In 1894 William T. Love started digging to create a canal from Niagara River to Lake Ontario. He wanted to build an electro-hydraulic power plant to service the city of Niagara Falls. He ran out of funds around the time of the great depression late 20’s. In 1947 he ended up auctioning off this property with a huge 16-arce hole to Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation. They started filling it up with Chemical waste and toxins in metal drums. They filled it with close to 22,000 tons of waste. They covered it with dirt and sold it to the county of Niagara for $1. They built a school and a playground on this site. Then built a community of homes around it.
Not far away a young girl was barely graduating from high school. It didn’t matter to her because she just wanted to get married and raise a family. When Lois Gibbs got married her and her husband bought a house in this community and started raising their family. Everything was fine except her children had a lot of health issues. Her son got asthma at a very young age, serious urinary infections and epilepsy at 9. With that, she went to the school to see if they could accommodate him. Lois Gibbs noticed the department of health survey the area as she walked into the school and asked the principal about this. The principal responded, that “there were articles in the Niagara Journal had a few articles a couple weeks back about the chemicals buried under the school and they were seeping out and causing health problems.” She said, “Isn’t that ridiculous and a waste of tax-payers money.” Lois was so sure it was ridiculous. She didn’t get the paper but went to the library to read them.
She was horrified to find all the aliments caused by these chemicals including everything her children had and cancers, leukemia, liver and kidney failure, birth defects and more. She asked a neighbor what he thought. He said, “They’ll say anything to sell newspapers.” She decided to talk to the author herself and went to the journal. The author told her that he spent a lot of time on the article and he didn’t print lies. He gave her the name of the biologist who was doing the research on these effects.
Lois just wanted to get her kids out of that school. She went to the school board and they told her it was against the rules. He would have to do that for everyone. She finally went to see the biologist. The biologist told her she had plenty for her to read but she had to start a petition to close the school. “Close the school? for how long?” Lois asked. Maybe 500 years the biologist responded. “I would sign a petition but I barely have a high school diploma I wouldn’t know the first thing about starting a petition. I just want to get my kids out of there.” Lois said. The biologist shared it was her duty to help the other kids. You don’t want to leave them in the school and you are the only one who has shown interest.
Lois took the documents and started to read. She found out there was 247 different chemicals including benzoyl and dioxin. She went door to door and got the signature. She was invited to an EPA meeting at the capitol in Albany 4 hours away. She went with her husband and friend. They meeting had a few hundred people and the EPA officer shared they were about to close the school Lois had petitioned and they asked the children under the age of 2 and pregnant mothers to evacuate the area. Lois’s friend shouted out. “I have a 2 year old daughter what about her and I had a stillborn and a miscarriage what about me.” They didn’t answer her. Lois yelled out, “Answer her.” They didn’t. She yelled out again. They said that by the age of 2 a child’s immune system is developed. Lois yelled out, that is not good enough. What about the rest of us. Lois was so enraged she was forcefully escorted out of the meeting but she made national news.
When she got home she was cheered and honored as a hero. Her neighbors started a home owners association and made her president. They wanted compensation to move out. That was in 1978. It took Lois 2 years. A lawsuit against the chemical company and the county to compensate for health issues and in 1980 President Jimmy Carter agreed to move out 900 families. Lois won.
Lois Gibbs was then sought after for her expertise. She started the Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste now known as the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. She continues to serve as the Executive Director.
Lois has won many Environment Awards and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Price in 2003.
She was honor with college degrees including a doctorate.
For more information on this topic, youtube has the Story of the Love Canal.