Love Canal Case Study

Love Canal Love Canal is an abandoned canal project branching off of the Niagara River about four miles south of Niagara Falls. Beginning the 1940’s to early 1950’s, the Hooker Chemical Company, with government authorization, began using the partially excavated canal as a chemical waste dump. At the end of this phase, the contents of the channel consisted of toxic chemicals, including known poisonous carcinogens. Hooker covered the sixteen-acre hazardous waste landfill in clay; selling the land to the Niagara Falls School Board, attempting to release itself from any future liability by including a noted warning in the property deed. There are some critical legal aspects of the Love Canal case. Many civil actions or were brought against Hooker/Occidental during and after the Love Canal event. By the year 1980, Occidental faced over two billion dollars in court cases, mainly from Love Canal; including violations in other parts of the country.
This “business friendly” policy, in 1995, let GE avoid paying a fine and gave the company a tax write-off. The settlement, reached through the program, let General Electric off the hook for permitting an industrial landfill to burn out of control for nearly a year in Waterford, Saratoga County. The deal allowed the company to avoid paying a fine, gave it a $1.5 million tax write off, and resulted in a boat launch being built near the Columbia County residences of former Environmental Conservation Commissioner Michael Zagata and his chief deputy. These “business-friendly” initiatives were later rescinded.