Love Canal is an aborted canal project branching off of the Niagara River about four miles south of Niagara Falls, NY. It is also the name of a fifteen-acre, neighborhood built directly adjacent to the canal. From 1942 to 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, with government sanction, began using the partially dug canal as a chemical waste dump. At the end of this period, the canal contained approx 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals, including at least twelve that are known carcinogens. Hooker covered the 16-acre hazardous waste landfill in clay and sold the land to the Niagara Falls School Board, attempting to absolve itself of any future liability by including a warning in the property deed.
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