19781776 Club
Carter declares a federal emergency over a buried chemical dump under a Niagara Falls neighborhood
Backyards had turned to black trees and burst drums; 800 homes now sit atop 19,800 tonnes of Hooker Chemical's waste.
By 1977, families in the Love Canal section of Niagara Falls were reporting chemical odors, bursting waste drums, and children coming home from the schoolyard with burns on their hands. The land had been a Hooker Chemical dumping ground until 1952, then sold to the school board for one dollar and built over with homes and a school. In September 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency, opening the way for evacuation and cleanup. It was the first time federal disaster funds had been used for anything other than a natural disaster…
