The history of Love Canal began in 1892 when William T. Love proposed connecting the upper and lower Niagara River by digging a canal six to seven miles long. Love abandoned the project after an economic depression, leaving behind a partially dug section of the canal, sixty feet wide and three thousand feet long.

The land became a municipal and chemical disposal site, principally by Hooker Chemical Corporation, as well as by the City of Niagara and the United States Army. In 1953, after filling the canal and covering it with dirt, Hooker sold the land to the Board of Education for one dollar and included in the deed transfer a “warning” of the chemical wastes buried on the property and a disclaimer absolving Hooker of any future liability.

Perhaps because they didn’t understand the potential risks associated with Hooker’s chemical wastes, the Board of Education built an elementary school on the property. The 99th Street School was completed by 1955, and other construction began as well. In 1978, there were approximately 800 private single-family homes and 240 low-income apartments built around the canal. The community consisted of blue-collar workers with an average annual income of $10,000 – $25,000.

Homeowners were never given any warning that their property was located near a chemical waste dump. From the late 1950s through the 1970s, people repeatedly complained of odors and substances surfacing near or in their yards and on the school playground. The city, responding to these complaints, visited the area and covered the “substances” with dirt or clay.

Finally, the city and county hired a consultant to investigate. In 1976, the Calspan Corporation found toxic chemical residues in the air and sump pumps of many homes at the southern end of the canal. They also found drums just beneath or on the surface, and high levels of PCBs in the storm sewer system. But the city did not follow Calspan’s mitigation recommendations.

In March of 1978, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) began collecting air and soil tests in basements and conducting a health study of the families that immediately encircled the canal. The Health Department found an increase in reproductive problems among women and high levels of chemical contaminants in soil and air.