1
00:00:01,733 --> 00:00:05,133
It was just such a nice 
neighborhood, we had fun there.

2
00:00:05,866 --> 00:00:09,400
A lot of times we would just be 
near the school playing baseball

3
00:00:10,100 --> 00:00:13,900
but we always ended up near what 
we called the black lagoon.

4
00:00:13,900 --> 00:00:17,100
To a child, 
it was like a wonderland.

5
00:00:17,100 --> 00:00:19,866
We had these rocks 
that we called pop rocks.

6
00:00:19,866 --> 00:00:23,766
We would just slide them across 
and they would 
actually have a flame.

7
00:00:24,366 --> 00:00:27,533
And I remember my mother 
always yelled about our shoes.

8
00:00:27,533 --> 00:00:32,100
This one time I came home 
and she said, “It looks like 
your sneakers are burnt. ”

9
00:00:32,300 --> 00:00:33,133
What are you doing?

10
00:00:33,133 --> 00:00:36,133
I'm just playing at the school.

11
00:00:39,700 --> 00:00:40,333
The mighty waters

12
00:00:40,333 --> 00:00:41,333
of Niagara Falls,

13
00:00:41,666 --> 00:00:44,566
serve the needs of industry 
and the welfare of mankind.

14
00:00:44,766 --> 00:00:48,200
Niagara Falls in the 1970s 
is synonymous with chemicals.

15
00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:52,500
It was called chemical row 
because there were so many 
manufacturers along there.

16
00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:55,300
Chemical companies 
in Niagara Falls

17
00:00:55,300 --> 00:00:58,400
and across the United States 
were burying their toxic waste.

18
00:00:58,400 --> 00:00:59,900
But that was their backyard.

19
00:00:59,900 --> 00:01:02,166
The residents kids 
played in the canal.

20
00:01:02,166 --> 00:01:03,566
That's where they went.

21
00:01:03,566 --> 00:01:06,000
People had no idea 
that they were living on top of

22
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,133
20,000 tons of toxic chemicals.

23
00:01:10,066 --> 00:01:13,900
Today in Albany, the New York St 
Health Department 
declared a health emergency.

24
00:01:13,900 --> 00:01:15,900
Chemical waste is coming 
out of the ground.

25
00:01:15,900 --> 00:01:17,800
Birth defects and miscarriages.

26
00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:19,833
Severe migraine headaches, 
respiratory disease.

27
00:01:19,833 --> 00:01:22,700
Already, 8 cases 
of cancer in a 15 house street.

28
00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,733
It was hard to believe 
this could happen 
in the United States of America.

29
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Each and every one of you 
in this room are murderers.

30
00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:32,600
It was doomed to be 
a screaming match 
right from the beginning.

31
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Can you tell me when

32
00:01:34,500 --> 00:01:36,633
I'm not going to lose 
any more children 
because one is already dead.

33
00:01:36,633 --> 00:01:38,400
It was like watching an accident

34
00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:39,533
in slow motion.

35
00:01:40,366 --> 00:01:43,766
There is no evidence to indicate 
an immediate health hazard 
to residents of the area.

36
00:01:43,766 --> 00:01:46,400
Residents at Love Canal 
really thought the government

37
00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:47,766
were going to rescue them.

38
00:01:47,766 --> 00:01:51,166
It really hit home for us 
that we have to make this happen

39
00:01:51,166 --> 00:01:52,366
They're not going 
to do it for us.

40
00:01:52,366 --> 00:01:54,833
So that spurred me to want 
to do something.

41
00:01:54,833 --> 00:01:57,100
We've got to do something. 
I mean, the fight came to us.

42
00:01:57,100 --> 00:01:58,300
We didnt look for it.

43
00:01:58,300 --> 00:02:00,566
We protested literally every day

44
00:02:00,566 --> 00:02:05,200
The women told us that the 
state office had dismissed their 
study as useless housewife data

45
00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:07,500
They thought we were 
useless housewives.

46
00:02:07,500 --> 00:02:09,066
But we were stronger than that.

47
00:02:09,066 --> 00:02:11,833
Those women kept that story out 
and they would come up

48
00:02:11,833 --> 00:02:14,100
with all different ways 
to get the cameras there.

49
00:02:14,100 --> 00:02:15,166
We want out!

50
00:02:15,733 --> 00:02:17,866
I wasnt thinking about 
building a movement 
or anything like that.

51
00:02:17,866 --> 00:02:20,866
I was thinking about survival.

52
00:02:21,533 --> 00:02:22,400
This incredible group

53
00:02:22,766 --> 00:02:25,400
of women become the 
faces of environmental reform.