New York State Assembly Task Force on Toxic Substances Copies of Federal Government Documents Relating to Toxic Contamination in the Niagara Falls Region L0132

New York State Assembly Task Force on Toxic Substances Copies of Federal Government Documents Relating to Toxic Contamination in the Niagara Falls Region

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Overview of the Records

Repository:

New York State Archives
New York State Education Department
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230

Summary:

These documents were gathered in the investigation of alleged dumping of contaminated wastes into the Love Canal by the United States Army and its contractors. Most documents pertain to the production, storing, and disposal of radioactive materials at four major facilities: Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, Lewiston; Electrometallurgical Co., Niagara Falls; Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation, Niagara Falls; and Linde Air Products Co., Tonawanda. Most records were created by the Army, the Atomic Energy Commission, or the Department of Energy.

Creator:

New York (State). Legislature. Assembly. Task Force on Toxic Substances

Title:

Copies of federal government documents relating to toxic contamination in the Niagara Falls region

Quantity:

33 cubic feet

Inclusive Dates:

1940-1980

Bulk Dates:

bulk 1944-1959

Series Number:

L0132

Arrangement

Boxes 1-24 arranged generally by subject. Boxes 25-33 arranged chronologically.

Scope and Content Note

This series contains copies of documents gathered by investigators for the Task Force as part of the process of investigating alleged dumping of contaminated wastes into the Love Canal by the United States Army and its contractors. The majority of the documents date from 1944-1959 and pertain to the production, storing, and disposal of these wastes and to the subsequent transfer of government facilities to private ownership.

Most of the records were created by the Army, the Atomic Energy Commission, or the Department of Energy. Many declassified documents were obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.

The majority of records relate to production and storage of radioactive materials at four major facilities: Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, Lewiston; Electrometallurgical Co., Niagara Falls; Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation, Niagara Falls; and Linde Air Products Co., Tonawanda. Records relating to these facilities include: contracts between the federal government and private contractors; correspondence, memoranda and reports relating to the production, storage, and disposal of radioactive materials; procedures for handling and shipping of hazardous materials; memoranda relating to recovery of uranium from waste residue; reports on status of storage facilities; summaries of employee health report; sketches of storage facilities; weekly reports on receipt and shipping of hazardous materials; surveys of radiation and decontamination; production reports; reports of discharge of wastes into wells; permits for dumping; inventories of federal government properties by the War Assets Administration; memoranda on the decontamination problems at government owned facilities; memorandum relating to the transfer of property and facilities to private ownership.

The records contain histories of the Chemical Warfare Service and the Northeast Chemical Warfare Department. Also included are copies of 1950's contracts between the Air Force and several contractors including Bell Aircraft, Olin Mathiesen, and Ford Motor Company. Copies of two important reports are also contained in the records: the report of the 1978 Army investigation into the alleged Army dumping in the Love Canal, and a 4-volume report by the Department of Energy Remedial Action Program entitled Comprehensive Radiological Characterization of the DOE-Niagara Falls Storage Site (May 1980).

Alternate Formats Available

A number of individual documents are published in the Task Force's interim report entitled The Federal Connection: A History of U.S. Military Involvement in the Toxic Contamination of Love Canal and the Niagara Frontier Region (Albany, 1981) 2 vols.