Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families. 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.
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ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Love Canal resident Arthur Tracy: I'm 65 years old almost. I'm sick and tired of being a yo-yo. Pulled this way. Pulled that way. Pulled the other way. Somebody's going to say to me, what do you want Mr. Tracy? After 35 years in this Love Canal, I'll tell you what I want. Just give me my 28.5 that you appraised my house for. All I want is my 28.5 and give it to me tonight and I'll go down that road and I'll never look back at the Love Canal again.
Patti Grenzy, Resident: They looked at us as hysterical housewives and they figured, oh, well, they'll give up. They'll go back to their knitting and to their babies and this will blow over. But we were stronger than that.
Barbara Quimby, Resident: It was just such a nice neighborhood. To a child, oh my goodness, we had fun there. A lot of times we would just be more near the school playing baseball or something, but we always ended up where what we called the Black Lagoon.
Patti Grenzy, Resident: On the surface, it had like an oily substance to it, like a green and a blue. And if you, like, drop something into it, it would bubble up and sink. So we called it quicksand.
Lois Gibbs, Resident: I found the house on 101st Street, the one in the Love Canal neighborhood. It was starter homes for the most part. And it was the perfect neighborhood from my perspective. It had the Niagara River to the south. To the north was a creek and the kids could go and walk along the creek and pick up pollywogs or, you know, it was just a cute little very shallow creek, good for children. We moved in with Michael, who was one years-old by then, a healthy little boy, and then we had our little girl. I really believed I achieved so much. I had this house and a husband who was gainfully employed and these beautiful children. You know everything seemed to be fine.
Debbie Cerrillo Curry, Resident: Love Canal was government subsidized. My husband wasn't making very much money and they made that a very tasty little deal to move into. We paid $135 a month to live in a brand new home, which was really unusual. I wasn't going to question it. And so we felt quite lucky that we fell in at the right time.
Luella Kenny, Resident: I lived in Niagara Falls all my life. When I married, my husband was from Niagara Falls. We had two boys and we saw this beautiful brick house in Love Canal with one acre of land all around it and it sat on a creek and it was just, it was just ideal and we were thinking, what a place to raise your children.
Jannie Grant-Freeney, Resident: I moved to the development called Griffon Manor. It was a brand new housing project. A beautiful place. Flowers, the grass was green. There was like a little pond that the kids used to play in and had trees and all of that, and they would swing on the branches and what have you.
Carol Jones, Resident: We had a small yard in the front and in the back we would see, I'm going to call it water, but swamp land that just looked oily. At times It smelled like burnt rubber or a strong cleanser. It was just a foul, foul odor. Often enough to choke you. But we didn't pay that any attention. It was normal to us to smell these smells.
Debbie Cerrillo Curry, Resident: If you were to drive down Buffalo Avenue where all the chemical industries were, you would smell that. My dad worked in the Hooker Chemical. That was the smell we had from our backyard. That's why it was real familiar. It smelled like dad.
CHEMICAL COMPANY ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Narrator: Today and for the years to come the world looks for better things for better living through chemistry. The science that has played a major part in the perfection of practically everything we use.
Richard Newman, Historian: Roughly ten different chemical companies that are situated along the banks of the Niagara River. Before you see the mist of Niagara Falls, you smell all of that chemical production. It permeates the car, it's in the air, it's thick.
Lois Gibbs, Resident: Chemicals were a part of our life. You know, when we smelled chemicals, you smelled a good economy. You knew that you were going to be able to put food on a table, you're going to be able to pay your mortgage, you're going to be able to buy a new car someday.
CHEMICAL COMPANY ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Narrator: When modern chemistry and modern industry join hands in serving modern America.
Marie Rice, Reporter: There was a spot in Niagara Falls called Chemical Row because there were so many chemical manufacturers along there. You know, places like Carborundum and DuPont and Olin.
Michael Brown, Reporter: Hooker originated in Niagara Falls. They had started out with electrochemicals. Everything from caustic soda for chlorine to pesticides, herbicides, especially chlorinated hydrocarbons. Hundreds of chemicals, just about any type of chemical that you would need. Of course, at the same time, these chemicals create toxic waste.
CHEMICAL COMPANY ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Narrator: Hazardous wastes are generated from the production of paints, pesticides, plastics, leather, textiles, medicines. The challenge is to develop systems to handle the millions of tons of hazardous wastes produced every year.
Michael Brown, Reporter: Chemical companies in Niagara Falls and across the United States were dumping in holes. They were digging, excavating and burying their waste. That was the way you got rid of it.
CHEMICAL COMPANY ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Narrator: 55 gallon drums are used as containers for solid materials. They are stacked compactly in the landfill cell and then cover is applied to keep the rainwater out and keep the waste in.
Barbara Quimby, Resident: We had so many animals die. It was unexplained. The fur would just be off of them or so many of them died of cancer. It seems normal because it happened to other people's animals too.
Jannie Grant-Freeney, Resident: And then there was something else strange happening. We would see people were developing what they thought was asthma. People started to have kidney problems, bladder problems, some of the children had behavior problems, a complete change from how they were.
Michael Brown, Reporter: In 1977, I was a reporter for the Niagara Gazette covering the city of Niagara Falls. There had been a very hard winter and when the snow melted, it was an incredible scene. I remember there were drums exposed, they were collapsing and chemicals came out and started seeping though the ground.
Debbie Cerrillo Curry, Resident: In my backyard there was a hole in the ground, about the size of a dinner plate. And it was black goo in it and it smelled and it was all foamy around the edges and stuff. And as the days went on, that hole kept getting bigger and bigger. And this black goo started to show up in other people's backyards.
ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Resident: I lived here a good 10 years and they tried to tell me that it's tar, but nobody's been around to check it. They said, how about digging it up? I've tried to dig it up. It's just way down deep and it's all over the backyard. It's in the side of the field. It's even in my neighbor's backyard.
Jannie Grant-Freeney, Resident: And then there started to be something backing up in the basements of our homes in Griffon Manor. Black sludge. And no matter what we did, we couldn't get rid of it.
Richard Newman, Historian: Residents are starting to acknowledge all of the weird things that have been going on in the neighborhood for years. The first thing that residents do is reach out to their local politicians. Niagara Falls officials really push them off. That's when they find an angel in John LaFalce, who is the representative for the area of Niagara Falls in Congress. 152ee80cbc
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