Collections tell Love Canal story
Patricia Brown's efforts document important chapter in environmental movement

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

At the time of her death last year at the age of 60, Patricia A. Brown was virtually unknown to the thousands of men, women and children whose lives she will continue to affect for decades to come as a result of her environmental activism regarding the Love Canal toxic contamination disaster.

But last week, members of the UB community and Riverside Salem United Church of Christ, as well as family and friends of Brown, gathered at UB to dedicate the Patricia A. Brown Love Canal Collection of the UB Archives.

The event honored the memory and work of Brown, who left behind her two deep and well-developed collections of documentary material-one organizational, one personal-related to Love Canal.

These compilations constitute the two-part Love Canal Collection of the archives: The Ecumenical Task Force of the Niagara Frontier, Inc., Love Canal Collection and the Patricia A. Brown Love Canal Collection.

Brown was a longtime resident of Niagara Falls' Love Canal neighborhood when it was discovered in 1978 that the area had been polluted for decades by highly toxic contaminants from the nearby Hooker Chemical plant.

In the face of this discovery and the government and corporate responses that followed, Brown mobilized her resources and became one of the first members of the Ecumenical Task of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. (ETF). The activist, environmental organization was founded in March 1979 by the interfaith community of Western New York in response to the Love Canal hazardous waste crisis. Its objectives were to provide direct aid to Love Canal residents, provide an advocacy voice for the religious community on behalf of the residents, inform religious communities of the issues, and work toward long-range solutions to the chemical waste problems, both locally and throughout the country.

A distinguished and relentless advocate for her community, Brown was among many task-force members who battled resistance from local, state and national entities for years in order to bring the full scope of the Love Canal crisis to the forefront of the national consciousness.

As manager of the ETF's resource center, she developed and directed the agency's library and created outstanding collections of photographs, scientific reports, medical surveys, financial records, bulletins, court records, slides, newsletters, legal testimony, clippings and other materials that closely document the evolution of the Love Canal toxic-waste disaster-material that now constitutes the ETF Love Canal Collection.

The Patricia Brown Collection, however, contains her personal papers as well. These document Brown's work in several important ETF positions and 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 and conducted surveys and health research.

The collection continues to be augmented and updated by UB archivists. Selected portions of the Patricia Brown Collection are being digitized and will be linked to the online ETF Love Canal at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/lovecanal.

Archivist Christopher Densmore says the Love Canal collections developed by Brown are broad and deep.

"They document extensive research done on hazardous-waste sites and materials, as well as health and environmental studies on Love Canal prepared by scientists and consultants," he says.

"They preserve legislative and court records, and testimony and statements by Love Canal residents, Hooker Chemical employees, and municipal, state and federal representatives," he adds, "and contain an enormous number of newspaper clippings and photographs that document virtually all aspects of the day-to-day Love Canal experience.

"Because these materials are now archived, they will continue to be useful to researchers for many years to come," Densmore says, "and so 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."

Librarian Kathleen Delaney, Love Canal project archivist since 1997, says the importance of these materials cannot be underestimated

"Not only is it an important regional historical collection, but it offers major documentation of the beginnings of an important chapter in the environmental movement.

"Without this material," she 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.

"We often think only of the tragic aspects of Love Canal," she says, "but what this collection documents is the fact that what happened in that community also should be a source of enormous pride for this region.

"Brown's work," says Delaney, "leaves us a richly detailed narrative describing how this tragedy unfolded-how this small community, which was so terribly stricken, rallied, fought back and finally came to shine in the world's eyes as a model for response to environmental disaster.

"It also illuminates debates within the community itself; for instance, those that arose among Hooker Chemical employees who lived in Love Canal over conflicting concerns about health and continued employment."