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Love Canal: community vulnerability and human-induced environmental disaster
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2018-05
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Goldstein_Honors.pdf
Adobe PDF, 96.54 KB
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This case study paper will examine the causes and effects of the human-induced environmental
disaster at Love Canal. It will specifically highlight the significant impact it had on a lower
income, working class neighborhood. Lower income communities tend to have less power and
less resource accessibility, which in turn creates their enhanced vulnerability when a disaster
strikes. In 1978, it was discovered that hazardous waste had contaminated homes and schools in
the Love Canal area, a former chemical landfill which later became a 15 acre neighborhood in
the City of Niagara Falls in Western New York. On August 7, 1978, the United States President
Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency at the Love Canal. It became the first man-made
disaster to receive emergency funds from the federal government to remedy an industrial
disaster. Lessons to take away from this environmental tragedy include the significant leadership
role of local resident, Lois Gibbs in the environmental justice movement and the proper disposal
of hazardous waste for the protection of the public health and the environment.
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