[Music] from 1947 until 1952 the hooker Chemical Company used the Love Canal section of Niagara Falls as a dumping site for toxic waste President Carter declared a state of emergency today in the Love Canal area of New York's Niagara Falls where toxic chemicals were discovered oozing from the ground that Discovery in a Niagara Falls neighborhood triggered an environmental battle that played out on national television and became one of the most iconic in US history we we after the federal government finally evacuated hundreds of families new laws were introduced to prevent Future Love canals ocidental Chemical Company agreed to pay $129 million my three kids were born with birth defects my wife's had cancer more than three decades later what happened to Residents exposed to these chemicals and what happened to the place that came to symbolize the nightmare of toxic waste in America [Music] in the spring of 1978 a Niagara Falls housewife read a newspaper story about her neighborhood known as Love Canal it described 20,000 tons of chemicals buried three blocks from my home that these were very toxic chemicals and I was just in shock the chemicals had been dumped in an old Canal by the hooker Chemical Company in the 1940s and early 1950s and then buried now they were leaking into some of the homes closest to the canal for several years chemicals have been seeping into the basement of a number of houses including this one the evidence is always there there was a report that talked about the different chemicals getting into people's homes getting into their Gardens their backyards the people that were living there were smelling these odors in their basements many of the children claimed that they had skin rashes and before you know it there was a concern there have been instances of birth defects and miscarriages among neighborhood families the state had been testing the neighborhoods air soil and groundwater and made an announcement for the homes closest to the canal the New York State Health Department recommended that pregnant women and children under the age of two immediately move out of the area how many chemicals have been identified as being underground here so far we know of 88 specific chemicals that are that have been identified and of those 88 how many are suspected of causing cancer I think the number is 11 you could see the fear on some of their faces today as men women and children gathered for blood tests to determine whether those here have developed abnormalities I am really really afraid uh we have decided we're going to get out one way or another but right now you know you just can't jump and where are we going to go we were a workingclass community we didn't have money to just up and move and abandon our house so we organized the Love Canal homeown Association which was all of our neighbors Lois Gibbs was trying to start an organization and she quickly learned how important the media was to be their [Applause] voice would you please tell me do I love my three-year-old state New York Governor Hugh Cary ordered the state to buy the first two rows of homes along the canal and those residents moved out but Lois Gibbs and some 700 other families living outside the evacuated area were told they were not in imminent danger they put up a fence and every time I went in and out of the driveway I seen the fence and I was told that people on that side of the fence had to leave and I had to stay which didn't make sense to me at all over the next 2 years some of the remaining homeowners continued to battle for relocation saying living near the polluted Canal was putting their family's health at risk I lost a baby before it was even born my next door neighbor had is still born her her son is sick her son is sick how many more kids have to be sick some of the protesters use provocative tactics such as burning Effigies of Jimmy Carter his wife and daughter today the Environmental Protection Agency announced but things changed in the spring of 1980 the EPA had cond a preliminary study that indicated that residents may have increased chromosomal abnormalities but before the agency could confirm the findings or inform the residents the study was leaked EPA was in a panic because they knew that this uh awful chromosome study was going to be hit the newspapers so they had an emergency team rush out to Niagara Falls to talk to these people we found two particular characteristics ICS in this study which are ominous enironmental Protection Agency had done some blood work on some residents and they said they had an unusually high number of chromosome breakages and higher risk of Cancer birth defects or genetic damage in our children people gathered at the Love Canal homeowners office and they started shouting and screaming so when when the EPA officials came over um the residents were so angry that they decided that if it's so safe to live at Love Canal these two officials can live here and they're not going to get evacuated until we get evacuated the standoff lasted just 5 hours but the point was made President Carter was running for reelection this was making headline news across the country as a result of that sit in and that protest and those hostage Holdings the uh federal government agreed to evacuate everybody at L Canal buying their homes so we were out the residents of Love Canal celebrated today we got relief we got safety we got we got our lives back 700 families started leaving Love Canal this afternoon it was the moment it was the moment of relief and a sense that we're free remember that we stood up up here at Love Canal ordinary law-abiding people and we weren't afraid following the evacuation Gibbs became the public face of a movement to clean up toxic waste dumped by companies across the country to deal with this pollution super fund legislation was enacted super fund was established so if another Love Canal came on the horizon there would be money there you could go in you could do the testing you could do the cleanup and then you could go after the responsible parties while sometimes criticized as costly and bureaucratic super fund has led to the remediation of nearly 400 toxic sites Love Canal was among the first addressed but it took nearly two decades and cost more than $350 million because the landfill turned out to be too big too toxic and too expensive to move it was capped in clay and surrounded by a drainage system and it was a black eye when it occurred in the late 70s but the community came together and realized that the stigma from what took place was starting to diminish so in ' 88 a decision was rendered that the area was suitable for rehabilitation the city wants to put Love Canal behind it it's given niagar Falls a pretty bad name and we don't think we deserve it although the area around the old landfill was fenced off homes in the surrounding neighborhood were refurbished and offered at below market price nearly all the homes found a buyer I just read about Love Canal you know up at remember can 15 years ago they had to move everybody out because of the toxic waste now they're selling homes there again I didn't I wasn't aware that they're selling homes there don't you think we could pick up something kind of cheap the repopulation was met with protests by activists including Lois Gibbs who said the area was still not safe they never took any chemicals out the 20,000 tons of chemicals still remain in the center of Love Canal I think there's a legacy of Doubt because people think that someday the landfill will leak but we have monit ing wells around this site so red flags would go up if there was a problem the homes around Love Canal especially the homes that were rehabilitated where people living in them today is probably one of the safest places on the planet to live but what happened to the residents who lived there 35 years ago the leaked EPA report was a preliminary study a follow-up study revealed that Love Canal residents had no higher rate of chromosomal abnormalities than the rest of Niagara County over the years some Studies have indicated a higher rate of birth defects and some cancers among former residents but a direct link between the leaking canal and the long-term development of serious diseases has not been established to find out what hurt a relatively few people because of the Myriad of environmental insults that are around it's almost impossible to do these are intrinsically difficult problems to evaluate scientifically I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 3 years ago and uh I'm stage four cancer it's uh went to my liver I worked at chemical plants I was exposed to agent orange I live in Love Canal I don't know where my cancer come [Music] from [Music] 35 years after Love Canal captured the national Spotlight the story has resurfaced new concerns have emerged from the Love Canal era in 2011 a city crew repairing a sewer line discovered a pocket of chemical waste less than half a mile from the landfill State and EPA investigators said there was no danger the waste was isolated had not leaked from the landfill and was believed to be left over from the original cleanup but six families in the surrounding neighborhood have filed lawsuits they say the discovery exposed them to harmful chemicals and now believe the landfill itself is not properly contained and is damaging their health the battle over Love Canal [Music] continues