Hazardous Waste Dumps New York State

Taking a big step toward closing a case that raised the nation's concern about buried toxic waste, Occidental Chemical Corp. agreed Tuesday to pay the state of New York $98 million to settle one of the key civil lawsuits over Love Canal. The company also agreed to take over monitoring and cleanup of the Niagara Falls, N.Y., neighborhood--a chore that the New York attorney general's office estimates will cost an additional $25 million over the next 30 years.

In a simple linen dress and brown sandals, she seems girlishly fragile for a moment. But she speaks with an articulate intensity you'd be hard pressed to challenge. She is all fervency: that deep voice, those startling green eyes. "If we're going to take our country back," she starts to say, and you know that for Lois Gibbs, "we" is the little people, and "they" are big business and big government. This is a war.

In a simple linen dress and brown sandals, she seems girlishly fragile for a moment. But she speaks with an articulate intensity you'd be hard pressed to challenge. She is all fervency: that deep voice, those startling green eyes. "If we're going to take our country back," she starts to say, and you know that for Lois Gibbs, "we" is the little people, and "they" are big business and big government. This is a war.

Taking a big step toward closing a case that raised the nation's concern about buried toxic waste, Occidental Chemical Corp. agreed Tuesday to pay the state of New York $98 million to settle one of the key civil lawsuits over Love Canal. The company also agreed to take over monitoring and cleanup of the Niagara Falls, N.Y., neighborhood--a chore that the New York attorney general's office estimates will cost an additional $25 million over the next 30 years.

Joseph E. Ceretto has found his dream house. He speaks rapturously of its beautiful woodwork, ample basement and fireplace. He notes its proximity to parks, baseball diamonds, churches and a major shopping mall. As if all that were not enough, the three-bedroom, ranch-style house is selling for about 20% below the prices he would expect to pay elsewhere in Niagara Falls. "It's really an excellent home," says the 28-year-old substitute teacher, who is single and living with his parents.

EPA Imposes Superfund Order on Oxy, Olin: Unable to reach a cleanup agreement for the 102nd Street landfill Superfund site in Niagara Falls, N.Y., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued an administrative order to Olin Corp. and Occidental Chemical Corp., a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp., to accept the agency's plan.

A Niagara Falls, N.Y., judge ruled that the sale of homes in the Love Canal chemical dump area may proceed, rejecting a bid by environmental and community groups to block the sales. State Justice Joseph Mintz lifted an injunction he imposed four years ago that forbade selling the homes until the state Health Department had studied whether the area was habitable. That study, finished last year, said contamination in a part of the area was no worse than in other parts of Niagara Falls.

Home-seekers flocked to the neighborhood surrounding the Love Canal toxic-waste dump Wednesday as a state agency put nine houses up for sale but refused to guarantee their safety in writing. "The area's been real quiet. It'll be nice to get neighbors back," said William Stevenson, one of about 70 people who stayed in the neighborhood rather than accept a government buyout during the late 1970s.

EPA Imposes Superfund Order on Oxy, Olin: Unable to reach a cleanup agreement for the 102nd Street landfill Superfund site in Niagara Falls, N.Y., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued an administrative order to Olin Corp. and Occidental Chemical Corp., a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp., to accept the agency's plan.

A Niagara Falls, N.Y., judge ruled that the sale of homes in the Love Canal chemical dump area may proceed, rejecting a bid by environmental and community groups to block the sales. State Justice Joseph Mintz lifted an injunction he imposed four years ago that forbade selling the homes until the state Health Department had studied whether the area was habitable. That study, finished last year, said contamination in a part of the area was no worse than in other parts of Niagara Falls.

Home-seekers flocked to the neighborhood surrounding the Love Canal toxic-waste dump Wednesday as a state agency put nine houses up for sale but refused to guarantee their safety in writing. "The area's been real quiet. It'll be nice to get neighbors back," said William Stevenson, one of about 70 people who stayed in the neighborhood rather than accept a government buyout during the late 1970s.

Joseph E. Ceretto has found his dream house. He speaks rapturously of its beautiful woodwork, ample basement and fireplace. He notes its proximity to parks, baseball diamonds, churches and a major shopping mall. As if all that were not enough, the three-bedroom, ranch-style house is selling for about 20% below the prices he would expect to pay elsewhere in Niagara Falls. "It's really an excellent home," says the 28-year-old substitute teacher, who is single and living with his parents.