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Continuing the Promise of Earth Day (continued)
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Love Canal resident protests toxic dangers
An Unexpected By-product of the Industrial Age
Love Canal graphically presented the nation with a problem that had been largely ignored for a number of decades.
By the middle of the 20th century, U.S. industry and American consumers had come to expect products and processes that required the manufacturing of complex chemicals. A booming economy produced an ever-expanding selection of synthetic fibers, plastics, fuels, fertilizers, drugs, and pesticides.
Industry concentrated on the production of these goods -- not on developing technologies to safely dispose of the wastes. Too often, chemical residues were simply burned into the air or discharged into the oceans, waterways, or municipal sewers. The foul air and water that resulted from these practices helped to inspire the first Earth Day -- and the worst excesses were addressed by early environmental legislation. Laws like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act regulated the introduction of new pollutants into the nation's air and water.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the tried and true method of disposing waste was simply to hide it away, usually by burying it in the ground. This same solution was applied in the 20th century. However, now the chemicals had become more complex and the byproducts much more dangerous and persistent. Following the old strategy of "out of sight-out of mind," these new types of hazardous wastes were pumped into drums or tank cars -- and then dumped into unused corners of plants, trenches, or landfills. This is what occurred at Love Canal -- beginning a chain of events that brought the dangers of hazardous waste sites into national prominence.
