disabilities so effects for PFOAS are along those same lines. The people with genetic PPAR issues will be the canarys in the coal mine. If you notice on this show, the people with genetic abnormalities are scandanavian.
There are issues like the SOD1 mutation in a high proportion in Swedish and Japanese families that can make many toxins more toxic. SOD1 is the same enzyme pathways as are affected by eating grapefruit while taking drugs. Low levels prevent breakdown of many toxins by the liver.
The effects on the PPAR enzyme cascade are along 4 to 5 other sub enzyme cascades. I have only traced one so far.
It is clear that abortion is caused by teflon congeners.
One study stated that between 300,000 and 600,000 deaths occured in America from PFOAS. That went down to 60,000 deaths per year after C8 production halted. Those numbers dont reflect deaths from cytokine storms in response to diseases like Covid because studies showing that effect have been tossed out as having too many confounding factors. Those studies and death numbers are from before Covid hit.
During Covid- no word came that it was possible that Teflon had any part to play in Covid deaths despite patients dying in hospitals almost immediately after intubation with teflon medical tubing. The rapid deaths didnt stop until nurses started refusing to intubate. Those deaths came from "cytokine storms" just like was stated to happen from PFOAS in the body in response to disease.
When we eventually die, we die from massive inflammation like cytokine storms create. The ports on the sides of blood vessels down to capillaries open up and flood the tissues with blood fluids and cells. Cellulitis.
We go into shock from loss of blood volume from that fluid loss. That is what was happening to Covid patients during the Covid epidemic. It was happening before that from flu and other diseases. Covid just happens to be an organism that creates cytokine (creation) signaling enzymes also.
The doubling effect!
I dont believe death numbers in an earlier study reflect deaths by
" spontaneous " abortion ( miscarriage) either. As in Love Canal, that is an effect of teratogenic and mutagenic chemicals.
If the DNA of the fetus is not producing necessary enzymes (due to genetic code deletions aka "damage", or epigenitic toxin effects blocking methylation that reads and transfers genetic code instructions) ...the fetus dies. It can also have scattered damage so lives but has genetic damage. That can be to the eggs a girl carries within her also. It can be outright mutations, like malformations or hidden mutations like cause cancers later on life. It can be loss of code for an unfolding pathway that effects changes in development that effect maturity. Like the changes in sexual and sexuality development we are seeing. Those changes start at the end of the first trimester with a switch that is suppised to go either boy OR girl. That is later influenced by minute quantities of hormones along the unfolding development pathway. Like blooming flowers opening and closing along a developing vine. Hormone disruptors are chemicals that our body mistakes for our own hormones. PFOAS like GENX are very potent disruptors along with pthalates and mercury from coal burning.
PFOAS also act "synnergistically" with other toxins magnifying their effects many fold. Lead and other heavy metals, like mercury WITH PFOAS have effects that create synnergy"Super Toxins". Phenols like in Lysol and fragrances even some herbs are another known synnergy. There will likely be others found.
The effects of PFOAS include carrying and attaching toxic metals to our DNA which blocks methylation- which blocks necessary enzyme production. ( translating code and then carrying instructions to have enzymes created) That can manifest in all different ways physiologically depending on the chemicals involved and what enzymes are then blocked.
PFOAS create "super toxins" out of minute
" safe" levels of toxins like lead and mercury. ( Autism?)
The put it bluntly, after Love Canal, the system did not protect any living organisms on earth from toxins. PFOAS are one of the worst examples in history of that failure. We can no longer eat fresh water fish from anywhere in this country.
Probably the same is true for seafood but it will be especially toxic in the Gulf of Mexico and the Carolina Coastline extending probably 600 miles on either side of the Cape Fear River. I would assume that no fish have "safe" levels.
Right now massive
die- offs are occuring in the arctic in sea lions and seals.
Studies showed high PFOA levels in Arctic and Antarctic sea life, fish and other top of the food chain animals through bioaccumilation and biomagnification. The effects of PFOAS causing immune "hyperreactivity " could be driving the deaths of many species. Frogs were the first to go. Frogs skin was used in the first inflammation studies due to its sensitivity to toxins. It makes sense they would die off first.
"Thou shall not kill" didnt have fine print after it.
What is bad for other creatures is bad for us.
We are the top of the food chain and the eventual "sink" for PFOAS.
Long term effects on DNA from PFOA attachment are unknown. That attachment was only just discovered.
Maybe we finally found out what killed the dinosaurs... and we unleashed it on ourselves!
As a former resident...my family resided at 389 99th Street from 1962 to 1978 evacuation( Inner Ring) I found this to be very well done by PBS and everyone associated with the making of this. Reliving so many of these moments...I was 14yrs old in 1978...was overwhelming to reexperience at times.
God Bless all of the former residents and their descendants. 😔💙
Are you ok? Hopefully your health was not affected
My grandparents, John and Joyce Baker, had a house on 102nd street. Love Canal in my history is scary because it feels like a ticking bomb for health issues. There have been cancer and other maladies mentioned in this documentary in our family.
I still live in Niagara Falls on 100th St. but on the opposite side of cayuga creek near N.Falls Blvd.
🙏🙏
I'm so sorry this happened to you and your family. I'm so angry with those responsible for this tragedy.
And don't forget about Flint. This world is a mess.
Not to downplay Flint because it *Still* is a problem, but this is so, so much worse.
@@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88 Unless you are living with water you cannot drink, cancer clusters, corrupt government, you name it. I think it is just as bad.
