1977 - USA, New York, City of Niagara Falls: Hooker Chemical Company used uncompleted canal for dumping by-products. Once the canal was filled with waste, the land was covered over and sold to the city school board for $1.00. A school and subdivision of residential homes was built on top. The toxic chemicals subsequently leaked out of the site in 1977 and residents had to be relocated.

1982 - USA, Missouri, Town of Times Beach: all 2,242 residents were evacuated after dioxin found in soil; in 1996-97, 265,354 tons of soil and other dioxin-contaminated material from Times Beach and 26 other sites in eastern Missouri had been incinerated.