You may think of dirt as just the brown stuff we walk on, but healthy land is essential for people too, just as much as air and water. The soil provides the nutrition and water that plants need to become our food, shelter, or medicine. Healthy soil also helps naturally filter water so that it is clean for us to drink. It’s the land where we build our homes, schools, and communities.
But even the hard earth we walk on everyday can be contaminated with pollutants. Dangerous toxins and chemicals from hazardous waste sites, landfills, pesticides, and mining can be absorbed into the ground and harm us with illnesses like cancer.
In 1978, residents from the city of Love Canal, New York discovered an old toxic chemical dump leaking beneath their homes. Decades before from 1942 to 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company used an abandoned canal to dump and dispose of their dangerous chemical waste. Afterwards, they filled the canal, covered the mess, and then sold the land for $1 to the Niagara School Board of Education. They built an elementary school on top of the site and more residents began moving into the neighborhood. However, when the working-class residents of Love Canal moved in decades later, the families had no idea that they were going to be living on top of such dangerous chemicals. It turns out, the chemicals were oozing into people’s basements and homes and even beneath the elementary school’s playground. For years, the residents faced many health issues from being exposed to the chemicals for so long like asthma, miscarriages, and birth defects. Many became sick from cancers too. Hundreds of families had to be moved out of their homes because it was too dangerous to live there any longer.
The situation in Love Canal, New York shows that irresponsibly stuffing hazardous waste into the ground doesn’t stave off the dangers it poses. Putting dangerous pollutants into the soil not only harms the environment but harms us as well. There are many more of these underground dumping sites, and it is unknown when, where, and who they might be polluting.