Exactly
look you can still get rim brakes on new bikes calm down
Flint is a very corrupt story. That catastrophe didn’t have ti happen. East Palestine,East Liverpool and Salem and such areas are also a toxic wasteland. It’s criminal. It’s horrible.
"When we smelled chemicals we smelled a good economy." Those poor people, that speaks volumes.
Disgusting vile money hungry demons!!
Same folks reading the riot act to every official willing to be there trying to help, while nary a peep about Hooker..
@@carlsaganlives6086 since when is officialdom totally innocent?
@@philg4116 Where did I say that? I don't like bureaucracy either, WTF
Those same people wanted Hillary's head on a stick when she tried to sell them on the idea that transitioning away from coal mining was the way forward, even as husbands, sons and daughters were dying painful and slow deaths due to Black Lung disease.
So important to get these
Stories told while the people are still alive
Exactly! Before De Santis and his ilk in other states start banning education on this!
Amen💔
And to think there are those today who want to shut down and/or cripple the EPA. Greed knows no bounds.
Companies will gaslight the public into thinking all is okay when in reality it is farther from the truth. As you say, profits are all that matters. The owners can move where ever they want while the rest of us don't have it that easy.
Voting matters.
We moved on to anti-regulation politicians and got the poisoning in Flint.
I've heard people at wood Mizer's show room complain about epa regulations for safer fuel exhausts. The old models would make you choke on black smoke. It's weird how people feel insulted by improving life.
Yep. Right-wing Republicans. And as unfortunate and ironic as it might seem, most of these people that live in places like these are just that -- conservative right-wing Republicans.
The lower the education, the easier it is for people to fall for conservative double-talk. The "clean coal," that keep "hard working Americans working" type of preaching. As long as they have a job, they look the other way. And it is they that put these manipulators in power that want the EPA gone.
The EPA is 100% necessary but their initial charger was only 1.5 pages long and since they have gone well beyond their initial intent. Every government agency/department is run like a business that wants more power and money to grow. The people that work here are thinking of their careers, then the government, then the public..that is why you see so much corruption and screw ups and then need to appoint a government official tzar to figure out what went wrong ..this is a fact that most people do not realize and must keep this in mind.
I was so obsessed with this story at the time. I even visited the Love Canal site in 1984 (behind the fence) on my way to Niagara Falls. What these women did is an example of how everyday people can change the world. Well done doc!
Thanks for watching!
Deep and impactful. These programs are some of the best of what our tax dollars are paying for, and so deliberately relevant. Somehow, your presentations manage to hit on the issues we need to be reminded we're still facing. Thank you PBS!!
Thanks for watching! We're glad you found the film informative!
This is one of the best documentaries I’ve watched in a while.
Thanks for watching!
Agreed ! ......My family resided at 389 99th Street from 1962 to 1978 evacuated. This was very well done for history knowledge. God Bless all the former residents 🙏💙
You've been missing out then. They've been doing them for years & years and all just as impressive.
I'm disgusted with myself after watching this
🙏🙏
This is deep! I have a degree in chemistry and interned at EPA one summer. The budget cuts to EPA from 2001-2018 are unreal. 😢
The budget is cut to all steward agencies every cycle -it’s known as the ‘unofficial but customary promissory trimming the fat’ that all presidents are ‘encouraged’ to do …it’s a known ‘ratcheting up’ system in that it only goes one way, not both ways …it can only be ratcheted tighter not loosened …which is unsustainable …so something always has to give
Democratic presidents are advised to use the ‘blind blanket’ method where they simply tell the agencies how much total they have to cut, but the agencies are allowed to choose their own cuts (unfortunately it’s done by committee which is useless) …The president and the public never learns what got cut and there are no headlines …so no one is the wiser of what got cut
…wheras Republican presidents are advised to be vocal about the cuts whether or not they are choosing the cuts or delegating them …so it makes incendiary headlines and they get the credit and the blame
It doesn’t matter who is in office or what they promised or what control they think they have …the cuts happen and they happen haphazardly
Basically it’s how the system indiscriminately re-cycles …
it consolidates and removes some offices and expands others …
it’s just not done prudently …
it’s like the Mid Atlantic Ridge …it simply sucks everything in the vicinity in and it gets made molten and pops out in a new volcano elsewhere
Want to pop out a new weather satellite in Florida? Destroy the only climate ship in Hawaii and close half-ass close a dozen mainland rural weather stations that only locals would know or care about
The EPA makes such rediculous fine fees that the only way they can collect money is to reduce them …
They fine a small business $25K for a few minor leaky barrels that can be easily cleaned up and not at risk for bothering anything …Then the small business shows them the books and they say “OK $5K”
The small businesses are also generally doing the community service of hiring the ‘undesirables’ as unskilled labor which are the ones who generally cause the accidents as undesirables are generally hard to manage
It’s vicious circle ⭕️
Bombs are sadly too important to the ways of the world now. 😢
Bush Jr AND Obama....go figure.
Always that darn budget cut...I call BS. The EPA is twisted and using budget cuts as an excuse.
@@juggaloprofessorknowbodyim3215 The presidents and congress. We do not hold them accountable. Baffling. "The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the ability to create a federal budget - in other words, to determine how much money the government can spend over the course of the upcoming fiscal year. Congress's budget is then approved by the President."
My cousins lived right on top of that mess and, as children, we'd play a game we made up called "touch the witch" where we'd dare each other to touch the black ooze seeping through the basement walls. What did we know? Back in the 70's kids played unsupervised all day with whatever they had. Needless to say, every last one of us has either birth defects or autoimmune disorders. Our parents didn't know until it was too late.
Wow - thanks for sharing your story!
