Introduction

William T Love plan to build a model industrial city.Since the technology of the time
allows only for transmission of power by direct current, economical only over short
distance, the Niagara Falls region, rich in hydroelectric power, is deal. He starts to dig
one of several planned canals, then is stymied by recession and the development of
altering current 1894 . Love goes bankrupt

By the 1940s, Hooker Electrochemical Company (later known as Hooker Chemical

Company) founded by Elon Hooker, began searching for a place to dump the rampant
amount of chemical waste it was producing. Hooker was granted permission by the
Niagara Power and Development Company in 1942 to dump wastes in the canal. During
this time, 21,000 tons of chemicals such as "caustics, alkalines, fatty acids and
chlorinated hydrocarbons from the manufacturing of dyes, perfumes, solvents for rubber
and synthetic resins" were added.[7] These chemicals were buried at a depth of twenty to
twenty-five feet.

Sale of site
At the time of the dump's closure, Niagara Falls was entering an economic boom and the
population had surpassed 85,000, with the population expanding at record percentages.
The Niagara Falls City School District needed land to build new schools, and attempted
to purchase the property from Hooker Chemical that had been used to bury toxic waste.
The corporation refused to sell, citing safety concerns, and took members of the school
board to the canal and drilled several bore holes to demonstrate that there were toxic
chemicals below the surface. However, the board refused to capitulate. Eventually, faced
with the property being condemned and/or expropriated, Hooker Chemical agreed to sell
on the condition that the board buy the entire property for one dollar. In the agreement
signed on April 28, 1953, Hooker included a seventeen line caveat that explained the
dangers of building on the site. Hooker believed it was thus released from all legal
obligations should lawsuits arise in the future.

Trouble Materializes
In 1977 , chemical started to appear in the basements of nearby houses after
heavy rain, Michael Brown, a repoerter wrote complaints of dizziness , repiratory
problems, a chemical stench , breast cancer, and pets losing their far. on August
9,1978 New York Governor Hugh Carey clared that all 236 families living along
the streets affected would be permanently relocated, at state expense.
Between 1978-80 federal state and local authorities worke with rare cooperation
to get people out of danger
In 1982-83 the house the school the parking lo, and the original playground were
all demolished. By 1990 every thing had been buried and fenced off and state
owned 789 single families home