Superfund Precedents

Love Canal, a small community near Niagra Falls, New York, is one of the early examples of a national controversy and environmental notoriety. Originally designed to be a ‘model city’, Love Canal lost much of its funding, became a dumping site for the city during the 1920’s, and later a chemical waste site during the 1940’s. 21,000 tons of toxic waste were buried in the abandoned “Love Canal” between 1942 and 1952, by Hooker Chemical. The City of Niagra Falls consequently allowed homes and a school to be built on this site, despite awareness of the hazardous materials. Consequently, a public health emergency was issued; burns, diseases, and birth defects were just some of the ensuing outcomes. “Among its legacies, Love Canal will likely long endure as a national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations. It was indeed a situation where the inhabitants of Love Canal "overflowed into the wastes instead of the other way around.”

Love Canal is an important case study because of its role with respect to the history of Superfunds and CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act) . The public outcry and devastating repercussions from this environmental disaster helped spur the national efforts to address toxic contamination of land.

Time Beach was a town outside of St. Louis, MO that was completely evacuated in 1983 because of a dioxin scare that became the subject of national controversy. The town, founded in 1925, had a dust problem, and in the 1970’s the roads were sprayed with oil and later paved. The oil contained dioxin levels, and later emerged in the 1980’s during a devastating flood. The town was subsequently evacuated, and all residents were forced to abandon their homes due to the imminent threats of the chemicals.

Times Beach is an important case study because of its role with respect to the history of Superfunds and CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act). The public outcry and devastating repercussions from this environmental disaster helped spur the national efforts to address toxic contamination of land.

The Picillo Pig Farm, in Coventry Rhode Island, was a 100-acre farm that literally exploded in 1977, and became Rhode Island’s first official Superfund site. The farm had become a dumping site of illegal chemicals during the 1970’s, which were discovered in

1977 when part of the farm exploded into an inferno that was visible for miles around. The brownfield site has since been signed into a project agreement with Allco Renewable Energy Group to turn the farm into a $45 million solar energy farm. Plans (as of 2008) include hundreds or 3x5 foot solar panels that would be motorized to face the sun, generating up to 8 megawatts of electricity. This proposal is currently the largest project planned for east of the Mississippi