@@AmericanExperiencePBS all three of my children were born in Niagara Falls and they, as well as me, have autoimmune diseases. The majority of people I know in and from Niagara Falls have an autoimmune disease. There are so many people from there that have cancer or birth defects.
Heartbreaking.😢
It is still happening. Fracking, which uses undisclosed chemicals because the companies consider their operations proprietary, is polluting aquafers around the country and people live on top of the polluted left overs. We all know about it. I wish, in time, your family and friends overcome the health effects.
They knew. They didnt care .
Why are the polluters never held accountable for the messes they make? Why do the American people have to pay for this negligence?
Hooked fought it tooth and nail. They were later purchased by Occidental. They did end up paying for some of the cost of cleanup. Remember...we did not have regulations for disposal of chemicals back then.
They're never held responsible because their money is in the pockets of the politicians
Because our politicians are bought and paid for by the same corporations that do this stuff.
UNITED STATES 🤪
Good Question
Thr Niagara Falls School Board was also to blame for this disaster. They knew of the danger yet looked the other way and built an elementary school on top of the chemical dump. They have not shared any of the responsibility. Shameful.
That was the worst part for me. They knowingly literally built the school smack dead in the middle of a toxic waste dump. I just can’t wrap my head around this kind of depravity.
I agree!!!!
The Niagra Falls school district is 99% the guilty party. The contractor who built the school had to have known as well. 😐 The Hooker chemical Corp had it in black and white, front page of the contract that the land was a toxic waste dump and the grantee upon obtaining said land for 1$ will assume all responsibility for clean up and lawsuits that may occur due to harm, illness and/or death due to exposure. This claim was not in fine print or written such that it take anything other than basic reading comprehension to understand. Btw, I'm negative corporations but I think they went after Hooker because they had bigger pockets.l
I love American ExperianceI love these documentaries
Same! The Gilded Age is my favorite.
Preach It!!!
Every of the many, many such documentaries AE has released over the years have always been just as high caliber as this program.
Love PBS. One of my favorite channels.
UNITED STATES
Mom's have the greatest super power. Their love for us. Still I remember living through the time period as a teen and never knew the depths these ladies went through. Wow, they are American heroes 👏.
hi folks this is what homeowners associations USED to do for its members. Now they just look for reasons to infract and foreclose on your home. Not even 50 years ago.
And fine is for having our trashcans visible outside 😂
@@jessn.2665yup, sounds about right. We just went thru that last uear eith pur HOA. We wanna move so bad, but we can't afford it with the way the housing market is rn. We couldn't afford to buy our current house if we bought it today.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
I don't think it's fair for you to imply all HOAs are corrupt. Do you?
Full disclosure
I've never lived in a home that had an HOA. I've never had anything to do with an HOA
every hoa "policy" stems from a resident's complaints. if you don't like the rules of the hoa, talk to your neighbors. people these days act like an hoa is some hidden surprise. you knew the home you were buying was in a hoa. do your own homework.
It should never have happened. Thank you for telling the story.
And the chemical companies has claimed "Roundup is as safe as water" yet no chemical sales guy have ever been willing to drink a glass. They spray it on the wheat and oats to "dry it faster" in the field just before harvesting. I wonder why so many people are "gluten intolerant", yet they can eat breads and pasta with gluten in Europe.
Bingo!!!! You hit the nail on the head. These greedy corporations are slowly killing us with these chemicals in our foods.
I thought I was gluten intolerant. It was bread made in a teflon coated bread machine that woke me up to the real problem. My whole abdomen would swell immedietly and explosively with the feeling of blood pulsing throughout. Other bread wasnt doing that or to such extreme levels. Now Ive had to cut out tea in bags. I was having inflammatory reactions to tea. Just found out Teflon congeners are in tea bag filter paper and tea drinkers have the highest levels in their bodies.
Love Canal was a victory but didnt stop another Love Canal.
We have them everywhere now and worse issues than ever.
Its not over. Legislation introduced in Idaho will give chemical companies immunity from having to pay damages for their toxic products.
How can that be!? Other toxin health effects are buried so well they dont surface even as people die around us.
PFOAS cause cytokine storms in reaction to infections. You can appear to die of a disease but be actually dying from PFOA causing extreme "immune hyperreactivity".
Covid is a good example of that overreaction of the immune system. Officially , it dosent happen. The studies showing the cytokine storm reaction were squashed.
Meanwhile, people sick with Covid in hospital waiting room were sick but did not die in the waiting rooms. They did not die till intubated with Teflon medical tubing.
Teflon is in all of our bodies but some people have more, some less. Intubating with Teflon tubing added more to the blood stream of people who probably had high Teflon already.
Adding more of what was actually killing them caused almost immediate extreme immune hyperreactions.
The " Covid" patients died almost immedietly. They died so fast, bodies were getting stacked in the hallways. They died as fast as they brought new patients in and intubated them. The rapid deaths upon intubation didnt stop until nurses started refusing to intubate patients.
After that, they lived. When new non teflon medical tubing was delivered, the problem went down. Meanwhile... did our leaders tell us why our loved ones were dying?
We all have this in our bodies.
It causes the PPARa enzyme pathway to be altered. That pathway has other enzymes involved in it
" downstream".
Look it up. Some of the health effects at Love Canal are symptoms of PPAR.
Thats only one "cascade" said to be blocked. The enzyme cascades are like a domino effect. You can set up a room full of dominos and that is like an enzyme pathway happening in our bodies.
You can set it off by pushing over the first domino and watch them fall all over. Thats like the enzyme cascades that happen all over our bodies every day.
