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The Economic Times
The Economic Times
Team Global

In 1978, a New York mother discovered her son's school stood beside a toxic-waste dump; her campaign evacuated about 950 families and helped create Superfund

Lois Gibbs just wanted to get her son transferred to a different school. She didn’t know she was about to change American environmental law. In 1978, this mom from Niagara Falls found out something scary. Her five-year-old’s elementary school was built on a former chemical dump. According to the EPA's own history of the crisis, the site was called Love Canal. It contained tens of thousands of tons of industrial waste. That waste had started leaking into basements, backyards, and school grounds.

A dream city that turned into a nightmare

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