UB’s Love Canal Archival Collections Document Important Chapter in Environmental Movement

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The tragic aspects of Love Canal are always at the forefront of our memory of that disaster, but a newly-opened collection of archival materials provides conclusive evidence that what happened in that community should be a source of enormous pride for the Western New York region.

So says Librarian Kathleen Delaney, Love Canal Project archivist at the University at Buffalo, about the Patricia A. Brown Love Canal Collection, a deep and broad collection of materials on the toxic contamination disaster in Niagara Falls' Love Canal neighborhood.

Brown, a Love Canal resident and award-winning environmental activist, died last year at the age of 60, leaving behind two deep and well-developed collections of documentary material -- one organizational, one personal -- related to Love Canal.

The two collections -- the Ecumenical Task Force (ETF) of the Niagara Frontier, Inc., Love Canal Collection and the Brown Collection -- are extensive and cross-referenced to offer a complete picture of the response on all fronts to the disaster at Love Canal.

On June 16, several of those who worked with her in the ETF laughed and wept as they helped dedicate the archive. They described Brown's determined representation of "the little people" during the most difficult stages of the Love Canal controversy.

They described as well the strength of her friendship and her courage in the face of chronic, often inexplicable illness, including the blindness that preceded her untimely death. Brown's example, they said, has given them the courage to continue her fight as environmental watchdogs on the state and national level.

Christopher Densmore, director of the UB Archives, says that because the material Brown collected are now catalogued and archived, it will continue to be useful to researchers for many years to come.

"This means," he says, "that Pat Brown's work will continue to have a profound impact on international understanding of, and response to, industrial and chemical contamination of the environment."

Delaney notes: "Aside from telling an important regional historical story, the collections document the beginnings of an important chapter in the international environmental movement.

"What can be found here is a richly detailed, day-to-day account of exactly how this tragedy unfolded, and just how this small and terribly stricken community rallied, fought back and ultimately produced profound changes in environmental law.

"The collection gives us a clear look at the ongoing debates within the community itself, for instance. It records the arguments that arose among Hooker Chemical employees who lived in Love Canal over conflicting concerns over health and continued employment. It throws into high relief the perils faced by politicians and governments who choose to ignore community activists.

"Without this material," Delaney says, "it would take a researcher literally thousands of hours to uncover the rich trove of highly detailed, chronologically organized information provided by the news clippings alone."

Densmore adds that taken together, the two collections document the extensive research done on hazardous-waste sites and materials, as well as health and environmental studies on Love Canal prepared by scientists and consultants from the time the first public alarm was sounded in 1978 until today, because the librarians continue to maintain and update files that augment the original collection.

"The collections preserve legislative and court records; testimony and statements by Love Canal residents; interviews and testimony with Hooker Chemical employees, and municipal, state and federal representatives," he says.

"Also collected here, he says, "are an enormous number of newspaper clippings and photographs that document virtually all aspects of the day-to-day Love Canal experience over many years."

As an example, Densmore notes that the collection holds more than 300 slides and photographs that document a single event -- the 1990 Love Canal rally held to oppose the resale of formerly-occupied homes in the hazardous waste area.

Brown's private papers document her years of experience as a self-taught expert on the effects of chemical toxins and bio-hazardous materials, a noted public speaker, community organizer and member of government and citizens' committees that participated in hearings, conducted surveys and health research.

Selected portions of the Patricia Brown Collection are in the process of digitization and will be linked to the online ETF Love Canal Collection Web site at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/lovecanal .

Brown was a longtime resident of Niagara Falls' Love Canal neighborhood when it was discovered that the area had been polluted for decades by highly-toxic contaminants from nearby the Hooker Chemical plant, where many Love Canal residents were employed.

In the face of this discovery and the government and corporate responses that followed, she mobilized her resources and became one of the first members of the Ecumenical Task of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. The ETF was an activist environmental organization founded in March 1979 by the interfaith community of Western New York in response to the Love Canal hazardous waste crisis and eventually was party to a Love Canal litigation. See attachment that follows.

A distinguished and relentless advocate for her community, Brown began as a volunteer and eventually was employed by the task force, in which she came to hold a number of important positions, including director of the ETF Resource Center. She was among many task force members who battled resistance from local, state and national entities for years in an effort to bring the full scope of the Love Canal crisis to the forefront of the national consciousness.