Unit 5: Hazardous Waste and Love Canal

1
Unit 5 Hazardous Waste and Love Canal

• Module Environmental Justice and Freshwater
  Resources

2
UNIT GOALS

• Discuss Love Canal from a historical and
  environmental justice standpoint.
• Articulate the events that led to the passage of
  the Superfund Act.
• Demonstrate how geology and hydrology facilitated
  the flow of toxic materials at Love Canal.

3
1892 Love Canal began as a plan to connect the
upper and lower Niagara Rivers and generate
hydropower.
Hazardous Waste and Love Canal Part 1

• 1920 Sold at public auction, became a dumpsite
  used primarily by Hooker Chemical Corporation
  (subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum), but also by
  the City of Niagara and the US Army.

• 1953 Hooker filled the canal, covered it with
  dirt, and sold the land to the Board of Education
  for 1 with the "warning" that chemical wastes
  were buried on the property.

• 1954 99th Street Elementary School built on the
  property.

4

• 1970s Approximately 800 private homes and 240
  low-income apartments were built around Love
  Canal.

• 1976 A study revealed toxic chemical residues in
  the air at a high percentage of homes at the
  canals southern end. Drums of chemicals were
  found just beneath or on the surface, and high
  levels of PCBs were in the storm sewer system.

• Love Canal Homeowners Association collected
  health data from families which showed
  clustering of diseases in neighborhoods.

• 1978 the New York State Department of Health
  (NYSDOH) found high levels of contaminants and
  recommended that the 99th Street school be
  closed, that pregnant women and children under
  age of two be evacuated, and that residents not
  eat out of their home gardens, and spend minimal
  time in their basements.

• 1980 President Jimmy Carter ordered evacuation
  of Love Canal.

5
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA)

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) manages
  cleanup of contaminated sites.
• Companies have to pay for costs of cleanup.

also known as Superfund
6
(No Transcript)
7
Love Canal Today
8
Visit Love Canal Site in Google Earth

• Questions
• Compare and contrast the present day and 1978
  images. What are the major differences?
• Use the ruler tool to estimate the
  distance from the center of the canal site to the
  old neighborhood and from the closest
  neighborhood to the west today.
• Note the location of the Niagara River to the
  south and a creek to the north of the landfill.
  How do you think these features interact with the
  contaminants?

Click on this map to launch Google Earth
9
Hazardous Waste and Love Canal Part 2
Question Why didnt the chemicals and other
hazardous materials simply flow downward and
deeper into the ground?
10

• Below is a simplified cross section of Love
  Canal.
• Note the relative thicknesses of materials and
  locations of home basement.
• Note contrasting geology
• Sandy silt near surface allows material to flow
  from dump into homes.
• Clays farther down provide barrier to flow
  laterally and vertically.
• Note the permeability values given.

Home basement
West
East
Love Canal
Topsoil sandy silt
- 4 to 5.5 ft
Hard clay
- 12 ft
Depth unknown

Soft clay
- 23 ft
Glacial till
- 38 ft
Lockport Dolomite
Permeability gt 10-5 cm/s
Permeability 10-8 to 10-9 cm/s
11
What is permeability? To visualize the concept
of permeability, click on the Compare button on
the animation linked below.
Gravel
Sand
Silt
Clay
See the animation http//techalive.mtu.edu/meec/m
odule06/Permeability.htm
12
Precipitation
Infiltration
Love Canal dump
Appx 150 m
Home site
Groundwater
Topsoil sandy silt , allows fast infiltration
and lateral migration
4 to 5.5 ft
Leachate
Permeability gt 10-5 cm/s
Basement
Hard clay Less permeable and acts as a barrier
to downward water migration and infiltration and
slows leachate flow
Confining Layer
8 ft
Permeability 10-9 cm/s
Not to Scale
13
Question How long did it take for chemicals and
contaminants to flow from the dump at Love Canal
to homes nearby?
14
(No Transcript)