Are you asking about the "Love Canal Incident"? The "Love Canal Incident" half a century ago is the most unbearable memory in the environmental history of the United States and one of the most well-known hazardous waste landfill pollution incidents in the world.

This painful lesson directly prompted the U.S. government to introduce laws, establish a "Super Fund", and spend huge sums of money to control the "toxic lands" left over from history.

Love Canal is located in New York State, USA, near the famous Niagara Falls. This canal was originally built to connect the two major water systems of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and to provide water and electricity for local industries.

However, due to financial problems, only 1.6 kilometers were dug and nothing was done.

This canal was purchased by the American Hooker Company in 1942 and used as a landfill. Between 1942 and 1953, more than 21,000 tons of industrial waste were filled in the canal.

In 1953, the Hooker Company sold the filled-in Love Canal to the Niagara Falls School Board for $1.

Soon the board decided to build an elementary school there, and a residential community developed around it.

Over time, however, the chemical waste buried underground begins to erode the containment containers and seep into the soil.

By the late 1970s, after years of rainwater, waste seeped into the yards and even basements of local residents.

Abnormal phenomena ensued: high miscarriage rates, frequent birth defects, some workers suffering from mental illness and even cancer, and toxins detected in the milk of nursing mothers.

After media reports, the New York State Environmental Protection Department intervened in the investigation and found 82 chemical compounds in the local soil, 11 of which were carcinogens.

An EPA article at the time wrote: "The Love Canal incident is one of the most horrific environmental disasters in American history, but it is not the most disturbing. What is even worse is that it is not an isolated incident, and it may

It will happen again, anywhere in this country, unless we act quickly." Faced with public doubts and media exposure, then-President Jimmy Carter declared Love Canal a federal emergency twice in 1978 and 1980.

During the incident, approximately 950 families were relocated to other locations.

However, the Love Canal pollutant cleanup was not completed until 2004, taking 24 years and costing more than $400 million.

Under strong pressure from public opinion, the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980 and approved the establishment of the Contaminated Site Management and Remediation Fund, also known as the "Superfund". Therefore, this law is also known as the "Superfund Act"

".

Fund funds come from taxes on domestically produced petroleum and imported petroleum products, taxes on chemical raw materials, environmental taxes, regular appropriations, recovery and management costs recovered from those responsible for pollution, etc.

The Superfund Act is implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and clarifies that four types of responsible entities, including owners, operators, carriers, and waste generators, are responsible for the cleanup and restoration of "brownfields" (that is, contaminated old industrial land)

.

If the responsible person cannot be found or the responsible person does not have the ability to implement repairs, Superfund will allocate funds to cover the relevant costs, but they can later be recovered from the responsible person.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluates "brownfields" across the country and places sites with the potential to cause significant harm to human health and the environment on its "National Priority List."

As of April this year, there were a total of 1,328 "brownfields" on the list, and another 391 "brownfields" were removed from the list, which means that they have been cleaned and repaired.

Since the establishment of the "Superfund", approximately 70% of the cost of cleanup and restoration of "brownfields" in the United States has been paid by those responsible, and the restoration time for each piece of land is generally between 10 and 20 years.

It is worth mentioning that the Superfund Act provides for traceability and joint legal liability for pollution behaviors.

The so-called traceability means that no matter whether the pollution behavior is legal or not, the polluter must be responsible for his pollution behavior; and joint behavior means that when there are two or more potentially responsible parties, any one of the potentially responsible parties may be

Take full responsibility for the entire cleanup and restoration work.