Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls

"Masterful. . . . An absolutely essential story, infuriating, urgent, and indispensable."--Caroline Fraser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Murderland and Prairie Fires

How corporate kingpins built their empires by poisoning a treasured natural wonder

Few images from the natural world conjure the same awe, power, and amazement as Niagara Falls. Each year, millions flock from around the world to hear the roar of the falls, feel and smell the spray, and maybe take in the sight up close by boat. What they don't know--nor do most of the locals--is that the city of Niagara Falls is the setting of one of the most shocking and horrific tales of environmental desecration of the past hundred plus years.

By virtue of the Falls' might, Niagara Falls was the birthplace of the commercial electro-chemical industry--and for decades, those massive corporations dumped, buried, vented, incinerated, and piled their millions of tons of toxic and radioactive waste in the surrounding farmlands, rivers, meadows, and empty lots. Venture minutes from the waterfall, and you'll find the bones of a decrepit city. Its residents are plagued by major health problems, often at rates that far exceed state and national averages. The harm is ongoing and generational. As in all such cases, the poor and marginalized bear the brunt of the injury.

Environmental attorney Christen Civiletto relates how the major chemical kingpins of the twentieth century relentlessly and indiscriminately laid waste to Niagara Falls in her eye-opening, harrowing, intimate new book, Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls. Expertly interweaving environmental crime, history, and memoir, Thundering Waters exposes the astonishing story of exploitation and ongoing abuse lurking in the shadows of one of the world's most treasured natural wonders.

Author: Christen E. Civiletto
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 06/30/2026
Pages: 360
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781642834161


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 05/01/2026
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2026
Publishers Weekly 06/29/2026

About the Author
Christen E. Civiletto is an environmental lawyer, law school adjunct, and former Niagara Falls resident. She earned her law degree from Vanderbilt Law School and has spearheaded high-profile litigation on behalf of hundreds of sick Niagara County residents against municipalities and major chemical polluters. Civiletto is also the cohost of the popular BOOKSTORM Podcast, on which she has interviewed hundreds of bestselling authors.