Toxins pluck dominos out of the chain. If you pull one domino at the beginning of a pathway- its all over with! Symptoms vary with where the dominos are plucked. People also can have missing dominos via genetic DNA code deletions. If you are missing the code to make a certain domino or make enough, you have a metabolic disease. That can be inherited or acquired. Acquired can be through mutagenic chemicals and ionizing radiation( photons hitting DNA and shattering it) The body can repair DNA but if the rate of destruction is faster than the rate of repair, cells will divide with damaged code carrying the
" mutation" forward. Enough damaged cells lacking code to make necessary enzymes and you have health effects from your enzyme pathway systems being stopped. The effects depend on where the deleted dominos are.
There is a farmer who has site on UA-cam that has astronomical amounts of glysophate in his and his families systems and farm organically. He thinks it's from the feed for his livestock and I do too and I hope he doesn't end up getting sick!
@@sherriianiro747has his farm been "sprayed"with chemicals? Just asking.
@@pinkiesue849 I was wondering that too, but I do not believe he tested the water or soil before he moved there and just assumed it was a farm in the country and so it should be safe.
If anything, that's where you run into problems as I found out when looking for property after doing research on lots for sale.
I even found one property that was listed as being in one of seven of the nations worse dump sites. Scary.
I’m dying of cancer after living in cancer alley in Louisiana all my life, drinking the contaminated water and living on contaminated soil. Big corporations are a plague, they do not care if they kill.
😢
Mothers are the most tenacious of human beings.
So true! NEVER mess with a mother's emotions, especially love and/or loss of a child.
@@nezahuatez The fathers were at their jobs providing for their families! They walked picket lines on weekends. Just give it up, please.
Right behind share holders and greedy executives!
I am 48 years old and ive been learning from PBS since i was a little kid.. thank you PBS for all the education you have given me through the years ❤❤
I always support PBS because I've been learning from it for 50 years.
I grew up in Niagara falls and have frequented the ghost town of love canal often never knowing the extent of their story. Thank you for this and for strength and determination of the woman and their family's that fought so hard to protect their families and future generations.
We lived on 72 nd. So a little bit farther away. My brother walked by the school all the time. He was born in 1952 and growing up he had asthma so bad the doctor advised my parents to move . Anyway I was born in 1963 and we moved to California in 1965. My brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago but it was caught before it spread and so far he’s still well.
We watched this last night and it was a really good. I never heard about the Love Canal until watching this. This is important American and Environmental History
Thanks for watching! We're glad you found it informative!
That's why we need the EPA more than ever!
Just curious, how old are you?
Good for you for being open to new information 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
@differenttakethanmost I'm 30, and also born and raised in ny state. But I've never heard anyone mention it, nor learned about this in school either, which is really sad.
It’s insane to me how many people have zero idea about this event.
It gets worse the longer time passes. To me...evacuated 1978 inner ring family....it brought back memory's of that final summer and what we went through.
@tonydelgobbo6797 must have been so much for you. I hope you're doing well, years later. Such a tragedy and I'm still coping with what happened in East Palestine a year later. History repeats itself but with different times and people.😔
This is the type of thing kids should be learning about, starting in elementary school on up to high school.
@@blakewilliams5627 SO true
It's astounding how many know, but don't care as it doesn't affect them personally. And gow many would do it again if it makes them money...
I don't understand why they didn't put the blame where it should have been, on those companies who were making millions of dollars to produce those chemicals and then dump them wherever!!! Why did the government decide to use tax dollars instead? I never knew about this. Thank you for this interesting, thought-provoking documentary!
Because that's how things work in this country.
The Government is a Massive Corporation, who steals money from everybody, and uses the percieved creation of saftey to keep people believing in the lies.
Because the government is always complicit as well.
I agree. We the taxpayers pay for the cleanup, the government gets the blame and the corporations sit back and smile while they take in the billions. Justice matters.
#1 it was the 70s, #2 if you try to go after the largest employer in town, good luck with getting sympathy from anyone not affected. Plus NYS made it easy due to their incompetent response.
Unfortunately, the laws are still trying to catch up. A lot of these billion dollar companies sure fully policing themselves back then. It took things like this, tons of lawsuits and bad press- for then ti care at all. Look into how DuPont knew that the PFOS/PFAS "forver" chemicals(like teflon) were dangerous since the 1930s, lied about it all the way tunitl they were finally caught in the 1970s/80s. Everyone who worked for them knew people got sick, but while towns worked for DuPont, govt was intertwined and local politicians were being financially supported by this companies. MONEY is the reason most of these things were not addressed. Either the companies are making too much to wanna give it up or those who are effected are too poor to fight properly.
This was really good. Really important for all Americans. My dad kept us from knowing about this by innocently preventing newspapers from getting in the house. He already knew I was a mouth that always defended others. (A decade later I put myself through law school!)
I bet your soul is as pretty as you are!
@@snakejones9965 Well thank you, Snake.
ALL AMERICANS ?? THE WHOLE CONTINENT ???
@@eloinaseguro5230why not? Do you think people on the rest of the continent don’t need to hear about how corporations will poison their land? This is a global issue. But you know what they meant and it’s very pedantic and irritating to pretend you don’t understand what people colloquially call their own country. It’s just a word and can be used to refer to more than one concept if you’re not lazy or foolish
Wow!!! Congrats,,,that's amazing,,,i can relate and it's a Good end, it just hit me,,, me also, a childhood i want to forget and i beat it! i moved away, into nature and i did all the things they said i was 'not capable' of doing.
