Suits claim Love Canal still oozing 35 years later

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By CAROLYN THOMPSON

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - Thirty-five years after Love Canal's oozing toxic waste scared away a neighborhood and became a symbol of environmental catastrophe, history could be repeating itself.

New residents, attracted by promises of cleaned-up land and affordable homes, say in lawsuits that they are being sickened by the same buried chemicals from the disaster in the Niagara Falls neighborhood in the 1970s.

"We're stuck here. We want to get out," said 34-year-old Dan Reynolds, adding that he's been plagued by mysterious rashes and other ailments since he moved into the four-bedroom home purchased a decade ago for $39,900.

His wife, Teresa, said she's had two miscarriages and numerous unexplained cysts.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131102/DA9QIO0G0.html

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In this Aug. 4, 1978 file photo, children play in the front yard of their home on 99th Street in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y. The children's parents were among irate homeowners whose property was built over a former dumping site for toxic chemicals. (AP Photo/TK)



In this Oct. 29, 2013 photo, barrels block a road next to the fence that surrounds a buried chemical dump in the uninhabitable area of the Niagara Falls, N.Y. neighborhood once known as Love Canal. Thirty-five years after Love Canal’s oozing toxic waste forced the abandonment of the area, a new generation of residents say history could be repeating itself. A half dozen families say in three pending lawsuits that they’re being sickened by the same buried chemicals that forced residents out of the area in the 1970s. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

[DeSwiss]

1. One of Capitalism's many poisoning murder scenes.

- K&R

[CFLDem]

6. Uh huh

And environmental disasters don't happen under other economic systems?

[DeSwiss]

7. Not with the total disregard....

...and ignorance of other systems. No one can match the sheer scale of Capitalism's vast stupidity in focusing ONLY upon profit.

- This, from a supposedly advanced/intelligent society, we try and justify this shit:

[CFLDem]

9. The only difference between

Capitalist destruction of the environment and Collective destruction is that collectives use an ideology to justify destroying the environment for profit, while profit is the ideology for capitalist destruction.

Six in one hand, half-dozen in the other.

[freshwest]

2. The entire area should have been condemned and never been allowed to redevelop. The low price

should have been a tip off. The developer should be sued into the next life. The area is like an atomic test site and should be treated the same way. JMHO!

[diane in sf]

3. I agree

[valerief]

5. Agreed, but our laissez faire govt only encourages exploitation of consumers when there's a dollar

to be made.

[adirondacker]

4. It's perfectly safe...

"A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, while declining to address the lawsuits, called the area "the most sampled piece of property on the planet."

"The canal has not leaked," spokesman Mike Basile said. "The monitoring and containment system is as effective today" as when first installed.

But Reynolds and others say danger continues to brew beyond the 70-acre fenced-in containment area, pointing to the discovery of chemicals during a 2011 sewer excavation project. According to the lawsuits, crews worsened the contamination by using high-powered hoses to flush the chemicals through the streets and storm drains.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation concluded the contamination, 20 feet below ground, was an isolated pocket left over from before remediation and hadn't recently leaked from the canal.

snip

"It's like a gated community for chemicals." "

Perfect, we should oust the likes of the Koch brothers out of Park Ave and move them into the neighborhood.

[rwsanders]

8. I've worked with federal and state employees, they try to be "good"...

but like the Chris Hedges article that says the scary thing about most of the Germans that participated in the Holocaust is how "normal" they were, i.e. just "doing their job".
Same thing. I'd never trust my health or that of my family to them. Sad these people were so naive.
Of course my cynical side says we'll see interviews with them and they'll start their statement with that infamous line "I used to think environmentalists were wackos".

[jmowreader]

10. I take it the Disclosure laws in New York State need a little work

What part of "there is a reason there's an eight-foot-high barbed wire fence around an area three blocks from your house" didn't make it into these morons' real estate contracts?

[adirondacker]

11. I don't blame the poor for being uneducated. The area should either be a Billionaire gated community

or a golf course. Not a residential community for the working poor.