30th Anniversary of Love Canal
While researching something else this morning, I discovered that it’s been 30 years since Love Canal, NY was evacuated and declared a Federal disaster area. Around the first of the month, there was some coverage by the Associated Press and other media outlets. Here’s a sample:
- Scars linger in Love Canal – and former residents — Associated Press, August 1, 2008
- The lessons of Love Canal lost unless Superfund is fixed — New York Daily News, August 7, 2008. Opinion piece by Lois Marie Gibbs, one of the Love Canal residents who spearheaded the community effort to get the state and federal governments to do something about the problem.
- On Love Canal Anniversary, Regional Institute Looks at WNY’s Environmental Burden — University of Buffalo Regional Institute, August 6, 2008. News release announcing the publication of a policy brief entitled Thirty Years from Love Canal that looks at the effect the disaster has had on environmental policy and public awareness.
For some historical perspective, see:
- The Long History of a Toxic-Waste Nightmare, a timeline published by the New York Times on the tenth anniversary in 1988.
- The Love Canal Tragedy — EPA Journal, January 1979. Piece by Eckardt C. Beck, who was U.S. EPA Region 2 administrator from 1977-1979.
- The Love Canal Collections, an online archive of documents and press clippings from the University of Buffalo Library.