Monday, April 17, 2017
Love Canal
The Love Canal was a stretch of land in New York that was used for dumping chemicals. The land was owned by chemical companies. Afterwards the company sold the land to a developer which built houses on it. Kids started getting sick and birth defects were occurring due to all these chemicals. The government only rehoused 200 families that were closest to the site. Other families right across the streets weren't allowed to move without getting free housing. This caused parents to come together and lock government officials in a house to demand the president to allow them to move. This was successful with allowing all the families to move. It also led to 30,000 other toxic sites in the USA.
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I personally think that the company that bought the land and used it for housing should have been the ones to move the families because they knowingly bought the land from chemical companies.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happened to the company as consequence of this awful way to dispose of waste. Did they have to pay a fine or were they put out of business? What are the consequences of doing something like this today? I think this case along with others has shaped consumer and client rights to information when it comes to products and property. Today if you buy a piece of land or rent or buy a house you are informed of this along with other information that increases and decreases the value of property. What are the downsides to this and what are the positives?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Trevor, the housing industry should have taken blame for allowing so many people to be in harms way. They should have provided all families with this information or have moved them out of that area. It was definable a sad event because many had suffered the consequences but did the housing industry ever? What was their punishment for hiding this from the public.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other responses...it seems like a housing company knowingly built houses on a land purchased by chemical companies- the land was probably very cheap and they thought that they would be able to make easy money with no consequences.
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