7 August 1978: Love Canal declared a disaster

On this day in 1978, US president Jimmy Carter declared a Federal Emergency over contamination from toxic waste stored at the defunct Love Canal.

Boarded up house in the Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls © Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
(Image credit: © Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

In the 1890s entrepreneur William Love attempted to build a canal from the Niagara River, initially to power local industries, and then to serve as the backdrop for a new township in New York. Both schemes collapsed, leaving a one-mile mini-canal. The pit was used as a dump from the 1920s and was later purchased by Hooker Chemical, which used it to store 22,000 tons of toxic waste.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri