In 1979, the situation at a town called Love Canal was declared a state of emergency. How did such an isolated place in New York become a national devastation? In the 1890s, William T. Love started a project of digging a canal from Niagara River to Lake Ontario, but the canal was never completed. Hooker Chemical Company bought it, and used the land as a landfill for their chemical waste. They later sold it to the Niagara Falls School District, which was looking for more land to build an elementary school, but only after 21,000 tons of harmful chemicals were dumped and buried under a clay cap. They built many homes near the dump, and broke the clay cap. Soon, the people living near the canal started to complain about strange diseases, miscarriages, and residue seeping into their basements. A local resident, Lois Gibbs, started the Love Canal's Homeowners Association and led rallies to persuade the government to inspect their area. Soon, Love Canal started gaining national attention and in 1978, Love Canal was named a state of emergency. The residents were soon told to …show more content…
leave the area, and the government paid them back money for the homes that they lost. Ever since the cleanup of Love Canal, the north side of the area has been renovated and resold. However, many people at Love Canal still don't believe it is safe.
Dan and Teresa Reynolds have been experiencing many health issues, such as mysterious rashes since they moved to Love Canal. Teresa has also had 2 miscarriages. They were persuaded to buy their current home because they were told that Love Canal was "safe" after the cleanup. When Lois Gibbs, the head of the Love Canal Homeowner's Association returned to the site 35 years after she moved out, she said that "it was weird to hear them say the same things that I was saying 35 years ago." The situation now at Love Canal is the same as the situation that they had 35 years earlier. The old Love Canal gained national attention and was declared an environmental emergency. The residents are having the same health issues as they did 35 years ago. That proves that the situation now at Love Canal is still not clean enough for residents to live
there. The cleanup of the area may have cleaned some things, but one thing still remains the same: The 20,000 tons of waste that were originally dumped are still buried at the center of Love Canal. Remember, these wastes have many chemicals that can cause diseases, with 11 of those chemicals related to cancer. The chemicals are still buried under the clay, and the current residents are still in danger of getting sick. Outside of the 70 acre fenced in containment area, pockets of harmful chemicals still exist. In 2011, a sewage excavation project found a pocket of chemicals ½ mile from the site and 20 feet below ground. The crews made the contamination even worse when they used hoses to flush the chemicals through the storm drains. Later, the Department of Environmental Conservation stated that the contamination was left from the contamination and hadn't recently leaked from the canal. At around the same time, a local resident found black residue in their basement. This might have came from chemicals outside of the 70 acre area, right in their backyard. That means that the residents are still very close to the chemicals, which still isn't safe for the residents. In conclusion, the area of Love Canal, now renamed Black Creek Village, is still an unsafe place to live. The residents are still much too close to the chemicals, and they are getting sick from it. There still might be many other isolated areas of chemicals outside of the fenced in area that could be in their very own backyard. This is just as big of a disaster as the original Love Canal disaster. Love Canal is still not safe for the residents.
At the beginning, may be the intentions were changing through its construction process. But it certainly the canal had the support of workers and opposition on top of this many people. A interesting aspect I could say it is that The Erie cans was financed by the New York Stated and...
The Erie Canal was a man made water way that stretched to be three hundred sixty three miles long. The canal started construction in1817, and took nine years to completely finish the building process. People during this time had many positive, and negative opinions about the fact that this expensive canal was being built. The idea of the Erie Canal originates with Jesse Hawley, the idea was to connect the great lakes to the Atlantic ocean making an easy path to the west from the east without having to pass Niagara Falls. The canal was mostly built by Irish immigrants who were hated, or disliked, by most people. People had ideas and predictions about what would come of this canal. Let's just see which of the predictions were more accurate to
After his completion of the Delaware Park and Parkway system with Calvert Vaux throughout Buffalo, New York, Frederick Law Olmsted declared Buffalo as “the best planned city, as to its streets, public places and grounds, in the United States, if not the world.” Inspired largely by the baroque styling of Paris, France, Olmstead wished to create a park within urban Buffalo but rather put the city of Buffalo in a park system. The parks were non-gated and easily accessible for all patrons creating an ever changing green space across an urban vista. Olmsted’s plan only added value to the existing urban fabric consisting of numerous natural and architectural landmarks. Buffalo had prized itself as a commercial and industrial hub at this time. It’s location on the Buffalo River and Lake Erie made it a viable center for railroads and grain-milling. After posting rapid population growth between the early 1800’s and 1950, reaching a high of 580,000 civilians within a metropolitan region of one million, one would be surprised to see the cities condition today. After posting 6 straight decades of population decline, the urban fabric that was once a center for industry and commerce has become like one of many rust belt cities that have struggled to remain proficient in the twenty-first century. The collapse of the grain-mill industry may have been the most crippling to Buffalo’s economy. Today the shorelines of the Buffalo River are besieged by the abandoned grain silos that once defined its skyline and are often in disarray. Shipping through Buffalo became obsolete with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the railways once vital to the harbor area were superseded by other forms of travel. For the last several decades, poverty, segregat...
