If you visit most of those sites today you would never know they were polluted. Many of those superfund sites are environmentally safe, homes to residents, and incredible green parks. Saddly, the Love Canal area is still a blighted mess. Ironically, state and local government never fully stepped up to the plate to deal with Love Canal. Fortunately, other states and localities took their superfund sites seriously, thanks in part to Gibbs, and they are no longer toxic risks to their communities.

So, Gibbs was smart to take her cause to the national level, and move her organization to DC where the action is. She found a few good men and women in governement to help her and go a ton of work done around the nation.

The other irony is that Gibbs is NOT a household name in WNY. She has probably made the largest impact on the daily lives of Americans of any western New Yorker, but gets little fan fair. Of course, I don’t think that’s why she does it.

So when you are driving down the Tim Russert Hwy, think of people like Gibbs who are known for a little more than saying “go Bills” at the end of their TV show every Sunday.