Love Canal Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship Spring 2000 DOI:10.5062/F4PZ56T3 URLs in this document have been updated. Links enclosed in {curly brackets} have been changed. If a replacement link was located, the new URL was added and the link is active; if a new site could not be identified, the broken link was removed. Love Canal: Reminder of Why We Celebrate Earth Day Frederick W. Stoss Biological Sciences Librarian Science and Engineering Library fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu Carole Ann Fabian Assistant Librarian Educational Technology Center cafabian@acsu.buffalo.edu University at Buffalo State University of New York As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, it is fitting to take a look some of the reasons why a 30-something activist's movement still deserves our attention. This article describes the efforts of a small, Upstate New York community in dealing with the impacts of chemical wastes buried, almost literally, in the center of its neighborhood. Love Canal is remembered on Earth Day for two reasons. First, we remember Love Canal for where we have been for a substantial portion of Earth Day's thirty years. Second we remember Love Canal as an icon of work for the environment that still needs to be done. This article also tells how one library has handled an unexpected success story, to keep a temporary exhibit "alive." Love Canal is probably the country's most notorious and infamous hazardous waste site. It wasn't the first. It wasn't the worst. But it did grab headlines, draw attention, and stimulate scientists, industrial leaders, politicians, government officials, and grassroots activists. August 2, 1998, marked the 20th anniversary of the evacuation of residents from the Love Canal neighborhood. The Science and Engineering Library at the University at Buffalo provided an exhibit recounting the chemical contamination of Love Canal and what has happened in the 20 years since citizens were evacuated from the site in August 1978. "Love Canal @ 20" was an unexpected international success. Within days of an announcement to our university libraries e-mail list, the university's weekly newspaper carried an article on the exhibit. The electronic "version" of the exhibit was featured in the September 1998 issue of American Libraries, and suddenly, we were receiving e-mails and phone calls from persons around the world wanting to come and see our exhibit and Love Canal (about 12 miles north of our campus). The original exhibit placed into a historical perspective the role information has played in the ongoing saga of Love Canal, and featured ongoing efforts in the Science and Engineering Library to provide services, collections, and an exhibit on topics such as environmental engineering, environmental geography, environmental chemistry, and environmental health and toxicology. The real exhibit was such a popular event, that when it had to "come down," we transformed it into a CyberExhibit, which is still maintained off of our {library home page's exhibits site}. About Love Canal The Love Canal neighborhood is in the southeast section of the La Salle area of Niagara Falls, New York. William T. Love, an 1890s visionary and entrepreneur, sought to develop a planned industrial community, Model City, in the area. Waters from the Niagara River were to be routed around the Niagara escarpment (the other famous attraction of the region, Niagara Falls) to produce cheap hydroelectric power. Model City never happened, but work on the canal to transport waters from the Niagara River did. In 1942, Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation (now Occidental Chemical) purchased the site of the Love Canal. Between 1942 and 1953 Hooker Chemical disposed of about 22,000 tons of mixed chemical wastes into the Love Canal. Shortly after Hooker ceased use of the site, the land was sold to the Niagara Falls School Board for a price of $1.00. In 1955, the 99th Street Elementary School was constructed on the Love Canal property and opened its doors to students. Subsequent development of the area would see hundreds of families take up residence in the suburban, blue-collar neighborhood of the Love Canal. Unusually heavy rain and snowfalls in 1975 and 1976 provided high ground-water levels in the Love Canal area. Portions of the Hooker landfill subsided, 55-gallon drums surfaced, ponds and other surface water area became contaminated, basements began to ooze an oily residue, and noxious chemical odors permeated the area. Physical evidence of chemical corrosion of sump pumps and infiltration of basement cinder-block walls was apparent. Subsequent studies by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry would reveal a laundry list of 418 chemical records for air, water, and soil samples in and around the Love Canal area. In April of 1978 the New York Department of Health Commissioner, Robert Whalen, declared Love Canal a threat to human health and ordered the fencing of the area near the actual old landfill site. In August, the Health Commissioner declared a health emergency at the Love Canal, closed the 99th Street School, and recommended temporary evacuation of pregnant women and young children from the first two rings of houses around the site. Within a week, Governor Hugh Carey announced the intended purchase of all "Ring 1" houses (later expanded to 238 houses in Rings 1 and 2). President Jimmy Carter simultaneously announced the allocation of federal funds and ordered the Federal Disaster Assistance Agency to assist the City of Niagara Falls to remedy the Love Canal site. Amid this setting, individuals (most notably Lois Gibbs, Dr. Beverly Paigen, and Sister Margeen Hoffmann, OSF) and local neighborhood (such as the Love Canal Homeowners Association) and community groups (such as the Ecumenical Task Force of the Niagara Frontier) became concerned about the situation. Their primary concern was the actual extent of the chemical contamination and its impact on the health of Love Canal residents. Second, and perhaps more important, was the lack of readily available information to explain the science: the levels of uncertainty, political and corporate agendas, manipulation of the media -- in general an overall paucity of reliable information that would answer the simple question, "Is it safe?" {Love Canal @ 20 -- From the Real to the CyberExhibit} The SEL Love Canal @ 20 exhibit was in two parts. The first is a sample of newspaper headlines and articles from The Buffalo News, the Buffalo Courier Express, and The Wall Street Journal that stimulated and sustained local and national interest on the issue. Included with this local focus are other resources that were generated after the relocation of Love Canal residents, including items from the Ecumenical Task Force, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York Department of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, Time magazine, the U.S. Senate, and the Love Canal Homeowner's Association. These resources are from the University Archives' Ecumenical Task Force: Love Canal Archives, ca.1979-1990, a 250,000+ page collection of information (portions of which are being converted into digital forms and made available via the Love Canal Archive site) related to the Love Canal. More information on this unique collection, {the Love Canal Archive}, is available including: Ecumenical Task Force - Resource File Ecumenical Task Force - Sample Reports Ecumenical Task Force Executive Board Meeting Agenda Drawings from 1982 Love Canal Superfund Presentation The second part of the SEL Love Canal @ 20 exhibit fast-forwarded to 1998, and featured a broad spectrum of information and data resources that are available in the Science and Engineering Library (SEL). A majority of these information resources did not exist at the time of the Love Canal incident. In some cases these data and information resources were created to fill the information and data voids that were identified as a result of Love Canal and related incidents. A "Selected Bibliography of the Love Canal" was prepared from books, reports, and documents in the SEL collections. This site described how the printed literature of environmental engineering, toxicology and waste management has grown significantly in the wake of environmental disasters such as Love Canal. The publicity generated by citizens' action groups prompted governmental and research agencies within the scientific community to focus attention on these issues. As a consequence, the technical literature in these areas, including reference resources, standards, technical reports and periodical literature, has become more widely available. This bibliography is now in the CyberExhibit and is updated as new resources are added to the SEL collections. We also provided an {inventory of Internet resources} related to the technical aspects of the environment which provides links to resources such as: EDF Chemical ScoreCard {Chem Finder} {EnviroFacts} {Toxic Release Inventory} (A government mandated inventory of manufacturing sites that release toxic chemicals into the environment) {Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs)} (MSDSs) are integral parts of right-to-know and emergency preparedness requirements. A compilation of "Love Canal Internet Resources" was developed and is maintained to provide full text (when available) online access to a variety of types of information: Online Articles; Announcements, Press Releases; Miscellaneous Image Files (maps, photographs, animations), and links to other "General and Environmental Health Internet Resources." The following is a list of those Love Canal-specific web resources. Online Articles, Research Summaries, and Media Resources {6 rms, toxic canal vu} (scroll to this title from U.S. News & World Report, September 15, 1997) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/970915/15out2.htm {ATSDR Pubic Health Assessment of the Hooker--102nd Street Site, Niagara Falls, Niagara County, New York -- Summary} {Environmental Contamination and Other Hazards} -- {Conclusions} -- {Appendices} {Children of Love Canal} (Rachel's Hazardous Waste News #104, November 21, 1988) {Despite toxic history, residents return to Love Canal} http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/07/love.canal/ {EPA National Priority Site Fact Sheet -- Love Canal} Provided by EPA Region 2 (New York City) {EPA Wants to Rename Love Canal Sunrise City} (Rachel's Hazardous Waste News #133, June 13 1989) http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn133.htm {Habitability of the Love Canal Area} Full-text (PDF format, 960K, 62-pages) NTIS report (PB84-114917), June 1983. Sub title: An Analysis of the Technical Basis for the Decision on the Habitability of the Emergency Declaration Area -- A Technical Memorandum. U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, OTA-TM-M-13 http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/specialcollections/lovecanal/documents/pdfs/habit1.pdf {History of the Love Canal} http://www.essential.org/cchw/lovcanal/lcsum.html {How Industry Survived Love Canal} (Rachel's Hazardous Waste News #186, June 20, 1990) http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn186.htm {Key Dates and Events at Love Canal} http://www.essential.org/orgs/cchw/lovcanal/lcdates.html {Learning from Love Canal: A 20th Anniversary Retrospective} by Lois Marie Gibbs http://arts.envirolink.org/arts_and_activism/LoisGibbs.html Living on Earth http://www.loe.org/ (transcripts of older features are at {http://www.loe.org/shows/}) {Love Canal Today} http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=98-P13-00031#feature8 {The Love Canal Disaster: An Error in Engineering or Public Policy} (includes sound files of survivors stories) http://ethics.cwru.edu/CONTEST/Canal/love_canal.html {Love Canal Rally Postponed} (Rachel's Hazardous Waste News #138, July 18, 1989) http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn138.htm EPA Records of Decision on the Love Canal Abstracts for the EPA Records of Decision on Love Canal are provided online in full-text formats. A second site also provides access to {Love Canal RODs} (http://www.epa.gov/oerrpage/superfund/sites/rodsites/0201290.htm). {5/6/85} http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods/fulltext/r0285014.pdf {10/26/87} http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods/fulltext/r0288055.pdf {5/15/91} http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods/fulltext/r0291165.pdf} {9/5/96} http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods/fulltext/e0296290.pdf Science Under Siege: How the Environmental Misinformation Campaign Is Affecting Our Laws http://www.weyrich.com/book_reviews/science_siege.html Search the EPA Web Site Enter "Love Canal" in the search box and retrieve 100 quality assurance documents, narrative listings, remediation reports and other official EPA documents on the Love Canal. http://www.epa.gov/epahome/search.html {Shrinking the Policy Process: The Press and the 1980 Love Canal Relocation} (Case Studies in Public Policy and Management, Kennedy School of Government) http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/casetitle.asp?caseNo=644.0 {A States Right to Recover Punitive Damages in a Public Nuisance Action: The Love Canal Case Study} (Touro Environmental Law Journal, vol. 1, 1994) http://www.tourolaw.edu/Publications/EnvironmentalLJ/vol1/part3.html {Studies and Research} Summaries of research conducted at Love Canal or on residents of Love Canal: {New York State Department of Health (NYSDH) Pilot Study (1978)} {Love Canal Health Assessment (1978)} Initial study by Dr. Beverly Paigen {Expanded NYSDH Population Study (1978)} {NYSDH Low Birth Weight Study (1978)} {EPA Cytotoxicity Study (1980)} {Paigen Follow-up Study (1980)} {NYSDH Cancer Study (1981)} {CDC Cytotoxicity Study (1981)} {Love Canal Health study (1997)} Conducted by the NYSDH {Superfund Fact Book} Congressional Research Service Report for Congress htpp://www.cnie.org/nle/waste-1.html {Toxic Niagara: After 20 Years, Niagara's Leaking Hazardous Waste Sites Are Still Not Cleaned Up (and Never Will Be)} (December/January 1997, Hazardous Materials Management) http://www.hazmatmag.com/library/articles/1296.html {Was Anyone Harmed at Love Canal? Yes, Children Were} (Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, #276, March 11, 1992) http://www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn276.htm {What Happened at Love Canal?} An essay for an undergraduate engineering class. http://cems.alfred.edu/students98/allansm/Onemoretry.html {What Price Love Canal? An Unhappy Anniversary} http://www.healthfactsandfears.org/news/newsID.681/news_detail.asp (Priorities for Health, 10(4), 1998 Announcements, Press Releases, Miscellaneous {Governor Pataki Announces EPA Funding for Health Study Related to Love Canal} (12/95) http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/older_years/epa.html {Information About the "Return to Love Canal"} A Brief history and 30-second audio file http://soundprint.org/documentaries/more_info/love_canal.phtml {Love Canal is Everywhere: The Pervasive Threat of Dioxin} (February 21, 1996, Cascadia Planet) http://www.tnews.com/text/dioxin.html {National Priority Site Fact Sheet - Love Canal} http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/0201290c.htm {Superfund Relocation Information} http://www.epa.gov/oerrpage/superfund/tools/topics/relocation/ (a series of EPA documents specific to the topic of relocating stakeholders to remediated sites on Superfund lists) Image Files In Our Own Backyard: The First Love Canal (59 minute, award-winning video) http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/lc.html {CNN Interactive: Video Almanac - 1980} http://www.cnn.com/resources/video.almanac/1980/index2.html Lois Gibbs and The Love Canal (1982) (a 95 minute video starring Marsha Mason) {http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084262/ {http://www.videoflicks.com/titles/1012/1012608.htm?SHOW=1&TYPE=0&ASSN=V00001&ESID=XUUCUGARAVECAEAXXAUUUU} {A Cyber Tour of Love Canal} University at Buffalo's Science and Engineering Library virtual tour of Love Canal -- from an information perspective. {http://web.globalserve.net/~spinc/atomcc/today.htm} {Love Canal -- Funny Name, Sticky Mess} (EPA site for middle school students and teachers) {EDF Chemical ScoreCard - Hazardous Waste Sites, Niagara Falls, NY} http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/county-map.tcl?image_id=36063d {TV Nation Volume 1, 1994} Go house shopping with Michael Moore http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129418/ If readers know of any Love Canal Web site, not provided on this list, please let us know and we will add it to our "Love Canal @ 20" Cyber Exhibit.