In Chicago’s early days of rising to become a major US city, its population exploded, causing the city to modernize quickly and businesses to cut corners to keep their edge. The river soon became the dumping ground for both sewage and toxic waste dumped by the slaughter houses. By demand of citizens, a canal was built “which later would be named the Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal (Hansen, pg. 41). The proposed canal “called for an excavation that woul...
People in the northern United States during the early nineteenth century wanted to rapidly industrialize and increase the amount of money they were making. The Erie Canal they believed was a great way to reduce the distance and time of shipping goods to the west. They also realized that the canal would probably increase their markets, which would mean a larger profit. The problem with all of this was how people had to destroy parts of nature in order for this to happen. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a prominent writer during the time, described the canal as “too rapid, unthinking advance of progress.” (57) Hawthorne and his supporters were very upset to see how forests and swamps were being destroyed and ruined in order t...
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs 363 miles from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks which allows a boat to go from one level of a water to another level lower by raising the water level in one section which lets the boat move from one lock to the next. By doing this, the Erie Canal makes a once non-accessible waterway a common mean of transportation for both goods and people.
Within the neighborhood of Los Feliz lives the famous land mark Griffith park. The creamy white building with three prominent black domes, attracts many men, women, and children, which includes locals and tourists. Since it is free admission, people of all social classes are welcome to take advantage and utilize it. Its location can allow it to be well suited for multiple purposes in which different types of people can utilize it for today. The Griffith park provides the Los Angeles area with the opportunity to see beyond what meets the eye while having fun and spending quality time with friends and family.
Many of the Chesapeake Bay’s inhabitants are unaware of the destruction they are triggering. The Chesapeake Bay is a local estuary in the watershed near our home in Loudoun County Virginia. With its monumental size, various problems occurring are anticipated. Pollution is the leading factor in this great body of water’s downfall. Without proper control being taken, this neighboring site of leisure, food resource, and tourist income will suffer and continue to decline. The cleanliness of the Chesapeake Bay is declining over time causing harm to many species that call the Bay their home.
The Chesapeake bay is a home to millions of people and animals. The Chesapeake Bay holds more than 15 trillion gallons of water,also supports 348 species of finfish and 173 species of shellfish, and produces more than 500 million pounds of seafood harvest each year.The Chesapeake Bay watershed spans more than 64,000 square miles.Watersheds are sometimes called “basins” or “drainage basins,home to over 17 million people.The Chesapeake Bay is 165759.24 in square km’. The Chesapeake Bay watershed 2000 years ago was much more healthier than it is now. They had maple, oak,hickory, and beech, and evergreens, hemlock, spruce, and fir plants.The Chesapeake Bay also had many different types of animals.The Bay's waters are dominated by oysters, clams
In the 1930’s before the Love Canal area was turned into neighborhoods, the Hooker Chemical Company purchased the area and used it as a burial site for 20,000 metric tons of chemicals. In 1953 the Hooker Chemical Company sold the land to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for $1.00. There was a stipulation in the deed, which stated that if anyone incurred physical harm or death because of their buried wastes, they would not be responsible. Shortly after, the land changed hands yet again and this time home building began directly adjacent to the canal. Families who bought homes here were unaware of the waste buried in their backyards.
For centuries the meaning behind leisure has inmensably changed and what was done during the free time changed as well with the new creations and the help of renovating technology. During the 1950s free time was a luxury that would be spent with family or if the person was of high class it would be spend drinking tea and gossiping with their friends. If lower class people spent their luxurious time drinking tea and gossiping they were considered Free time went from being a luxury to current time where leisure is for the public and not just a group or status. More often than not though in the 2000s people are too consumed into their jobs to take time and enjoy the public activities that are given and sometimes it is taken for granted when past centuries would have appreciated them. As time has passed the Coney Island became a part of history were it contains a documented experience of all its workers and their contributions to Coney Island.
The New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan: Vision 2020, at the time of its production, presented the next steps for planning and developing the New York City’s waterfront. Following the 1992 New York City Comprehensive Plan, which was the first time in the history of New York that a long-range vision plan was created for the entire city shoreline, the 2011 plan rethought the water’s edge as a place not only for commercial and economic purposes but for people and community as well.
Central Park is a magnififcent urban wonder created by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. The park includes a lake, a zoo, bird watching, trails, a picnic area, statues, ice skating, a mall, a conservatory garden. You can also ride the ponies, climb a castle, and watch Shakespeare. This famous park is deeply rooted and intertwined with the history of New York. In the 1840s the urbanization of Manhattan was on full swing. This motivated poet editor William Cullen Bryant and the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing to do something about it. Their views gained widespread support from the public mostly due to the already magnificent parks in London and Paris. In 1856 most of the present day park was bought by the New York legislature.
The Big Apple is really starting to heat up with summer activities and events this weekend! From parades to food festivals to art shows and everything else in between, there’s definitely something for everyone this weekend in NYC. Here’s a quick look at just a few of the top events and activities to enjoy for the weekend of June 17 – 18 in New York City!
The dominant narrative views the bridge as a legendary destination, however, to the locals, it symbolizes much more than just a view, it represents grief.