99th Street School Essay

In the 1890's, William T. Love came to Niagara Falls, NY with ambitious plans to create a wonderful metropolis. The city that he had designed would later become home to more than one million residents, as well as many industries. With extensive use of hydroelectric dams, thousands of acres would have become one of the most beautiful places in the world. Loves plans failed when the county went through an economical depression, and he later abandoned the efforts to build the city.

Before the plans had stopped, Love had started construction on a kilometer long pit that would have been part of the canal in the grand city. The land was later purchased by the city and the pit was used as a chemical dumping site. From 1920 to 1953, the site was used by many people, including the military, as a chemical dumping site. In 1953, Hooker Chemical Corporation covered the chemical site with dirt and sold the land to the board of education for a payment of one dollar.

By 1955, the 99th Street School was
They shouldn't have been able to legally sell the super fund to a school or as private property until it was a known fact that it was safe. I currently work in an office on Market Point drive in Greenville, SC. When I first moved into the office, I ask about the land next door, only to learn that it was a super fund site because of the chemical waste within the ground. I was shocked when I came to work one morning and noticed that they had begun construction of over two hundred apartment buildings right on top of the superfund site. It may be years before the first complaints, and by that time few will remember what the site was before the apartment was constructed. History will always repeat itself if we do not prevent it from doing so. The right to a clean and safe neighborhood is worth fighting