This is so heartbreaking. God Bless these families. So proud of these women who took charge in HOA and at Griffon Manor to educate themselves about the hazardous chemicals and to make sure that their voices were heard . I know it was born out of necessity and they really didn't have much choice, but that was so courageous. They didn't give up despite so many challenges and so much pushback. My heart goes out to them all.
I am embarrassed to say I am 52 and never knew what”Love Canal” was all about. This is one of the best and most satisfying documentaries I’ve ever seen! God bless Lois and all those women!
I am 64, I remember Love Canal
No offense, but how crazy is that? I’m 57 and have heard about it since it happened. (Lived in Florida and Michigan)
Good for you for being open to new information, lifelong learning.
I wonder what I need to go back to. There has to be gaps in my education also.
I grew up an hour away and remember watching the news on TV and Love Canal being discussed all the time. I'm basically your age and never understood it until watching this doc today.
I've seen more than one arterial lately, asking why so many young people are having cancer these days.
Gee I wonder why...
We all have forever chemicals and micro plastics in us all now. God help our kids and grandchildren.
The recent explosion in Cancer is from MRNA Covid 💉💉💉.
There's even a new term called Turbo Cancer.
If you live near a refinery, a chemical plant, etc, especially in the south. That's all you see. Refineries. Chemical plants. LNG. Billowing smoke stacks, but they tell everyone it's "burning clean". That's why the south has some of the highest cancer rates in the country.
Wow! A playground is now built right next to where toxic chemicals are still buried ? And the homes were deemed safe and able to be resold ?
Crazy
It made me so sad to see those occupied homes and backyard swimming pools. It should not have been developed as residential.
I worked out of one of the ring 2 homes (contractor to EPA) back when Habitability Study was conducted. They found even more contaminated areas in Niagrara Falls during the study. The chemical plants still spew nasty chemicals into the air. Glad I got out of that area after a couple of years.
I was a child living in Griffon Manor and then 99th St during this time. This brought up so much emotion for me. I remember the black soot coming up from the sinks in the basement and when it rained and we played in the mud, neon green would run through the mud. I still battle endometriosis, migraines and autoimmune illness to this day. I am 52. PS - there is a scene that shows Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario for some reason.
I was born in Buffalo in that 77 blizzard. I have had unexplained health problems which doctors have never been able to diagnose or help me with... very much like am autoimmune disorder and hormonal issues...pmdd . Buffalo is only 20 minutes away...😢 I wonder....
Also people on this documentary are reporting seizures..l I also have them... why didn't I know about this before... it's chilling. I've always said that I felt that I had been exposed to toxins ...maybe from using the microwave as a kid... I could only intuit something like that as a cause.... this is awful😢😢😢
@@mandys1505because there are many dump sites throughout Western NY. So yes Buffalo too.
I'm so sorry that somebody thought building houses and schools on top of a toxic waste dump was a good idea.
Sadly, the innocent people who lived there didn't know what they had gotten into. They were innocence personified. What a way to lose their innocence!
you might be innocence personified in 2024
East Palestine, Ohio now needs our help 1 year after the Railroad accident
As he's saying, "There must never be another incident like the love canal in our history" all I can think of is Flint Michigan 😥
Or Bhopal, India. Union Carbide's incompetence took thousands of lives.
This was great I just wish you spent more time discussing the plight of the renters and poorest among them because we all know they were the ones who truly received no justice!
I remember Love Canal being on the news so much when I was young. Little did we know growing up along the Titabawassee river watershed that our land was being poisoned by Dow Chemical. My parents still live in the same house. Just this past summer they used their land to access the river and cap off a very deep hole under the river which was created because of the currents and a curve in the river. It was determined that the level of accumulated dioxins would create a continued hazard downriver. They capped off that hole leaving the toxic dump below the cap. Corporations like Dow and Hooker are nothing but evil. I also remember the fight to prevent the nuclear plant being built in Midland from being completed - when the containment building started sinking into the ground. My high school physics class was able to tour the site and meet the woman that was primarily responsible for getting it shut down. Her family was constantly harassed, received death threats and the brake lines on her car were cut. That place would have ended up being the next Chernobel, Fukushima, or Three Mile Island.
This hits home. My father worked his entire career for chemical company DuPont. He was in sales and always in chemical plants and most customers were paper mills. Recently learned I have autoimmune issues, high cholesterol, and severely deformed sinuses which align with poisoning from the forever chemical C8 used to make Teflon.
Watch dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo
@@heydudedolfan13it is a heartbreaking and triumphant at the same time. 2011 DuPont paultry settlement is about half of what they profited in 1yr. Damage for decades. 2019 movie is on Netflix now.
In 2024 there are still areas of the US plagued by the impact of chemical waste dumping. I currently live in South NJ and we have a water boil warning for the last 3 years. Our water has been tested and is as toxic or worse than that discovered in Flint, MI.
true that. everyone looks at the situation for a second, then moves on to the next cause of shock in the headlines.
What have the officials in your town stated regarding the contaminates?
@@awesomesaucekitty They're downplaying it at this point but we have the EPA reports coupled with weekly boil advisories saying otherwise. EPA is supposed to conduct a public hearing in a couple weeks.
In toms River, I have recently heard there are plans to build a playground on the old CebaGiegy site
I’ve heard, for years, that Canada pays to bring their toxic waste to the States.
No thanks. We’ve enough of our own 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
How does boiling water remove chemicals, and wouldn’t the chemicals be in the water you use for bathing, and brushing your teeth?
This feels reminiscent of the Erin Brickovich case.
Love Canal was referenced in Erin Brockovich.
