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American Experience “Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy of Love Canal” • WXXI-TV

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A white woman with brown shoulder length hair wearing a white cardigan stands in front of a window with her hand on a Black rotary phone. Behind her is a bunch of press people and cameras

Tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families.

American Experience “Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy of Love Canal” airs Sunday, April 28, at 1 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

 In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.

The story of Love Canal began in the late 19th century, when William T. Love, hoping to harness the power of Niagara Falls, began to dig, but later abandoned, an enormous canal. Decades later, in the late 1940s, local company Hooker Chemical decided that Love’s Canal was the perfect site for a waste dump. For nearly a decade, Hooker dumped roughly 22,000 tons of dangerous chemical waste into the defunct waterway, a common disposal practice and one largely unregulated by the local government.

Photo caption:

 Surrounded by the media, Lois Gibbs waits outside the Love Canal Homeowners Association for a phone call from the White House. May 1980.
Credit: Mickey H. Osterreicher

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