you think i just puuled that out of the air?
Nope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal
seems very similar to your wording. same source?
Yep. That is where I started. Wikipedia is a good place to start research, gives you a general overview. However, wikipedia is not overly accurate on the details (as I have proved in a different thread about a "fact" you cited wikipedia, when the source they cited was 180 degrees from what wikipedia and you were claiming). Every fact I posted from them , I double checked. The "facts" you are taking from there don't even have a source cited. I couldn't verify those "facts" so they were left out. Wikipedia is the only place that I found that mentioned the "facts" you are hanging your hat on. Since wikipedia is consensus based, it is not a reliable source.
it seems the original location would have been where the dumping wasn't.
Again, an assumption on your part not supported by any facts, and in fact contradicted by the article I posted.
that is the land they were originally intending to build on.
They bought the canal, where else would they be constructing the school? I have yet to find any accusations (let alone evidence) that Hooker was dumping anywhere else, or that the school board bought land from Hooker besides the canal.
hooker should have let the land go to expropriation or be condemned. then they could have made their case and been free.
They wanted to have their concerns in writing as a warning. That isn't responsible?
unlike you say, they weren't forced by the government. they gave it up after the threat.
You are splitting hairs here. You admit they were effectively threatened by the government but weren't forced? You know better then that.
what was their motivation for avoiding this? why did they cave so easily to the school board?
They knew the land shouldn't be developed but the government was dead set on doing so, even if they had to take the property. Hooker was caught between a rock and a hard place. They made the best of the situation.
there are a lot of other things that happened after the fact. some negligent, or gross errors of judgement. but when you are owner of a toxic landfill and know the dangers of developing it, i think you'd fight against it's sale. would that not be the logical appropriate thing to do?
Yep. And they did fight against it, until they realized the government was going to take it regardless. Once they realized the battle was lost, they turned to damage control, as would anyone in that situation.
yet after creating a list of warnings that went with the property, they handed the whole thing over. they're not completely to blame. but it's still a time bomb that should have been restored before sale of the land occurred.
restored? How?
we know that now, but they didn't know it then.
I see. They are guilty of not being able to see into the future and know the hindsight of future generations.
hooker expanded the site in 1942, which was during the war. so it may have been part of a military contract to dispose of wastes there. haven't looked into it. and by 1947they took it over privately. so anything after then was allowed by hooker.
It was still in the canal (no indication that it wasn't). And even when they did buy it from the government, who knows the details of that contract? Would need to check that before you assign "blame" to Hooker. Either way, doesn't absolve the government there either, they still chose to dump (which I assume you consider a crime, even though it wasn't).
The customary practices then were to pile up such wastes in unlined surface impoundments, insecure lagoons, or pits, usually on the premises of the chemical factory, or else to burn the wastes or dump them into rivers or lakes. Except for disposal into water supplies, these practices were all legal until 1980, when the Environmental Protection Agency began issuing regulations implementing the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
and i read through the reason one of yours. it does have some validity. but it still doesn't answer my questions above. why didn't hooker let it be condemned, which is what they were being threatened with. they were not forced to hand over the land.
You obviously didn't read too closely:
Looked at one way, these provisions would seem to indicate that Hooker had been quite anxious to unburden itself of responsibility for this property. On the other hand, since the first condition, assumption of liability for use, only makes explicit what normally accompanies any property exchange, and since the second would protect Hooker only from claims made by the Board and subsequent owners, and not from claims by third parties, it would seem that these provisions are more in the nature of a warning. By incorporating them into the deed, Hooker had provided clear notice, recorded for all time, that its use of this property had been such that any future owner would have to take care to use it in a safe manner so as to avoid causing harm.
Ruthless and negligent? As I was subsequently to learn, Hooker had evidently been so concerned that the Board know what it was getting in taking over the Canal that the company had not left to chance whether School Board officials would physically inspect the property prior to acquiring it. Instead, Hooker had escorted them to the Canal site and in their presence made eight test borings–into the protective clay cover that the company had laid over the Canal, and into the surrounding area. At two spots, directly over Hooker’s wastes, chemicals were encountered four feet below the surface. At the other spots, to the sides of the Canal proper, no chemicals showed up. So whether or not the School Board was of a mind to inspect the Canal, Hooker had gone out of its way to make sure that they did inspect it and that they did see that chemicals lay buried in that Canal.
One thing, however, is clear: according to the School Board’s own records, the Board was already well along in its planning of the 99th Street School more than two years before Hooker deeded the Canal to the Board. And the Board meant business. It was gearing up for a string of condemnation proceedings for the Canal site and all properties abutting it. First, there’s a map, dated March 1951 and labeled "School Site Study Plan A" (Plan B was for the 66th Street School). This map not only shows the projected school being built right over the very center of the Canal itself but also shows the assessed condemnation values for the Canal property and each of the properties bordering it. Then there are two letters from the School Board’s attorney, Ralph Boniello–one dated September 4, 1952, informing the Board’s business manager, Frank Lang, that procedures were under way to purchase four lots abutting the Canal; the other dated September 19, 1952, addressed to Mr. Carmen J. Caggiano and sent registered mail, return receipt requested, informing Mr. Caggiano that since he had refused the Board’s "price offered of $10 per front foot" for the strip of 10 lots he owned along the east side of the Canal, "The purpose of this letter is to apprise you of the institution of an action in condemnation to acquire the above--escribed property for educational purposes."
One might wonder why Hooker deeded the property to the School Board for $1.00 rather than let it be condemned and seized under eminent domain. After all, condemnation would clearly have freed the company from future liability for the chemical dump, saving Hooker the trouble of spelling out such matters in the deed. Hooker claims that it had wanted any future property holder there to know of the dangerous chemicals and that it had therefore agreed to donate the property, subject to the Board’s recognition that, to quote Hooker’s letter of October 16, 1952, to the Board, "in view of the nature of the property and the purposes for which it has been used, it will be necessary for us to have special provisions incorporated into the deed with respect to the use of the property and other pertinent matters." Had the land been condemned and seized, says Hooker, the company would have been unable to air its concerns to all future owners of the property. It is difficult to see any other reason for what it did.
Your question is answered.
You realize that this is all beside the point of the discussion. We got off on this due to Big Business v. Government, and which does more harm/good.