I am going to speak about the mismanagement of hazardous waste and its effect on public health. The Superfund and other sites I will be discussing illustrate the variety of unanticipated incidents to occur at hazardous waste sites over the last several years.

Cousin to Love Canal, the Hyde Park landfill near Buffalo, New York, was operated by Hooker Chemical, and handled various wastes, including dioxins and pesticides from manufacturing plants in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area. The landfill was located near an industrial complex, Niagara University, a residential area, and, most importantly, a small creek. After a rain storm, water would leak out of the facility and leach up out of the ground into what was appropriately called Bloody Run Creek, and flow through a little swampy area into the industrial and residential areas nearby. The sediment in the creek after several years of operation contained the pesticides myrex and lindane, and traces of dioxin. The waste eventually migrated all the way to the Niagara River and caused a significant contamination problem that has not yet been remedied.