Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY

A.37 Love Canal, Niagara Falls, NY

A.37.1 Contacts

EPA Western New York Public Information Office, 716-551-4410 ext.186

A.37.2 Summary

Environment:	River/Creek
Scale:	Full
Contaminants of Concern:	Volatile organics, dioxin, metals, PAHs, pesticides
Source Control Achieved Prior to Remedy Selection?	Yes
Final Remedy:	Excavation
MNR viewed as a success?	NA

A.37.3 Site Description

Location: The Love Canal site is located in the southeast corner of the city of Niagara Falls, New York. The 70-acre site is enclosed by a fence. It encompasses the original 16-acre hazardous waste landfill and a 10-square-block area surrounding it. The site is approximately ¼ mile north of the Niagara River and 3 miles upstream of the intake tunnels for the Niagara Falls water treatment facility. The primary source of contamination at this site was improper disposal of over 21,000 tons of various chemical wastes.

The site includes the original canal that was excavated by William Love in the 1890s for a proposed hydroelectric power project but was never implemented. Beginning in 1942, the landfill was used by Hooker Chemicals and Plastics (now Occidental Chemical Corporation) for the disposal of over 21,000 tons of various chemical wastes, including halogenated organics, pesticides, chlorobenzenes, and dioxin. Dumping ceased in 1952, and in 1953, the landfill was covered and deeded to the Niagara Falls Board of Education (NFBE). In 1950, the 93^rd Street School was built less than one mile northwest of the Love Canal, and in 1954, the 99^th Street School was built adjacent to the middle portion of the Canal. Subsequently, the area near the landfill was extensively developed, including the construction of numerous homes.

Problems with odors and residues, first reported in the 1960s, increased during the 1970s, as the water table rose, bringing contaminated groundwater to the surface. Studies indicated that numerous toxic chemicals had migrated into the surrounding area directly adjacent to the original landfill disposal site. Runoff drained into the Niagara River, approximately three miles upstream of the intake tunnels for the Niagara Falls water treatment plant. Dioxin and other contaminants migrated from the landfill to the existing sewers, which had outfalls into nearby creeks.

Approximately 950 families were evacuated from a 10-square-block area surrounding the landfill. FEMA was directly involved in property purchase and residential relocation activities. In 1980, the neighborhoods adjacent to the site were identified as the Emergency Declaration Area (EDA), which is approximately 350 acres and is divided into seven areas of concern. The Love Canal area is served by a public water supply system; the City of Niagara Falls water treatment plant serves 77,000 people. The site is ¼ mile north of the Niagara River.

A.37.4 Remedial Approach

The site was addressed in seven stages: initial actions and six major long-term action phases, focusing on 1) landfill containment with leachate collection, treatment, and disposal; 2) excavation and interim storage of the sewer and creek sediments; 3) final treatment and disposal of the sewer and creek sediments and other Love Canal wastes; 4) remediationThe act or process of abating, cleaning up, containing, or removing a substance (usually hazardous or infectious) from an environment. of the 93^rd Street School soils; 5) emergency declaration area (EDA) home maintenance and technical assistance by the Love Canal Area Revitalization Agency (LCARA), the agency implementing the Love Canal Land Use Master Plan; and, 6) buyout of homes and other properties in the EDA by LCARA.

In May 1985, USEPA began remediation of sewers, creeks, and berms by performing the following tasks:

hydraulically cleaning sewers
removal and disposal of the contaminated sediments
inspecting the sewers for defects that could allow contaminants to migrate
limiting access, dredging, and hydraulically cleaning the Black Creek culverts
removing and storing Black and Bergholtz creeks’ contaminated sediments

The state cleaned 62,000 linear feet of storm and sanitary sewers in 1986 and an additional 6,000 in 1987. In 1989, Black and Bergholtz creeks were dredged of approximately 14,000 yd³ of sediments. Clean riprap was placed in the creek beds, and the banks were replanted with grass. Prior to final disposal, the sewer and creek sediments and other wastes (35,000 yd³) were stored at the Occidental Niagara Falls RCRA-permitted facilities.

In October 1987, the USEPA selected a remedy to address the destruction and disposal of the dioxin contaminated sediments from the sewers and creeks: 1) construction of an on-site facility to dewater and contain the sediments; 2) construction of a separate facility to treat the dewatered contaminants through high temperature thermal destruction; 3) thermal treatment of the residuals stored at the site from the leachate treatment facility and other associated Love Canal waste materials; and, 4) on-site disposal of any nonhazardous residuals from the thermal treatment or incineration process.

A.37.5 Monitoring

In September 2008, the USEPA issued a second Five-Year Review Report that showed that the remedies implemented at the site adequately control exposures of site contaminants to human and environmental receptors to the extent necessary for the protection of human health and the environment.

RAOs/project objectives achieved? The site was deleted from the National Priorities List on September 30, 2004.

A.37.6 Costs

As part of a legal settlement, Occidental and the United States Army have agreed to reimburse the federal government’s past response costs, related directly to response actions taken at the site. The primary portion of Occidental’s reimbursement is $129 million. The United States Army agreed to reimburse $8 million of the Federal government’s past response costs.

A.37.7 References

USEPA Superfund Information Systems, Superfund Site Information.http://cfpub.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.CleanupActs&id=0201290.

USEPA, Love Canal NPL Listing History. http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/npl/0201290c.pdf.

Publication Date: August 2014

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