Love Canal, New York
USA
July 12, 2010

Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, which became the subject of national and international attention, controversy, and environmental notoriety following the discovery of 21,000 tons of toxic waste that had been buried beneath the neighborhood by Hooker Chemical. Love Canal officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city.

Hooker Chemical sold this site to the Niagara Falls School Board with a deed explicitly detailing the danger contained within the site, and including a liability limitation clause about the contamination. The construction efforts of housing development, combined with particularly heavy rainstorms, released the chemical waste, leading to a public health emergency and an urban planning scandal. Hooker Chemical was found to be negligent in their disposal of waste, though not reckless in the sale of the land, in what became a test case for liability clauses. Potential health problems were first raised by Niagara Gazette reporter Michael H. Brown in July 1978.