Flint Michigan water is still horrible
All across America, every decade.
I believe that Lois Gibbs and Erin Brokovitch have worked together on some projects.
A water park is now being proposed on this site
I remember very well when The New Yorker magazine covered this at the time and the Superfund was established. It is still stomach churning.
Justice is for everyone, it’s not only for the well-to-do or the Know-how. People, most of them are Women continue to fight for the justice in every aspect of our lives.
This is why we need to keep funding the EPA. Stop listening to these corporations when they complain about too many regulations.
The EPA machine is well greased with corporate money.
And stop voting for politicians who side with polluting corporations.
@@Savoiefair64
SCOTUS. You meant to type SCOTUS. Between what they did in their recent ruling that disallows the EPA to truly enforce regulations, and the ex LIAR-IN-CHIEF putting an oil lobbyist in charge for 4 years (that's when they would have really been in the take, just like the leader of CULT45), they really aren't allowed to do too much.
Lobbyists need to find themselves in the unemployment line and every elected representative needs to raise money ONLY via grass roots fundraising. Corporations are NOT PEOPLE.
No. Im not doing constant battlle in a doomed system . Let this rot .
No. Im not doing constant battlle in a doomed system . Let this rot .
Every time a politician starts complaining about "regulations" please remember this and every other industrial tragedy because there are many and this but one.
The businisses make a mess creating sonething people want . The people choose to buy homes there . The taxpayer is somehow responsible ?
@@heidiembrey4917 You people are always okay when the pollution is in someone else's back yard until the train crashes in your backyard and then you scream about how the government should clean it up.
Businesses should have to reimburse all clean up fees
I would be interested to see a deeper investigation into the Tittabawassee River watershed in Michigan. Dow Chemical spent decades destroying it and decades more fighting their responsibility for cleanup.
Fantastic story. I was only a teenager at this time and lived on the West Coast and heard about this but had no idea what really happened. In hindsight, it hits home, HARD! Because I am where I grew up as a teenager was Libby Montana. One of the biggest superfund sites in history due to asbestos/vermiculite and my dad did briefly work there. We lived in homes where we played with this stuff in the loft bedrooms and it was put in our gardens and playgrounds. One of the contributing factors to my sisters death was due to asbestos. I can see that Libby did not have as hard as a time as Love Canal did. Perhaps they paved the way for us.
What a despicable man their mayor was- "I don't want to put the city's reputation at risk." The homeowner who asked "Why didn't we know about this?" -the mayor didn't want to hurt the reputation of the city. The school board wanted free land. Sorry your kids are dead.
I've driven by there. Vacant area now. I remember studying about it in college. I am from SW NY state. It's sad how all those chemicals seeped through their cellar walls and was saturated in that land. They buried drums of chemicals decades prior and they rusted and seeped into the ground. I remember reading that a boy fell in the playground and ended up with a rash. Women were having miscarriages. Children were born with deformities. I will never forget reading about it.
i grew up hearing about love canal and the people that lived there. the high rates of cancer, the scandal. but i never knew the details of what happened, despite going to school in Niagara County. fantastic documentary, thank you for covering this.
NEVER underestimate the power of women.
Absolutely 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯
And Never underestimate the greed of corporations.
Especially very angry and outraged women who are sick of BS!
Especially women protecting children.
@@rickybobby7276what’s peach have to do with it
I’m 32 years old and And a good Friday night for me it’s a nice steak dinner and then I turn on one of these documentaries. I feel like I’m in a Time Machine.
Truth about uncontrolled capitalism where profit is more important than people
Unfortunately, its American as apple pie.
It’s why grocery prices are sooo high & packaging is shrinking .. greed over everything
The EPA was created to create government action. And the government doesn’t give a crap. Socialism enacts government control and leaves The People powerless.
@@1927su it'll continue until people wise up and start holding corporations responsible. They've also spent decades creating a population of ignorant, lazy, and fat people though so I wouldn't hold your breath on that one just read the comments here still repeating lobbyist talking points about the EPA while sucking down chemicals that will probably give them cancer in a couple decades themselves.
This is the America are previous folks voted for, greed and capitalism.
We live in a beautiful community on an island of the Mississippi. Five miles away is a chemical plant owned by a big manufacturing company. For years they dumped their waste, and byproduct chemicals in a pit near their plant. Now, a giant underground plume is spreading through the
aquifer. So years ago they started testing our wells. Now, all of our wells are contaminated. Five years ago our well tested positive. Now, all of the residents have to have household water filters. It's way past time that big corporations pay for the damage they have done. No, it won't restore people's health or lives lost, or permanent damage to the environment, but it will be some justice.
Bless those wonderful women for their courage. This documentary shows how corrupt our government was and is today. Pray that good people will prevail!
Sadly this is only 1 more example of American greed. Still to this day greed out weighs the safety of the citizens of "our" nation. Do we accept this as just how it is? Or do we remind the greed in power who they really work for?
24:47 From everything I read, the city was threatening to acquire the land through eminent domain anyways so when it was sold, Hooker told the school board do not dig. They ignored this and built an entire school and playground on top of it. Developers who built that neighborhood broke the clay seal multiple times when putting in roads and water lines yet never disclosed to anyone what they dug up.
I don’t like big companies as much as the next guy but we shouldn’t paint this entire thing as the their fault and everyone else was innocent. Some would say Hooker actually did their job correctly and the only reason they were held at fault is because they had the money to pay for damages. This was a good doc but it skims over the fact that the city completely ignored the warnings and put (short lived) economic prosperity over lives.
