A quarter-century after becoming the nation’s most infamous toxic dump, upstate New York’s Love Canal is gradually being repopulated. Used for years as a dumping grounds for Hooker Chemical (later Occidental Chemical), Love Canal was eventually sold to the city of Niagara Falls, which built a school on top of it. Residents began reporting high rates of miscarriages, cancer, mental retardation, respiratory problems, and disturbing birth defects. Eventually, the government evacuated 800 families and Congress passed the Superfund law to make corporations responsible for their pollution. Today, the place has got a new name — Black Creek Village — but not a new reputation: Former residents who originally organized against the contamination and forced the government to fund the evacuations say they are horrified that the area is once again home to families and children. The feds say the place is clean, despite the 20,000 tons of chemicals that remain buried there.
