in 1978, carter said the love canal accident in the city of niagara falls, new york was a federal emergency. during the 1940s, the canal was used as the site to dump chemical products from dyes, perfumes, and solvents for rubber and synthetic resins. more than 800 families were evacuated from the neighborhood, which was built on top of a toxic waste landfill. the superfund law was created because of love canal. carter said that many places like "love canals" existed across the country. he said that discovering hazardous dumpsites was "one of the [saddest] discoveries of our modern era".