I grew up there.... corner of Center and 102nd St. Just down the road from the Tolli home. My older sister was good friends with Mike's older sister. I have lots of good memories of that neighborhood before all this happened. Easter parade walks, trick or treating, bike riding, events at the nearby Fire Station, sneaking over to JJ's to buy candy and so much more. It really was a nice neighborhood with great families. Neighbors would watch over everyone's kids as they played outside until the street light came on. No matter where you were at lunchtime, someone would make you a sandwich or give you an ice cream cone. It's so sad to have witnessed that all crumble away.
This broke my heart, hearing these stories... My uncle and his family are all gone after living in Love Canal. They all passed from various cancers and strange diseases deemed "rare". This makes my blood boil how the government treated this. We don't deserve this planet.
I remember this happening, so tragic. Never, ever underestimate the power of women, especially when it involves our children. All of this women, home owners and renters are true heroes
Definitely a hard way to find out how little the government cares for its citizens.
I lived here when I was 2. On 99th street. We were relocated with no compensation because we were renters. I’ve never gotten any money settlement. I have autoimmune diseases as do my sisters.
We learned these lessons decades ago, and we're still seeing this today in East Palestine, Ohio. We have 60 Billion dollars for Ukraine, and nothing for those people?
No reference to the over 20billion to Israel? Good work comrade.
Yeah 👍
If we lose Democracy we have zero recourse -
@@user-zc2hk3cs6v What does that have to do with chemical spills? Get out of here.
First and foremost, a lot of these people were A-ok with the pollution when it was being dumped in other people's back yards. They are anti-regulation, but low and behold, when the disaster happens in their backyard (Talking about people in and around East Palestine, Ohio), then it's different because it personally affected them.
Those women of Love Canal were heroes, plain and simple. Especially Lois Gibbs, who worked tirelessly to make sure they never lost momentum. I admire them all so much.
Fantastic documentary as always from PBS.
My professor in college introduced me to Love Canal.
The government doesn’t have your best interest in mind.
Is it the government? Or the corporations who knowingly created the mess in the first place? We the taxpayers are the ones paying for all the chemical damage done. Why aren’t the corporations?
Like I heard my father say growing up. I would rather wrestle a bear than mess with a mother protecting her baby
Excellent documentary. All those women are indeed heroes & should be recognized as such. They undoubtedly save many lives. Did the EPA do any follow up studies on the long term health of the residents?
Like Erin & Ed said, “Remember the Love Canal ? Those people are STILL WAITING for their money …” Haunting words ..
My Dad was a higher- up at Hooker through this. This brings back so many memories - Marie Rice, Irv Weinstein- and now my children know to be appalled that people would be allowed to live near dump sites.
So he was a part of the problem 😢😢😢😢
Natalie Merchant wrote a song about this, "Poison in the Well" when she was in 10,000 Maniacs.
Natalie = GOAT.
She was born an hour and half away in jamestown. The maniacs used to play a little bar in town after they went big. Good ole days.
what a important documentary to watch - powerful, painful. my heart goes out to all those people. no money can ever bring back a loved one. rip to all those souls 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Thank you for this documentary. Im in Tonawanda NY not too far from Love Canal, we have some of the same issues here and we are still cleaning it up... Tonawanda Coke & Seaway dumps recently in the news.... from Occidental Chemical , Hooker and the Manhattan project for the atomic bomb
I'm in the town of niagara. I just found out today about the chemical waste in North tonawanda on Nash road. Absolutely sickening. I learned about this the past couple of days, I told my wife we're moving. I'm not staying in western New York
I'm 42 years old and I'm born and raised in Niagara Falls NY and the people of the City still talk about this disaster. After these events the dirty politicians drove my city in the dirt. Till this day the city still haven't recovered. RIP to the victims.
"Less knowledge is better for business" < this should be the GOP's central slogan
My father was the Vice President of an engineering firm involved in evaluating and later containing Love Canal when superfund went through. He came home to Pittsburgh shook up by ramifications of the pollution on that site. I remember his face when he said to me, a high school student, that there were dioxins there. Looking at him, I knew something terrible had happened. I can’t imagine living through it.
Homeowner or renter - the contaminants didn't know or care about the difference.
Agreed. However, society doesn’t see it that way. If you’re Unfortunate enough Not to be a **Property or Landowner**, then basically you’re expendable.
You left out something very important.
Hooker Chemical did not want to sell the land to the school board because the board wanted to build the school no matter what Hooker told them about the danger. The board threatened to take the land by eminent domain. Hooker sold the land to control what the deed of transfer would contain. Specifically a warning they hoped someone would pay attention to when buying sub-parcels.
It's true they were trying to cover their ass, but think of it this way. A co-worker snatches your car keys off your desk and yells, "I'm gonna go buy five kilos of black tar heroin." You really like the guy and don't want to see him arrested for stealing your car but you report it to the police as stolen because you know he's an idiot who will likely get pulled over for driving like a fool and you don't want to be included in the fun as an acomplice.
The following clause in the deed mentions what can happen if you dig there for just that reason...
"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."
It's a tragedy -- and is inexcusable -- that Hooker's senior management at the time of the proposed transfer didn't stick with its initial position that the Love Canal property should not be sold, but should remain under the custody and control of the company. Ironically, if the property was taken from Hooker through eminent domain, might the company have had a defense for its actions at Love Canal? Admittedly, there is evidence the site was never properly secured, with fencing and/or security personnel, as was recommended by some within the company. Apparenty not all mid level Hooker executives were on-board with the idea of a property transfer. Quoting from records of the 1994 lawsuit United States v. Hooker Chemicals & Plastics Corp, Hooker exec and engineer Jerome Wilkenfeld is recorded as having remarked: "At that time I think the company should have told the School Board to take us to court if you want that land. We are not going to give it to you. It is not an appropriate place for a school. I have said that before and I will repeat it again, and I still feel that way. I felt that way at the time."
