1
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I lived in Niagara Falls

2
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all my life, and when I marrie 
my husband was from Niagara Fall

3
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We had two boys.

4
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We saw this beautiful brick 
house  in Love Canal with 
one acre of land

5
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all around it, and it 
sat on a creek

6
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and it was just it 
was just ideal.

7
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And we were thinking 
what a place to raise your child

8
00:00:22,466 --> 00:00:25,866
Love Canal was government 
subsidized.

9
00:00:25,866 --> 00:00:28,966
My husband wasn't making 
very much money

10
00:00:28,966 --> 00:00:31,333
and they made it

11
00:00:31,333 --> 00:00:35,233
a very tasty little deal 
to move into.

12
00:00:35,233 --> 00:00:40,500
And so we felt quite lucky 
that we fell in at the right tim

13
00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:44,000
I moved to the development 
called Griffin Manor.

14
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It was a brand new 
housing project.

15
00:00:47,133 --> 00:00:49,100
It's a beautiful place.

16
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Flowers.

17
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The grass was green.

18
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There was like a little pon 
that the kids used to play in.

19
00:00:57,766 --> 00:01:00,500
It was just such a 
nice neighborhood.

20
00:01:05,866 --> 00:01:09,666
We had a small yard in 
the front and in the back.

21
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We would see, I'm going to 
call it water, but swamp land 
that just looked oily.

22
00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:19,766
At times it sounds like burnt 
rubber or a strong cleanser.

23
00:01:19,766 --> 00:01:22,366
On the surface, they had like 
an oily substance to it,

24
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like a green and a blue.

25
00:01:25,100 --> 00:01:30,033
And if you dropped something 
into it, it would bubble up 
and sink.

26
00:01:30,033 --> 00:01:31,933
So we called it quicksand.

27
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People always knew when 
they were getting close 
to our home

28
00:01:36,766 --> 00:01:42,000
because we had this horrendous 
smell behind our house.

29
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Actually, the whole neighborhood

30
00:01:45,166 --> 00:01:48,200
Nobody could get a 
garden to grow.

31
00:01:50,633 --> 00:01:52,933
We had so many animals die.

32
00:01:53,266 --> 00:01:55,200
It was unexplained.

33
00:01:55,900 --> 00:01:58,333
The fur would just be 
off of them.

34
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Or so many of them 
died of cancer.

35
00:02:01,666 --> 00:02:03,633
It seems normal

36
00:02:03,633 --> 00:02:07,100
because it happened to 
other people's animals too.

37
00:02:08,766 --> 00:02:11,766
And then there was something 
else strange happening 
we would see

38
00:02:11,766 --> 00:02:14,966
people were developing 
what they thought was asthma.

39
00:02:15,533 --> 00:02:20,400
People start to have kidney 
problems, bladder problems.

40
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,900
Some of the children 
had behavior problems,

41
00:02:23,900 --> 00:02:27,300
a complete change from 
how they were.

42
00:02:30,966 --> 00:02:32,900
People had no idea 
that they were living on

43
00:02:32,900 --> 00:02:36,666
top of 22,000 tons 
of toxic chemicals.

44
00:02:38,266 --> 00:02:39,900
All of a sudden on a dime,

45
00:02:39,900 --> 00:02:42,900
everything blows up, 
more people are sick.

46
00:02:42,900 --> 00:02:46,333
There's, you know, black sludge 
coming into their homes.

47
00:02:51,133 --> 00:02:53,733
We were more or less self 
educating ourselves

48
00:02:53,733 --> 00:02:55,800
with the help of some 
other people.

49
00:02:55,800 --> 00:03:00,133
The more you learned, 
the more frightening it was, 
the more determined

50
00:03:00,133 --> 00:03:03,866
that we were to succeed at this.

51
00:03:03,866 --> 00:03:06,200
The state held most 
of their meetings

52
00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,333
and their press releases 
and all that stuff.

53
00:03:09,333 --> 00:03:15,066
while I was at work 
and left the wives to fight.

54
00:03:15,066 --> 00:03:18,933
And the state made a big mistake 
by doing that

55
00:03:18,933 --> 00:03:23,433
because the women fought 
more than any man could.

56
00:03:23,433 --> 00:03:25,733
Hell hath no fury like 
a woman guarding

57
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her children.