This is Not a Chocolate Factory (2003)

David J. Ruck's first documentary film chronicles the saga of Hooker Chemical Company in Montague, Michigan, which lead to an environmental disaster of grand scale.

Winner of numerous student awards including the "Kodak Award for Best Student Film" (2003), the film is still routinely shown in Michigan schools to educate young people about the impacts of toxic chemicals on the environment.

[leemcfall]

My name is Lee McFall. At the 12:21 mark in the film, the film shows a street sign with 'McFall' on it.

I am 70 now. My grandfather owned the property directly across Old Chanel Trail from Hooker where I spent my summers at a cottage. The reason they built across the road and not right on the shores of the lake are because my grandfather Thurlow Elwin McFall and some of his 'cohorts' fought Hooker with their own money to try to stop the plant. They were ostracized of course...against 'progress, jobs, tax dollars.' I have some newspaper articles. etc from the time discussing the fight between Montague and White Hall politicians and my grandfather.

By total coincidence, when I was about 60 and living in Grand Rapids, I befriended Brent Bell who was employed by Oxy to run the clean-up plant. I think it was 2019 when. the lake was finally taken off the environmental 'S' list and is officially clean.

That property was formerly owned by John Alexander Dowie, a cult leader from Chicago. When I was young, late 50's I used to walk that property and there were some pretty odd/creepy things on that property including a wide, cement, stairway from the top of the bluff down to the water. t was litterally a staircase in a woods. There were also remnants of a dock that Dowie built just below the water so as he preached, he looked as if he were walking on the water. He died in like 1907 so I do not know how long his followers stayed there but that point of land where the wells were dug to get to the salt ( 1600 ft down!) is still called Dowie Point.

The pollution only took 15 years to reach the lake.

[pathynes]

ive watched this documentary about 4 or 5 times and keep coming back to it. its incredibly good especially for how little information there was 20 years ago compared to now. really well done. thank you.

[xasbo]

I appreciate this being publicly available, I found it while falling in a hole learning about the nearby DuPont site as state continues to struggle to hold these companies accountable.

[MrStevesTrains]

Resident of Michigan, thank you for this information. 😢❤
Great video

[myheartisinjapan]

Isn’t it something how you can destroy a building (Hooker Chem Co.), but you can NEVER get rid of the deadly fallout left behind from flagrant disregard for human life?

[sigsin]

As if my state didn’t have enough problems with PBB, PFOS, DDT, nuclear waste and dioxin.

[athomas]

Excellent video! It’s heartbreaking to know how chemicals have destroyed lives. The same chemicals were responsible for the contamination in the now nonexistent Times Beach, MO. It’s a crazy story.

[dalejr]

There's a bunch of fishing videos just released where fisherman in White lake r bitching about what's wrong with White Lake bass and apparently have no idea about the past. History ignored nd covered up and young people in 2019 have no clue

[chadmearhoff]

the people who ran hooker need to but put in jail

[maplemanz]

these things is happening in China as we speak.

[dugfern]

Warren Dobson (Gene) r.i.p. ride on my brother.

[convair]

symbolic of many of these documentaries is the lady at the end claiming Hooker sold the Love Canal to a school implying that Hooker some how profited and did so happily at the expense of children's safety, is this laziness on the part of the producers? Is it omitting facts that make the true villain local government rather than a big evil chemical company? Hard to say but as to theme of love canal comparisons here is an often omitted fact, Hooker resisted sale of the love canal to the Niagara school  board citing that the land was dangerous, even life threatening and the school board continued their pursuit of the land even threatening taking it by eminent domain and Hooker attached a disclaimer when they accepted 1 US dollar for the land warning the land was contaminated, dangerous to property and life and it was the elected School Board that forced the sale and put a play ground on top of dioxin and a school next to it despite written warning

[DIVISIONINCISION]

Great quality, especially considering it was done by a high schooler.

[scottberry]

What about the equipment grave yard up the road about 2 miles. Supposedly all the trucks dozers etc went up the road and were buried in a separate field. I’m sure that the contamination is leaking there also.

[tjabramosr]

“Hauls off the old carbon and brings in new carbon…”
Kicking the can down the road again, to another toxic waste storage unit or landfill…
The entire planet one day will become an entire by product wasteland …#MadMaxTheRoadwarrior-/-

[midbcmidbc]

Holy the cleanup and monitoring company sure is corrupt