Something else that I think is frequently overlooked is the fact that Hooker wasn't the only chemical company dumping at the canal, there were others, and the military played a role in this as well. This was a disaster on so many levels that it is truly mind boggling.
@@richk7565 Hooker was definitely no angel, but they weren't the only bad actor in this disaster.
As I recall, the advantage of selling versus fighting was that as a seller, Hooker would be able to include warnings in the deed that would remain no matter how many subparcels the land would be split into. This would guarantee that the danger would be passed on in perpetuity. In the face of an exercise of eminent domain, they felt this was the better choice.
Perhaps contesting the matter in court to the bitter end would have been the better strategy, and left Hooker in a better position to claim that they had vehemently opposed development on the land. This would likely have made no difference when it came time to pass out blame. Local government ignored the warnings and failed to recognize the danger by digging foundations and then later breaching the walls of the containment area with deep stornsewers.
There are reports from writers that attempted to gather information and interviews in later years that they were met with a wall of silence and hostility from the old members of theschool board and other officials from the period. The full story is frequently never told as writers from Michael Brown onward failed to follow Robert Caro's guiding principle, "Turn over every paper."
@@nickhancock589 Good points, Nick. No one is excusing Hooker's behavior, but you're correct in noting that local government and the school board played a role in the debacle. I've read accounts of how the land was mis-handled after the transfer. The removal of huge amounts of cover from the site and the excavation for sewer lines, backfilled with porous gravel, proving a "highway" for toxic sludge to travel. They even had to shift the location of the proposed school after construction crews ran into underground reservoirs of chemical waste. And selling off parts of the property for home construction? Are you kidding?! The warning signs and warnings from Hooker -- written and verbal -- were there, but not heeded. Your theory about why Hooker chose the transfer option makes sense, particularly in light of the era. Things were a whole lot different in 1953-54. It is a horribly tragic story. Another fascinating Hooker story is what happened in Montague, Michigan, at the Hooker plant in that community, now home to what the locals call "The Temple of Doom." There's a video somewhere here on UA-cam entitled This is Not a Chocolate Factory. Check it out. I think you'll find it quite interesting.
My elementary had a Cintas location right next to us that had been dumping chemicals in the river right behind our playground for years. Unfortunately it was quietly "cleaned up" quickly...😢
My elementary school had a big construction company behind it. They’ve since been demolished and nobody would know it was ever there. I remember my mom musing about whether that factory being right there was an EPA type problem. Crazy to think about it now.
I live in Central kentucky now but my family most of it is from Rhode Island (on my dad's side) in Syracuse and skaneateles on my mom's side.
My mom got Hodgkin's in the late 70s and early 80s had to go through chemo and radiation at 17 and 18 years old, will my aunt just told me a few years ago maybe less than five years ago; that her and my mother used to play out on some rock piles and dirt piles across the street from where their house which had a chemical plant there this would have been in the 60s and 70s, in my aunt told me that she remembers there were these strange chemical barrels with toxic hazardous labels on them rusting away around where they played at, coincidence that my mother got cancer as a teenager Hodgkin's lymphoma, I think not, also in the early 2000s she got breast cancer and then in the later part of the 2000s 2008 to 2010 and that's what did her in and that's what she passed away from, the government is not your friend and the lobbyists who work for them are not your friend!!!!!!!!.
When you start to listen to mothers speaking of their children in the past tense… oof. 🥺💔
I grew up just a few blocks away from Love Canal. My father lived in Love Canal as a kid and died of cancer at 56. I had friends in Love Canal and spent time there when I was young. We used to ride our bikes around there checking out the abandoned houses after everyone moved out. People should have gone to prison for what happened at Love Canal. They knew there was hazardous waste there and built houses and a school on that land. I moved away from Niagara Falls 25 years ago its a dump.
This was a top-tier documentary from PBS.
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How all the women became activists at Love Canal is so similar to the story at Three Mile Island! I watched a documentary about that case a while ago and this one immediately reminded me of it.
What's horrible is there are still many places in this country that similar to this, that haven't ever been dealt with or acknowledged.
I learned about Love Canal from Tootsie. It is peanuts compared to what Union Carbide did in Bhopal.
The local school district bought Love Canal for a single dollar in 1953, and they knew very well of the chemical waste that was buried there since the forties by Hooker chemical.
I love you PBS! I always look forward to your uploads. Thank you for all that you do! This was amazing!
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All kinds of red flags ignored.
Amazing story that I was not familiar with- thank you👍👍
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Amazing.😢
I remember the news reports, and my mother worried about visiting parts of Niagara Falls because of Love Canal. Once, Hooker Chemical and Oxidental sponsored a show for us kids years later, and the older kids booed and heckled the representatives. Their behavior horrified the teachers. I guess they didn't have anyone there that suffered.
I've been waiting for this!!!
THANK U TO THESE BRAVE WOMEN ... ❣️❣️❣️
One of my best friends grew up there -the trauma of it affected her for the rest of her life
I remember this, but I did not know any of this. Ten years prior to this we spent a portion of our national budget to walk people on the moon and we Could have spent. 27 million dollars to buy some houses.
So the EPA states that the cancer rate was not higher than the US average? That tells me that we’re all in trouble then. This has affected the entire country.
Thank you for making these free and available to everyone
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